News on Film heritage

 

27 September 2012

• Directive on orphan works adopted.
  On 4th October the Council adopted a directive establishing a legal framework aimed at improving access to and digitisation of orphan works across the EU.
  Orphan works are works (such as books, newspapers, magazines, audio recordings, films, etc.) that are protected by copyright but whose owners cannot be identified or found. The new rules will facilitate the digitisation of and lawful cross-border online access to orphan works contained in the collections of libraries, educational establishments, museums, archives, audiovisual heritage institutions and public service broadcasting organisations.
  Member states will have a maximum of two years to incorporate the new rules into their national legislations.
  Press release:
  The Directive  

• New opportunities for film and media literacy - Conference - 16 November 2012, Brussels.
  The MEDIA Unit of the European Commission organises a conference on "NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR FILM AND MEDIA LITERACY" on 16th November 2012, from 10:00 h to 17:00 h in Brussels (Albert Hall, Chaussée de Wavre 649-651).
  
  The Conference presents an overview of the Commission's proposal for the Creative Europe Programme and the state of play of the EU media literacy policy.
  
  In two different workshops, the European Commission would like to discuss with you the Commission's plans for new funding opportunities for media and film literacy projects on a European level. The workshops will focus on "Good practices in Europe - how can film literacy initiatives travel?" and "European Networks for Film and Media Literacy - how can we create a better environment for European cooperation?" We will also examine the impact of the current financial and economic crisis on media literacy initiatives and policy.
  
  Please confirm your participation before 26th October 2012 to Eac-media-literacy@ec.europa.eu
  
  For any further questions please contact: EU Commission, DG Education and Culture: Dag Asbjørnsen, dag.asbjornsen@ec.europa.eu
   

 

27 September 2012

 

• Declaration of preservation elements by contractual obligation – Swedish Film Institute
  The Swedish Film Institute has adopted a new standard contract to formalise the deposit of films by contractual obligation. It applies to producers receiving production subsidy from the Swedish Film Institute. The objective is to ensure the long-term preservation of the film, but also to make possible the making of new viewing elements in original formats and to use the deposited elements as source elements for viewing copies in new formats.
  Some elements of this contract are:
  Subsidy is conditional to the deposit;
  The deposit takes places within 6 months of Swedish release;
  It clearly describes the preservation elements on digitally distributed films that are to be deposited;
  The Swedish Film Institute has the permission to use all contractually deposited auxiliary material in its daily activities;
  Permission to the future migration of the deposited material onto new formats and carriers in order to ensure long-term preservation of and access to the film.
  Standard contract

• Protection of and access to the audiovisual cultural heritage – Council of Europe
  The Parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a Recommendation on "Protection and access to the audiovisual cultural heritage" in May 2012. In asks all Council of Europe member States to make an inventory of their audiovisual cultural heritage and protect it at national and, where appropriate, regional levels, and to develop strategies for easier and more sustainable access to their audiovisual cultural heritage.
  Recommendation

17 September 2012

• Orphan works
  On 13 September, the European Parliament Plenary approved its amendments to the Commission's proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain permitted uses of orphan works. The Council is expected to accept all these amendments in one of its coming meetings, which would lead to the adoption of the Directive.
  Texts adopted
  Report and amendments
  Press release
   

• Copyright and innovation in the Creative Industries – Speech by Neelie Kroes Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda - 10 September 2012
  
  "Today I want to talk about why, in a changing digital age, copyright reform is the right way to support that sector. The debate on copyright often involves extreme positions, rigid views, and emotive arguments.
  
  But for me, this isn't a simple question: we need to recognise its complexity. Not to be dogmatic, but pragmatic. Not to consider the question as an abstract, philosophical issue: but in its context and time.
  
  Let's remind ourselves of that context. The world we live in is changing fast. Technology is changing. Business models are changing. The way we consume and enjoy creative works - music, movies, games – is changing.
  
