Filmarchiv Austria

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The Filmarchiv Austria is an organization for the discovery, reconstruction and storage of Austrian film documents - be it films , literature about cinema and film, or film magazines . With over 100,000 film titles, 2,000,000 photos and film stills, 25,000 film programs, 10,000 posters , 30,000 books, and an extensive collection of equipment, documents and costumes , it is the largest such facility in Austria.

The expansion of the film stock - from advertising to experimental work to feature films, all genres are represented - is constantly being worked on through targeted research. Over 95 percent of the Austrian productions before 1945 that have survived worldwide are stored in the Filmarchiv Austria. This makes the Filmarchiv Austria the most important collection on Austrian film heritage . The Filmarchiv Austria is a member of the Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (FIAF).

Film archive Austria in the old Laxenburg Castle

activities

In addition to the classic task of a film archive, collecting and preserving film recordings, the Filmarchiv Austria, like most large film archives nowadays, attaches great importance to regular screening of its work - for example in retrospectives, film screenings and film festivals. In a publicly accessible study center at the location of the Film Documentation Center at Oberen Augartenstrasse 1, interested parties are also given an insight into Austrian film history . There are, among other things, over 20,000 copies of Austrian films on video and DVD .

In the search for and restoration of Austrian films, the Filmarchiv Austria works closely with film institutes and archives around the world. In this way, numerous films that were considered lost could be tracked down and even feature films, which were often only partially available in usable quality in different countries and in different versions, could be brought together piece by piece up to their original length. These included the first Austrian film productions, the Saturn film, and the oldest surviving Austrian feature film, Der Müller und seine Kind . With Orlac's hands , Der Rosenkavalier (1926) and The Slave Queen are a few examples of dazzling movie classics that would be accessible to exist without the work of the Austrian Film Archives not consistently and to the public.

For the originally 50-part DVD series, which has now grown to 295 episodes (as of February 2018), the Austrian Film Film Archive was responsible for the selection of films together with the Standard Film Editing.

history

In 1929 the director of the theater collection of the Austrian National Library, Joseph Gregor , initiated an “Archive for Film Studies” in which numerous objects and documents relevant to film were collected. In 1934 Viktor Matejka founded the “Society of Film Friends”, which in 1945 advanced to become a center of film culture work. Ludwig Gesek , who founded the magazine “Filmkunst” in 1949, founded the “Austrian Film Studies Society” together with Adolf Hübl and Roman Herle, which was later renamed the “Austrian Society for Film Studies” and served as the basis for scientific film research.

The call for a film archive for Austria was first heard at the “First International Film Science Week” in Vienna on June 3, 1954. The establishment of such an institution will be decided on June 30th by the board of the “Austrian Society for Film Studies” and will be discussed at the following FIAF Congress in Lausanne in October.

On October 17, 1955, the Austrian Film Archive (ÖFA) is officially constituted as an association. The founding members were the “Federal Central Agency for Photography and Educational Film ” (SHB), the Austrian National Library , the “Austrian Society for Film Studies”, the “Society of Austrian Film Friends” and the “ Volksbildungshaus Wiener Urania ”. Ludwig Gesek becomes the first managing director, Joseph Gregor acts as president. The ÖFA is establishing itself as a collection point for feature films, documentaries and newsreel films and related materials. On October 9, 1956, the film archive became a full member of the FIAF, and on November 19, the first film screening of the ÖFA took place in the Albertina .

The first reconstruction with film material from the ÖFA took place in 1961 and was Der Rosenkavalier from 1926. Two years later, the first Viennale retrospective (“Festival of Hilarity”) was organized in the Urania and in 1964 the Austrian Film Museum, which was being founded, was used for screenings Movies available. In 1965, the highly flammable and decomposable nitrate films were copied onto security films , which were used until the 1950s. The various film camps have been located in Laxenburg south of Vienna since 1968 . For example, premises on the edge of the castle park were rented and set up for the film collections and their processing. Since 1971, an extra warehouse has also been stored in a bunker for nitrate films. A small warehouse was also set up in the former forester's house, but in August 1974 the nitrate films caught fire and set the forester's house on fire.

In 1968 the company moved into new offices at Rauhensteingasse 5 in downtown Vienna . In the same year, after a long search, an area in Laxenburg was selected as the central film storage facility of the ÖFA. Construction began in 1969. In 1970, premises in the old castle of Laxenburg were taken over and renovated, which have since been used for exhibition purposes and as a film and documentation warehouse. As part of the inaugural exhibition in 1971, there was also a retrospective entitled “Vienna-Berlin-Hollywood - Richard Oswald”. The film storage systems can also be put into operation this year. A year later, Austria's first nitrate store was opened there.

The Metro Kino in downtown Vienna .
The interior of the Metro Kino, once a theater.

