Film archives online

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The internet portal filmarchives online enables access to overviews of the holdings of numerous European film archives and thus creates a Europe-wide network of archival film databases . Online since February 2007, information on around 25,000 films from several archives can now be found - mainly non-fictional material. The database continues to grow and the catalog entries were recently supplemented with streaming videos and screenshots.

The aim of filmarchives online is to make the European film heritage , which is scattered over numerous countries, accessible via a union catalog , and thus to significantly simplify the complex, time-consuming and expensive process of searching for copies. Linguistic barriers and the lack of information options, which currently make access to this material even more difficult and hinder its cultural and commercial use, are to be gradually reduced through the introduction of filmarchives online. The portal therefore makes its data accessible in several languages ​​- including English, German, French, Italian and Czech.

The target group primarily includes the field of professional media and film production as well as academic research. Films can be identified on the basis of contents, filmographic data or technical details. The search results contain both information about the films themselves and the locations of the existing copies. Contact information enables direct inquiries to the relevant institutions. Digitized films and films available online are linked directly.

The site emerged from the MIDAS (Moving Image Database for Access and Re-use of European Film Collections) project. MIDAS was launched in January 2006 as a pilot project of the European Commission's MEDIA Plus program and will end in January 2009. The German Film Institute (DIF) implemented the project as a coordinator together with other European institutions. The association consists of 18 institutions - including the British Film Institute (BFI, London), the Národní filmový archiv (NFA, Prague), the Cineteca di Bologna (CNB), as well as the DEFA Foundation (Berlin) and the Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum for film and television (Berlin).

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