  And, if we want to keep the right balance, the legal framework has to respond.
  (…)
  Each day we fail to respond, we are missing out. Consumers miss out on easy, legal access to their favourite products. The creative sector misses out on new markets, new innovations, new opportunities. We all miss out on new ways to share, recognise, and appreciate our cultural heritage. And our economy overall misses out on the chance of new growth.
  (…)
  I'm glad to see that change is finally coming for copyright, at many different levels. Internationally, the World Intellectual Property Organisation is looking into a range of new copyright exceptions and limitations. Nationally, an increasing number of Member States are recognising the need for reforms, and testing new ideas in this field. But we need a common European solution, to avoid fragmentation and to seize benefits for a European Digital Single Market. "
  Full speech

• Europa Cinemas - Conference, 22-25 November 2012, Paris
  Europa Cinemas will celebrate its 20th anniversary on the occasion of the 17th Conference Network. The programme will consist of four days of screenings, debates and workshops about issues such as place and image of film theatres in the digital and Internet era, audience renewal, film promotion and social networks… More than 500 professionals, exhibitors, distributors, producers and sales agents from all over Europe and from other continents are expected to attend.
  
  Europa Cinemas is the first international film theatre network for the circulation of European films. It is co-financed by the EU MEDIA Programme.
  More information on the Conference

13 September 2012

• Europeana’s huge cultural dataset opens for re-use
  Europeana opens up its dataset of over 20 million cultural objects for free re-use. This release, by far the largest one-time dedication of cultural data to the public domain using Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication, represents a real step change for cultural organisations in open data access and it offers a new boost to the digital economy as open data can fuel enterprise and create opportunities for those in the creative industries.
  
  The massive dataset is the descriptive information about Europe’s digitised treasures. For the first time, the metadata is released under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication, meaning that anyone can use the data for any purpose - creative, educational, commercial - with no restrictions. This release offers a new boost to the digital economy, providing electronic entrepreneurs with opportunities to create innovative apps and games for tablets and smartphones and to create new web services and portals.
  
  Europeana’s move to CC0 is a step change in open data access. Releasing data from across the memory organisations of every EU country sets an important new international precedent, a decisive move away from the world of closed and controlled data.
  
  Importantly, the change represents a valuable contribution to the European Commission’s agenda to drive growth through digital innovation. Online open data is a core resource which can fuel enterprise and create opportunities for millions of Europeans working in Europe's cultural and creative industries. The sector represents 3.3% of EU GDP and is worth over €150 billion in exports.
  
  Welcoming the announcement, Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for the Digital Agenda for Europe, said:
  "Open data is such a powerful idea, and Europeana is such a cultural asset, that only good things can result from the marriage of the two. People often speak about closing the digital divide and opening up culture to new audiences but very few can claim such a big contribution to those efforts as Europeana's shift to creative commons."
  Press release

• Statistics on European video
  The International Video Federation (IVF) has released its "2012 European video statistics", providing the most recent economic and statistical data on Europe’s markets for audiovisual content published on digital media and online, where available.
  
  According to IVF, in 2011, European video market performance was marked by the extraordinary economic situation, a demanding pricing environment, and challenging piracy and unauthorized file-sharing over the Internet. In addition, European consumers are offered an ever-increasing range of content and delivery modes competing for their available free time. European consumers nevertheless spent EUR 9.4 billion on DVD, Blu-ray and online video products and services in 2011. This put Europe at a 29.8 per cent share of worldwide consumer spending on video software.
  
  Full document

10 September 2012

• EUscreen – Online Access to Audiovisual Heritage
  The latest report on the EUscreen project draws the following conclusions. "The pace and progress of access to audiovisual heritage is dominated by worldwide, rapidly evolving changes in general web access and use of online possibilities. These are turbulent times for any creator, producer, distributor and safe keeper of any creative materials that fit under the umbrella of “content” – all that is manageable, marketable, sellable to audiences inside and outside of the digital realm."
  
