Since 2015, the Film Restored Festival has been dedicated to film heritage in the digital age. Digital restorations celebrate their premieres here, filmmakers and restorers  report on practical aspects of digitization processes, and experts discuss relevant political and aesthetic questions.

The seventh edition of the festival, titled “For real?!”, explores the numerous layers of the documentary form, whether they are aesthetic, political, or technical. It takes its cue from the 80th birthday of exceptional director Werner Herzog on 5 September, who has constantly tested the boundaries between fictional and documentary representations in his work and who has set international standards with his films. Over the course of five days, the festival will shed light on the aesthetic, political, and material layers of the documentary form in film history.

In addition, by choosing this theme, Film Restored aims to draw attention to the vast documentary film history from all around the globe, which have so far hardly been considered in the context of film preservation and digitization efforts.

The program of screenings organised by the festival will be complemented by lectures, workshop reports, and panel discussions. “Film Restored Online“, a selection of the films, discussions, and introductions, as well as bonus features will be available online at www.film-restored.de (Available Sep 21–Oct 5). Accredited festival participants will be asked to set up an account, which will automatically grant access to the online programme. Registration for the online programme is also open to non-accredited people (subject to availability).

Check out the festival program!

Film Restored is an event of the Deutsche Kinemathek for the Kinematheksverbund and is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) and supported by FIAF and Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video.