Film Restored 2020 – A celebration of European film heritage

The fifth edition of the festival Film Restored, organized by the Deutsche Kinemathek, will welcome films and guests from all over Europe to celebrate film heritage from October 27 through November 1. The Festival will take place on location in Berlin in compliance with sanitary restrictions. Film Restored is pleased to present 21 films from 15 countries, films that have been produced, passed down and restored thanks to European cooperation. The events at Arsenal Cinema will be complemented by digital offers such as film screenings with introductions in order to make them accessible to a broader audience.

The program features new restorations, such as the opening night feature film “Kuhle Wape” (Slatan Dudow, 1932), the original version of “Ekstase” (Gustav Machatý, 1933) and “Love, Life and Laughter” (George Pearson, 1923), long thought to be lost. These new restorations include a number of movies from the silent era which will be shown for the first time in decades with live music to accompany them. The program will be completed with a series of lectures about restoration work, lectures and panel discussions.

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The new Season of Classic Films to be presented at Festival Lumière

After the success in 2019 with more than 15.000 people participating, ‘A Season of Classic Films’ is back for its second edition in December.

Led this year by the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE) with the funding of the European Commission under the cross-sectoral strand of Creative Europe programme, this initiative will be presented on 15 October at the Festival Lumière in Lyon. The festival, focusing on the history of cinema, will host a special afternoon around ‘Europe and Heritage’ where Sandra den Hamer, ACE president and Eye Filmmuseum director, and Maria Silvia Gatta, representative from the European Commission DG CNECT, will explain the details of the outreach project and other policies and trends to keep supporting and modernising European film heritage.

The second edition of the Season of Classic Films will consist of a series of free screenings planned between December 2020 and June 2021 across Europe to raise awareness of the work of European national and regional film archives, especially among young adults. Most of the films are new digital restorations and some include exciting elements such as experimental electronic music or augmented reality. With 22 participating institutions, this initiative particularly aims to support the reopening of European film archives, all affected by the Covid19 crisis.

A map including the list of cities and films will be soon available via this page.

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A big closing event for Le Giornate del Cinema Muto

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto festival from Pordenone (Italy) will close with a big event via streaming and in presence. Thanks to Lobster Films from Paris and to the American Library of Congress, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy will be the protagonists of the special closing event “Laurel o Hardy” available on streaming at 8:30 PM CEST Saturday 10th October with a live musical accompaniment by Neil Brand. The event will be repeated the following day in presence at 4.30 PM CEST at the Verdi Theatre in Pordenone with a live musical accompaniment by the Zerorchestra.

The films screened during this event want to highlight the genius of Laurel and Hardy that was evident even before they first teamed up. Le Giornate del Muto have decided to present 5 riotous shorts that precede their legendary partnership, each one joyfully showcasing their individual talents.

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‘Season of Classic Films’ to be presented on Monday 31 August at Il Cinema Ritrovato


Gian Luca Farinelli, on behalf of Sandra Den Hamer (ACE’s President), will announce on Monday the ‘Season of Classic Films’ initiative at Il Cinema Ritrovato festival.

This will happen during the conversation between Thierry Frémaux and Gian Luca Farinelli on Monday 31st at twelve o’clock at Cinema Lumiere (Sala Officinema/Mastroianni). At the end of the conversation Gian Luca Farinelli will present the trailer of the project.

It’s possible to follow the event online on the Festival’s streaming website:
https://www.mymovies.it/ondemand/cinema-ritrovato/

and also on ACE’s FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/AssociationdesCinemathequesEuropeennes/

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The Brilliant Biograph: Earliest Moving Images of Europe (1897-1902)

Eye Filmmuseum and the British Film Institute present a compilation film of newly-restored rare images from the first years of filmmaking. Immerse yourself in enchanting images of Venice, Berlin, Amsterdam and London from 120 years ago. Let yourself be carried away in the mesmerizing events and celebrities of the time, and feel the enthusiasm of early cinema that overcame the challenge of capturing life-like movement.

 

Origins

The Mutoscope and Biograph Company was founded by film pioneer and inventor William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson, who had worked with Thomas Edison since the 1880s. After leaving Edison, Dickson and partners filmed remarkable events across Europe.

These films are all photographed with the unique large-format 68mm Mutograph camera, which provided extraordinarily high resolution images. These one-minute time capsules from 120 years ago still convey some of the richest and sharpest images that film can achieve.

The films reflect the essence of early cinema: capturing the first ever moving images of important events, famous locations and personalities, as well as spectacular moments such as dance and sports performances, or even natural phenomena like fire or storm, that only work when seen in motion.

