The Film Foundation is a US-based

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

dedicated to

film preservation Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the wid ...

and the exhibition of restored and classic cinema. It was founded by director

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, incl ...

and several other leading filmmakers in 1990. The foundation raises funds and awareness for film preservation projects and creates educational programs about film. The foundation and its partners have restored more than 900 films.

Background

As of 1997, more than half of all films made before 1950 had been

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography * Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland *Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

, and a mere 10% of those produced in the US prior to 1929 survived. Even films made in Eastmancolor after 1950 were already deteriorating. Because of the risk of deterioration and color fading as films age, Martin Scorsese "began his film preservation crusade in 1980", educating both the industry and the public about the problem. In 1990, Scorsese created The Film Foundation together with

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

Robert Altman Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New ...

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five ...

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' Do ...

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the '' Star Wars'' and '' Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as c ...

Sydney Pollack Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 20 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 movies or shows and produced over 44 films. For his film '' Out ...

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award from four nominations, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, the Cec ...

and

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...

, who all sat on the foundation's original board of directors. In 2006,

Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. He made his feature-film debut with '' Hard Eight'' (1996). He found critical and commercial success with ''Boogie Nights'' (1997) and received ...

, Wes Anderson, Curtis Hanson,

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

Ang Lee Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popula ...

and

Alexander Payne Constantine Alexander Payne (; born February 10, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for the films ''Citizen Ruth'' (1996), ''Election'' (1999), '' About Schmidt'' (2002), '' Sideways'' (2004), '' The D ...

joined them.Pond, Steve
"Save the Day"
''DGA Quarterly'', Directors Guild of America, Spring 2007, accessed November 12, 2014 In 2015, Christopher Nolan also joined the board.

Description

The foundation has been called "the leading organization devoted to fundraising, increasing awareness of preservation, and issuing grants to safeguard this country's cinematic heritage." It aids in preserving movie history by providing support for preservation projects at film archives. Since its inception, the foundation has helped save more than 600 movies. The foundation seeks to promote the exhibition (as well as preservation) of classic cinema. Since 2002, the foundation has been affiliated with the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film director, film and television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dire ...

, working out of the Guild's offices in New York and Los Angeles and sharing two officers who also sit on the foundation's board. The foundation also creates educational programs such as "The Story of Movies", a free interdisciplinary curriculum that the foundation has distributed to millions of students and tens of thousands of classrooms. It teaches about the cultural significance of film and the importance of preservation. The curriculum "is intended to teach kids to think critically about what they see in film, and to consider the filmmaking process and decisions made along the way. It also helps students place films in a historical context, using them as a springboard for conversations about social issues." The

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

houses The Film Foundation Collection. The collection consists primarily of newly struck prints on nearly 100 titles. The Film Foundation,

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

, and the Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes jointly run The African Film Heritage Project, which preserves culturally significant movies made in Africa and allows Africans to see those movies, as many of them received only limited distribution on their home continent. By 2021, the foundation and its partners had restored more than 900 films. The Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room launched May 9, 2022, with the presentation of the 1945 film '' I Know Where I'm Going!'' Screenings will run on the second Monday of each month and feature introductions and post-screening conversations about the importance of the films.

References

Sources

*Slide, Anthony (1992; 2000). ''Nitrate Won’t Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States'', McFarland and Company

External links

film-foundation.org
the foundation's official website.
the story of movies official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Film Foundation, The 1990 establishments in the United States Film organizations in the United States Film preservation organizations Organizations established in 1990 Martin Scorsese

Background

Description

References

Sources

Further reading

See also

External links