Cineteca Nacional de Chile Centro Cultural La Moneda

History and Founding

The Cineteca Nacional de Chile is Chile's national film and audiovisual heritage institution, dedicated to safeguarding, preserving, and disseminating the country's cinematographic patrimony. It opened to the public on 7 March 2006 and is housed within the Centro Cultural La Moneda (CCLM), located at Plaza de la Ciudadanía 26, beneath the historic La Moneda presidential palace in downtown Santiago. From March 2025, the institution became part of the Servicio Nacional del Patrimonio Cultural, marking a milestone in national cultural policy.

Collections and Holdings

The Cineteca holds over 23,000 film reels in formats including 35mm, 16mm, 8mm, Super 8mm, and 9.5mm, as well as more than 8,000 video materials dating from the 1970s through the early 2000s. The archive also preserves over 1,150 home movies in small-gauge formats from the 1920s to the 1980s, along with Chilean film posters and photographs. Physical storage takes place in climate-controlled vaults at a facility in the Ñuñoa district of Santiago. The institution has catalogued over 6,000 titles, many recovered from international archives in Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, and Germany.

Notable Materials and Journalism/Media Relevance

The holdings include newsreels, documentaries, and feature films spanning Chilean cinema from the silent era to the present. The collection contains significant documentary records of the Allende government era and materials related to the 1973 coup d'état. A digital streaming platform launched in June 2013 makes over 700 Chilean films freely available online. The Cineteca is a member of the Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (FIAF) and the Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Archivos de Imagen en Movimiento (CLAIM).

Access and Usage

The institution operates two public cinema spaces: a 210-seat main theater and a 40-seat micro-cinema. The physical archive is open to researchers, filmmakers, students, and the general public upon request. An online catalogue database allows remote access to collection metadata. The Escuela al Cine program supports more than 500 active school cinema clubs throughout Chile. Digital restoration and laboratory services are also offered professionally.