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Film Archive

The collection of the film archive of the Cineteca Nazionale, one of the richest in the world, consists of about 60,000 titles including feature films and short films

Home > Film Archive

The Cineteca Nazionale preserves films from all over the world, from silent films to the present day, embracing the entire history of Italian cinema. An important part of the collection consists of nitrate films, many of which unique copies. There is also a large collection of national and international newsreels and documentaries production. The archive also contains all the works created by the students of the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema. Most of the preserved materials are on 35mm film, but numerous are the 16mm and other formats such as 70mm, 28mm, 9.5mm, 8mm and super8 are also represented.

Conservation

The Cineteca Nazionale preserves nitrate films in separate buildings from the rest of the “safety” collection. These buildings meet specific characteristics, such as temperature and humidity values,  in accordance with the international standards to ensure long-term conservation of film materials.

 

Inventorying and cataloging

The asset recognition activities are constant and, through inventory and cataloging, it allows the description and management of the entire collection. The Cineteca Nazionale, regarding the cataloging of its cinematographic heritage, has undertaken and concluded a computerized database project based on a search and data access engine in XML format and therefore compatible with existing international regulations.

Roma di Federico Fellini, 1972
The photographic archive of the Cineteca Nazionale carries out constant work of preservation and reconstruction of the memory of cinema through photography and has a heritage of over a million images of various formats on different media, from original negatives and photographic prints to images on glass plate.
Anselmo Ballester, schizzo preparativo per il film “Bellezze in cielo”, con Rita Hayworth
The posters and advertising materials that accompanied the release in the movie theater are a very useful tool for reconstructing the history of cinema and constitute an important artistic and cultural expression.