Mission Statement
The Film Foundation (TFF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation and education, is aligned with the Directors Guild of America. The foundation is dedicated to protecting and preserving motion picture history and is at the forefront in raising awareness of the issue within the industry and the public at large. By working in partnership with archives and studios, the foundation has helped to restore over 850 films, which are made accessible to the public through programming at festivals, museums, and educational institutions around the world. TFF created the World Cinema Project (WCP) in 2007 to expand its preservation/restoration mission globally, addressing regions where resources for preservation are scarce. Joining founder and chair Martin Scorsese on the board of directors are: Woody Allen, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee, George Lucas, Christopher Nolan, Alexander Payne, Robert Redford and Steven Spielberg, along with the current DGA President and Secretary/Treasurer.
Recognizing the need to engage young people, TFF created the innovative educational program The Story of Movies, an interdisciplinary curriculum designed to teach students how to "read" film; sharpen their critical-thinking and critical-viewing skills; and learn about the cultural, artistic, and historical significance of film. The program is distributed free of charge and has been used by over 100,000 middle and high school educators nationwide.
- For more information on The Film Foundation, please contact 323-436-5060 (Los Angeles) and 212-258-0860 (New York) or visit www.film-foundation.org
Selected Highlights from The Film Foundation Restoration Projects
MOULIN ROUGE
(1952, d. John Huston)
Restored by The Film Foundation in collaboration with Park Circus, Romulus Films and MGM with additional funding provided by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a unique partnership between the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique (SACEM), and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW).
WANDA
(1970, d. Barbara Loden)
Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive. Restoration funding provided by Gucci and The Film Foundation.
ENAMORADA
(Mexico, 1946, d. Emilio Fernández)
Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project in collaboration with Fundacion Televisa AC and Filmoteca de la UNAM. Restoration funded by the Material World Charitable Foundation.
CHRONICLE OF THE YEARS OF FIRE
(Algeria, 1975,
d. Mohammed Lakhdar–Hamina)
Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Image Retrouvée and L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratories. Restoration funded by the George Lucas Family Foundation.
This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, created by The Film Foundation, FEPACI and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.
DESTRY RIDES AGAIN
(1939,d. George Marshall)
Restored by Universal Pictures in collaboration with The Film Foundation. Special thanks to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg for their consultation on this restoration.
CAROSELLO NAPOLETANO
(NEAPOLITAN CAROUSEL)
(1954, d. Ettore Giannini)
Restored by the Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
THE JUNIPER TREE
(1990, d. Nietzchka Keene)
Restored by the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.
THE MEMORY OF JUSTICE
(1976, d. Marcel Ophuls)
Restored by the Academy Film Archive in association with Paramount Pictures and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Material World Charitable Foundation, Righteous Persons Foundation, and The Film Foundation.