  The report attempts to "give an overview of these developments and the possibilities they comprise for audiovisual heritage" (…)"A number of environmental and technological developments are pushing the envelope of re-appropriating audiovisual heritage. Open web technologies are expanding the possibilities of integrating archival sources into creative and commercial audiovisual narratives. The online spectatorship and need for content that is available on multiple platforms keep on expanding. More and more platforms – both in mobile and domestic spheres – are capable and demanding of content for streaming and making available audiovisual content for leisurely or educational purposes.
  
  Audiovisual heritage, if it wants to be reused, needs to be able to be found. Although European audiovisual heritage represents a tremendous cultural resource for Europe as an imaginative resource for Europe’s history of the 20th Century, the visibility, findability, accessibility and
  usability of it across national borders is, if at all, very limited."
  Full report

• British Film Institute "5-19 Education Scheme" for 2013-2017
  The British Film Institute (BFI) has launched its "5-19 Film Education Scheme" for the period 2013-2017.
  
  Film education is an integral part of the BFI’s future strategies. The BFI’s 2011 report Opening our eyes discovered that not only is watching films one of the most popular leisure activities in the UK, but that films carry powerful messages for people. Many people consider films seen in childhood or young adulthood as influential on their lives. Film can give new insights into other cultures and ways of life – and has the capacity to make a significant contribution to current debates on national identity.
  
  The "5-19 Film Education Scheme" will have three interconnecting tiers which will help to promote a broader and enduring engagement with film as well as transfer knowledge, promote cultural exchange, improve attainment and promote diversity and inclusion through watching, understanding and making film. The main elements are intended to be:
  
  Tier 1 – A new digital platform
  A world-class digital platform for young people, teachers, parents and learners.
  
  Tier 2 – A single integrated film education programme
  Activities and support across the UK which should be available to all 27,600 schools, to cinemas, youth organisations and community groups.
  
  Tier 3 – The Youth Film Academy Network
  Opportunities for talented and committed young people from all backgrounds to undertake an intensive programme of film activities.
  More information on the Film Education Scheme
  BFI’s 2011 report Opening our eyes

 

6 September 2012

• Sustainable futures for digital archives – Images for the future - Conference - 11-12 October 2012, Amsterdam
  The conference will present and analyse what the Images for the Future project has delivered with regards to accessibility to digitised audiovisual material.
  Registration and programme

• " From Grain to Pixel. The Archival Life of Film in Transition" - Book
  The book "From Grain to Pixel. The Archival Life of Film in Transition" by Giovanna Fossati, Head Curator at the EYE Film Institute in The Netherlands, (Amsterdam University Press, 2009 and 2011) is available at the Open Access Library:     http://oapen.org/search?identifier=369986
   This book is a study on the transition from analogue to digital in film archives.

• Understanding digital cinema roll-out - Report
  The European Audiovisual Observatory and MEDIA Salles have teamed up to draft this report on the digital cinema roll-out in Europe. The report provides the latest figures on digital screens and penetration rates across Europe and goes beyond them to explain the historical development of digitisation: It discusses the main reasons why roll-out did not happen for over a decade before finally entering the mainstream deployment phase in 2009 and analyses the role played by 3D, Third Party Facilitators and public funding schemes.
  More information

 

3 August 2012

• Research – creative and cultural industries - Call open until 15/1/2013
  "Technologies and scientific foundations in the field of creativity" is one of the objectives of the current EU Research Framework Programme (FP7). It addresses, amongst others, the creative and cultural industries, including film. Call 10 dealing with this objective was published on 10/7/2012 and it will be open until 15/1/2013.
  