In 1980 Walter Fritz became the new managing director of the ÖFA. In 1984 an FIFG congress was held in Vienna and Laxenburg. In 1990 an international symposium with the title “Audiovisual Memory. Film Archives in Our Society ”in Vienna. In 1996 Ernst Kieninger succeeded Walter Fritz as managing director. In 1997 the “Austrian Film Archive” was renamed “Filmarchiv Austria” and the new main location “Audiovisual Center Vienna-Augarten” was established as a central collection, documentation and service point for films in Austria.

In 1997 the “ Austria Wochenschau ” became part of the Filmarchiv Austria. Large international research and repatriation projects to find and retrieve Austrian films are started in international partner archives. In the same year the video edition “Austria in historical film documents” and the first summer cinema retrospective (“Laurel & Hardy”) started in the Augarten with a cinema tent and open air in the garden of the film archive.

The first publication of the film archive appeared in 1999 and was entitled "Electric Shadows". In 2001 the Film Documentation Center became part of the Filmarchiv Austria. In 2001 a long-term cooperation agreement was signed between Filmarchiv Austria and ORF . In the same year for the first time more than 50,000 visitors were counted at the film screenings in the film archive. The Metro Kino was taken over in 2002 as a new own theater with full year-round programming. In the same year the magazine “filmarchiv” was founded. The film archive study center was set up in the Audiovisual Center Vienna-Augarten. A year later, the Augarten studio cinema went into operation. The series of presentations “Fascination Filmarchivierung” was started in 2003 in the Metro Kino . In May of this year the foundation stone was laid for the new central film archive in Laxenburg, which opened in 2004 as the most modern film depot in Austria. In that year the "Verlag Filmarchiv Austria" was founded, whose range already included over 100 publications, videos and DVDs at the start.

In 2005, “50 years of the film archive” was celebrated with special programs on Austrian film history in the Metro Kino and numerous special events, and the first Prater Film Festival was organized and carried out on the Kaiserwiese in front of the Ferris wheel as a homage to the beginnings of cinema in Austria.

In 2010 a new nitrate store was put into operation, which was built entirely from wood and is also energy-independent. This warehouse offers space for 70,000 films with 250 m² of usable space. These are the oldest films in Austria from 1895.

In December 2012 the initiative "Filmschatz Österreich" was presented. The film archive has restored some early post-war films. The project was financed by the rights holder Bank Austria and the ORF . The first films were broadcast on ORF III in December 2012 : The other life from 1948 by Rudolf Steinboeck with Aglaja Schmid , Erni Mangold and Vilma Degischer , God's Angels are everywhere from 1947 by Hans Thimig with Attila Hörbiger and Susi Nicoletti as well Maresi from 1948 by Hans Thimig with Attila Hörbiger and Maria Schell in their first film role. The broadcast of further films has been announced for 2013.

In 2018, Wolfgang Brandstetter succeeded Hans Peter Blechinger as President of the Filmarchiv Austria. Blechinger previously held this position for 22 years.

Film Documentation Center

The film documentation center in Augarten

The Film Documentation Center, founded in 1965 by Herbert Holba and Peter Spiegel , was the largest private collection of film photos, programs, videos and film documents in Austria in 2001, the year it was incorporated into the Filmarchiv Austria as a separate department. It goes back to a collection begun in 1945 by the two founders.

Collections

The collections of the Filmarchiv Austria can representatively document Austrian cultural and contemporary history. The oldest surviving titles are the recordings of Vienna by the Lumière brothers from 1896. The oldest surviving Austrian film production is the documentary “The Imperial Visit to Braunau / Inn” from 1903, recorded by the traveling cinema owner Johann Bläser.

Some of the collections owned by the Filmarchiv Austria:

  • “Gold dust inventory” - the most important collection on the early history of cinema, an extensive collection of film documents from the monarchy
  • Reinthaler Collection - Austria's largest inventory of cinema from the 1910s
  • Köfinger Collection - Tourism films from the silent film era
  • several almost complete newsreel stocks from the 1930s onwards
  • Archive of the Austria newsreel

Retrospectives

Since 1971 the Filmarchiv Austria has been putting together retrospectives for the public , often accompanied by exhibitions. The following is a selection of previous retrospectives:

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chronicle 1950-1979 of the Laxenburg Volunteer Fire Brigade, accessed on October 1, 2010
  2. ↑ Filmarchiv Austria opened a new nitrofilm depot in Laxenburg  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the NÖN from September 28, 2010, accessed on October 1, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.noen.at  
  3. ↑ ORF: ORF III, Bank Austria and Filmarchiv Austria raise the "Austrian film treasure" ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / programm.orf.at
  4. ↑ orf.at. Brandstetter new President of the Film Archive . Article dated February 19, 2018, accessed February 19, 2018.

Web links

Commons : Filmarchiv Austria  - Collection of images, videos and audio files