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Slovenska kinoteka (SK)

The Slovenska kinoteka is a young institution forming a collection of fundamental works of the history of world cinema.

The Slovenian Cinematheque (Slovenska kinoteka) was founded by the decree of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia on August 19, 1996. The task of the Slovenian Cinematheque is to form, preserve and present the film collection of world cinema, as well as the museum exhibits, important for the history of film and cinema. It also carries out researches and publishing activities in the field of the history of cinema.

From the year 1963, when the Film Theatre of the Yugoslav Cinematheque (Jugoslovanska kinoteka) in Ljubljana was opened, until the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991 the Yugoslav Cinematheque was in charge of the programme of the Film Theatre and was sending the prints from its archives in Belgrade. In the year 1973 the Association of the Slovenian Filmmakers founded the Film Museum as a permanent cultural institution. In 1976 the Museum started to collect systematically and to curate exhibitions, important for the history of the Slovenian and world cinema. Further, it started documenting the Slovenian film production. In 1979 the Film Museum joined the Slovenian Theatre Museum and the two formed the Slovenian Theatre and Film Museum. With the foundation of the Slovenian Cinematheque in 1996, the Film Museum became an integral part of the new institution. In spring 1994 the project "Slovenian Cinematheque" was started within the former Slovenian Theatre and Film Museum. The main goal of this project was the foundation of a new national institution, whose task was to attend to the world film heritage in Slovenia. In those days the basis of all four future departments of Slovenian Cinematheque was created: Archive, Research and Publishing, Museum, Programme and Presentation Departments.

The young Slovenian Cinematheque faced an important task: to form a collection of fundamental works of the history of world cinema. Till now it was able to collect around 1000 titles, mainly from the last two decades, but it still has to carry out the long-term project of forming the collection of film classics.

The most precious prints in our collections are undoubtedly those, which belong to the three great discoveries of the Slovenian Cinematheque. The first one is the only original print of Ernst Lubitsch's first preserved feature "Als ich tot war" ("When I Was Dead", 1916), followed by Franz Hofer's first preserved film "Des Alters erste Spuren" ("The First Signs of Getting Old"). The Slovenian Cinematheque also discovered the short film "Le Jongleur" ("The Jongleur", Pathé, 1913), which is the only original coloured print of this film in the world.

The Slovenian Film Museum developed a very rich publishing activity, which was later continued by the Slovenian Cinematheque. In 1964 the Film Theatre in Ljubljana started publishing the collection Cinematheque Volumes about great film directors and important movements in the history of world cinema: till now more than 40 volumes have been published. The first book of the collection Slovenian Cinema was published in 1981. The collection is dedicated to Slovenian film authors and to special chapters from the history of the Slovenian cinema – 15 books have been published till now. In 1991 the Film Museum took over the collection Imago, which had been founded within the magazine Ekran. It publishes studies on national and foreign film theory and history: 8 books have been already published. The Film Museum and later the Slovenian Cinematheque have developed a very rich exhibition activity as well. Several very important exhibitions in Slovenia and also in Austria, Italy, France, Germany and Czech Republic have been organised. A great success was also the exhibition of Fritz Lang's garden sculptures, which belong to the museum collection of the Slovenian Cinematheque.

The library of the Slovenian Cinematheque includes Slovenian and Yugoslav film books and magazines as well as important literature in foreign languages about world film history and theory.

In 1997 the Slovenian Cinematheque took over the publishing obligations for the only Slovenian film and TV magazine Ekran. Slovenian Cinematheque has developed very good relations with Slovenian Film Archive at Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, which is responsible for the national film heritage and has been a member of FIAF and ACE for several years.


 Slovenska kinoteka