  The expected outcomes of this objective are:
  a) Creative experience tools that make use of all our senses and allow for richer, more collaborative and interactive experiences: real time simulation and visualisation, augmented reality, 3D animation, visual computing, games engines, and immersive experiences.
  b) Intelligent computational environments stimulating and enhancing human creativity.
  c) Progress towards formal understanding of creativity with a view to advancing the measurable capability of computers to produce results assessed by humans as useful, original and surprising.
  d) Roadmaps for future research and innovation in the creative industries; proposals should target cross- and inter-cluster support activities to boost creative competitiveness in sectors such as advertising, architecture, arts, crafts, design, fashion, films, music, publishing, video games, TV and radio.
  ICT Work programme 2013. Objective 8.1 " Technologies and scientific foundations in the field of creativity" - pages 81-82
  More information on Call 10

 

20 July 2012

• Cinema Expert Group / Subgroup Film Heritage – Agenda
  16 October 2012, Brussels
  The next meeting of the Cinema Expert Group / Subgroup Film Heritage takes place at the Belgium Cinematek in Brussels on 16 October 2012.
  Attendance to the meeting is by invitation only. Invitations to Member States, Candidate Countries, EEA Secretariat, Council of Europe and professional associations have been sent this week. Confirmation of participation should be sent by e-mail to CNECT-CINEMA-EXPERT-GROUP@ec.europa.eu by 07 September 2012.
  Agenda updates and document related to the meeting will be available here

6 July 2012

• FIAF's Digital Technology Guidance Papers for film archives
  FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives) has just published several Digital Technology Guidance Papers for film archives on the following topics:
  - Choosing a Film Scanner
  - Setting up a digitisation workflow (by Anne Gant from the EYE Film Institute, Netherlands)
  - Complications you might encounter in a digitisation workflow
  - Digital Cinema Technology and DCPs (by Arne Nowak from Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, Germany)
  - Digital Cinema Equipment FAQs (by Torkell Sætervadet).
  FIAF Guidance papers

• Austrian Film Museum - Kinonedelja – Online Edition
  The Austrian Film Museum has published its flagship online video project: Kinonedelja – Online Edition.
  14 issues of Dziga Vertov’s first newsreel series, Kinonedelja (1918 – 1919), are available to view in their entirety for free on the Film Museum’s own website, accompanied by full translations of the titles in both German and English. Dziga Vertov’s films have played a key role in the Austrian Film Museum’s collection, preservation and publication activities since its foundation in 1964.
  The Film Museum’s website
   

4 July 2012

• Culture and ICT technologies – EU pilot projet - Deadline: 10 August 2012
  The European Commission is publishing a call for tenders with the view to launch a pilot action that will test new ways of financing, producing, disseminating or extracting value from cultural contents through ICT technologies.
  The digital shift is bringing about a change in paradigm, having a massive impact on how cultural goods are created, managed, disseminated, accessed, consumed and monetised, changing the value chains which prevailed in the analogue era. This shift offers new possibilities for considerably extending audience reach, new ways of interacting with the public as well as educational benefits, provided that cultural operators develop strategies based on new business models that take advantage of the digital technologies. Against this background, the European Union is launching a pilot project aiming at highlighting and promoting between ten to fifteen ideas making an innovative use of ICT based technologies to finance, produce, make available, disseminate and/or extract value from cultural contents.
  Tender documents

• EU Media Futures Forum
  European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes has established a group to reflect on the impact of the digital revolution on European media industries, the resulting risks and opportunities for these industries for consumers and citizens, and the emerging new business models – against a background of economic uncertainty and reduced revenue for traditional media. This group was established in December 2011. The aim of this Forum is to foster debates on the futures of EU media and issue recommendations on how best to incentivize quality content and journalism while seizing the benefits of the digital revolution.
  The Forum draws on the knowledge and experience of more than 20 personalities from the publishing, broadcasting, advertising, telecommunications, equipment manufacturers, social media and online industries.
  The Forum members have identified eight bottlenecks that need to be addressed if Europe is to become a world-leader in the digital revolution and come back from behind.
  EU Media Futures Forum

