The Association of European Cinematheques (French: Association des Cinémathèques Européennes – ACE) is an affiliation of 49 European national and regional film archives. Its role is to safeguard the European film heritage and make these rich audiovisual records collected and preserved by the various film archives accessible to the public. ACE is a regional branch of FIAF (Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film / International Federation of Film Archives). ACE members are non-profit institutions committed to the FIAF Code of Ethics.
ACE’s main aims are:
- to guarantee the survival of the European film heritage
- to ensure and enhance its continuing visibility on the cinema screen as well as through digital technologies
To achieve these aims, ACE strives to:
- promote public interest in European film culture and its history
- awaken awareness of its cultural and economic value among European decisionmakers and the audiovisual industry
- create favourable economic and legal conditions to allow the European film archives to fulfil their professional tasks
- raise sufficient funds to safeguard the medium
- co-ordinate support for the preservation, restoration and digitisation of films preserved in European archives
- encourage European-wide technical and scientific research in the field of preservation, restoration and digitisation of film materials
ACE needs public, political and financial support for:
- its initiatives in the field of preservation, restoration and digitisation
- a change in the relationship between the archives and the film industry, allowing the systematic re-investment of exploitation funds back into preservation
- a new legal framework for archive activity
- more technical and scientific research into preservation, restoration and digitisation methods on a European scale.
Film heritage plays a decisive role in our cultural identity and memory and in the aspirations of the audiovisual industries. The European preservation archives are the basic platform for that process.