Cineteca di Bologna Library & Archive / Digital Projects

History and Founding

The Cineteca di Bologna (Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna) was founded on 18 May 1962 as a municipal film archive. It became an autonomous city institution in 1995 and has since developed into one of the world's leading centers for film preservation and restoration. The institution has been a member of the Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (FIAF) since 1989 and of the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE) since its founding. Since March 2014, its president has been Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio, with Gian Luca Farinelli serving as director.

Library and Archive

The Cineteca's Library and Archive — the Biblioteca Renzo Renzi — holds approximately 20,000 volumes on cinema, 2,500 photographic books, and around 1,100 different periodical titles. Public and private institutions, collectors, critics, and filmmakers have deposited collections including the Renzi Foundation, the McPherson Foundation, and the Premio Solinas Script Collections. The film archive contains over 18,000 films. Archive materials are accessible by appointment to researchers, students, and professionals in a reading room with 60 consultation carrels.

Digital Projects

The Cineteca's digital projects include the internationally recognized Chaplin Project, launched in 1999 in close collaboration with Association Chaplin/Roy Export. This project restored over 80 Charlie Chaplin films through the in-house laboratory L'Immagine Ritrovata (founded 1992) and digitized a paper archive of nearly 30,000 records available at charliechaplinarchive.org. Further digital initiatives include the Bologna Fotografata historical photography archive, participation in the European Film Gateway, and ongoing projects with Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation through the World Cinema Project and African Film Heritage Project. The Cineteca also co-organizes the annual Il Cinema Ritrovato festival, widely regarded as the world's premier showcase of restored films.

Access and Usage

The library operates on an open-stacks system and is freely accessible to the public for consultation. Film and non-film archives are available for research by appointment. Digital collections and restoration outputs are circulated internationally through festivals, home video distribution, and partnerships with institutions including Cannes, Venice, UNESCO, and the EYE Film Institute.