 

The Collection and Restoration

The Mutoscope and Biograph Collection is the oldest film collection held at Eye Filmmuseum. It includes over 200 films, most of which made in Europe between 1897 and 1902. This constitutes the largest existing collection of Mutoscope and Biograph films surviving in the world.

The films are shot on nitrate film stock with a short-lived technology which was, at the time, innovative and groundbreaking: an exceptionally large-format film (approx. 68mm wide, without perforation) with an extremely high resolution providing extraordinary richness of details.

Because the films are a non-standard size, they have been largely unseen. Given their obsolete format digital restoration with custom-made equipment at a resolution of around 8K is the best way to make them accessible again, using today’s technology. After digitization, image restoration is done to reproduce as closely as possible the characteristics of the original film.

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Il Cinema Ritrovato Book Fair and the 2020 DVD Awards

From August 24th to the 31st, during Il Cinema Ritrovato, the Biblioteca Renzi in the Cineteca di Bologna will host an unmissable event for cinema fanatics with hundreds of books, DVDs and Blu-rays: Il Cinema Ritrovato Book fair.

It is the 18th birthday of the Book fair and regardless of the difficulties of the current year, the Cineteca has decided to confirm the event, albeit in a reduced version, to offer the Festival attendees some publications. There will be space for publications by film archives from all over the world and other national and international editors. Among this year’s news, the Biblioteca Renzi will host a selection of DVDs for a low price that include rarities but also contemporary works.

Among the many publications, the Cineteca di Bologna has decided to highlight the finalists of this year’s DVD Awards. These include some ACE members such as BFI, Filmoteka Narodowna, Národní filmový archiv and Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum. The DVD Awards will be given out on Friday, August 28th in Piazzetta Pasolini. This year’s jury is composed by Paolo Mereghetti, Lorenzo Codelli, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Philippe Garnier, Pamela Hutchinson and Miguel Marías.

Among the Italian editors at the Book Fair: Eagle Pictures, 01distribution, Dino Audino Editore, CG Entertainment and Mustang Entertainment.

Among the foreign editors: Edition Filmmuseum, Lobster Films, Cinematek Royale de Belgique, EYE FilmMuseum, Film Heritage Foundation, Institut Lumière e Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé.

For more information on the Book Fair click here.

For a full list of the Il Cinema Ritrovato | Dvd Awards finalists, click here.

The programme of Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival 2020

400 films, 7 movie theaters, 3 outdoor arenas: the 34th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival, organized by Cineteca di Bologna, will take place from 25th to the 31st August, in Bologna, in person.

The 34th edition of what has been considered the Paradise of the cinephiles will showcase cinema history, from its origins to today, thanks to restorations, retrospectives, documentaries, world premieres of titles selected by Cannes film Festival (this is the case for Fellini degli spiriti by Anselma Dell’Olio and Last Words by Jonathan Nossiter).

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Venezia Classics at Cinema Ritrovato: from Scorsese to Lang and Lumet

The Venezia Classics‘ selection has been a part of Venice Film Festival since 2012, presenting a selection of the best film restorations made by film archives, cultural institutions and production companies from all over the world. This year Venezia Classics will be hosted as part of the Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, from August 25-31. The selection will be then screened in Venice in the later months. ACE is proud to announce that some of the restorations in this year’s program have been made by ACE members: Cineteca di Bologna, Cinémathèque française and Hungarian Film Archive. Below you can find the full list of the titles selected by Alberto Barbera in collaboration with Federico Gironi:

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Irish Film Institute launches IFI@Home, a new VOD service

The Irish Film Institute has launched a video-on-demand platform named IFI@Home. At www.ifihome.ie there is a selection of IFI’s Irish and international programming finally made available online for audiences across Ireland.

IFI@Home has made the Reel Art Collection available online, a selection of 20 Irish documentaries, funded by the Arts Council. Its purpose is to showcase Irish non-fiction filmmakers’ talent. Each of the films is available to rent for 3.99 on www.ifihome.ie.

The IFI’s director Ross Keane explains that the launch of the online streaming library IFI@Home delivers on a key aspect of their current five-year strategy, to extend the reach of the IFI’s programming beyond their venue to homes across Ireland. This is particularly important, according to Ross Keane, during the COVID-19, when everyone is engaging with the arts online.

On the Reel Art Collection, Fionnuala Sweeney, Head of Film and Architecture at The Arts Council, adds:

The Arts Council is delighted that IFI@Home is launching with the Reel Art Collection. Over the past ten years many of Ireland’s finest film artists have made a Reel Art film, and together their work forms a collection that is unique in its subject range and realisation. Until now it has not been possible to see most of these films following their cinema and festival screenings so it is wonderful that they will have a new life on IFI@Home and that audiences all over Ireland will have access to them.