• State of digitisation in Europe's cultural heritage institutions – ENUMERATE report
  The ENUMERATE Thematic Network has published its first report into the state of digitisation in Europe's cultural heritage institutions. The report is based on nearly 2000 ‘core’ survey responses, from 29 European countries.
  Highlights of the findings are:
  · c83% of cultural heritage institutions have a digital collection;
  · c20% of all collections have been digitised, and c57% still needs to be digitised (for 23% of collections over all there is no need to digitise)
  · More than 50% of cultural heritage institutions collect born digital materials
  · c34% of institutions have a digitisation strategy;
  · c85% of institutions use Web statistics to measure the use of their digital collections;
  · 2 years from now institutions estimate to make twice as much of their collections accessible through Europeana as compared to today
  · On average 3.3% of paid staff in all cultural heritage institutions is working full time on digitisation.
  Full report
   

21 June 2012
 

• UK Classics available online
  The British Film Institute (BFI) and Distrify (online cinema, www.distrify.com) have formed a partnership to set up an online platform for the BFI Production Board Collection, offering audiences worldwide the opportunity to see classics from the collection of 300 films co-funded by the BFI between 1950 and 2000. Film fans can download and watch films in the collection at http://bfi.muvies.com
  The BFI Production Board co-funded many classics from some of the world’s most respected filmmakers, many of which have been seen rarely post their initial theatrical release. The collection includes classics from filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Greenaway, Derek Jarman, Terence Davies, Bill Douglas and many more. The BFI also acquired many short films after 2000, including Baby, directed by Ben Whishaw and Sweenightgoodheart starring a young David Tennant.
  “The BFI is delighted to able to use Distrify’s innovative platform and online sales tools to offer our back catalogue of features and shorts worldwide to today’s audiences,” says Peter Fydler, Head of B2B at the BFI.
  The Internet has changed everything with people globally connected to their social networks and able to access all kinds of information and entertainment. However, navigation and curation are becoming increasingly important to consumers looking for guidance in finding what’s on offer and what they want to see.

• BFI Collection Policy
  In November 2011, the BFI published its collection policy, updated to take into account the digital developments. Some features of this paper:
  - New definition of film: "moving image works crafted to express an idea or tell a story – fictional, factual or artistic – regardless of production process, recording medium or distribution channel"
  - Preservation and access have equal priority as objectives.
  - Stress on the institutional interoperability of metadata, and in particular through the application of European standards such as EN 15744 and EN 15907.
  - List of digital file formats preferred for preservation.
  The BFI Collection Policy

• "Connecting Europe through Culture" - Europeana General Plenary 2012 - 14-15 June, Leuven, Belgium
  Full programme

• Le future des archives: gestion et valorisation des contenus numériques – Colloque - 19 juin 2012, Paris
  Ina EXPERT a organisé un colloque le 19 juin 2012 sur les usages des archives audiovisuelles dans le tout numérique : pourquoi et comment les conserver et les valoriser ? Il s’agit de tenter de corréler les pratiques liées à la conservation d’archives (choix des formats et systèmes de stockage) avec leurs usages. 2 sessions ont eu lieu:
  Conserver les images pour toujours ?
  Archives audiovisuelles : quels usages pour demain ?
  Ina EXPERT
   

14 June 2012

• ”What can art and culture do in a time of crisis?” - Danish Presidency event - 6 June 2012, Brussels.
  The Danish Presidency has put in place a "Team Culture 2012": a “task force” of accomplished and knowledgeable artists, thinkers and cultural activists and have them meet up with the European political world.
  The "Team Culture 2012" proposes a manifesto: "The present crisis is about much more than economy, finances or debt. In reality it represents a much deeper crisis in our European values. To us – the members of Team Culture 2012 – it is clear that we as Europeans have lost our vision of the good society. The crisis shows us how materialism, selfishness and nationalism have overshadowed our fundamental cultural values of enlightenment, solidarity and humanism…"
  The manifesto
  
  The results of the "Team Culture" were presented at a big conference in Brussels on June 6, 2012. The day included 11 presentations from the members of Team Culture as well as intensive round table discussions and panel debates. The host was the Danish Minister for Culture, Mr Uffe Elbæk. The event was arranged in cooperation with the European Commission.
  The video
  More information on "Team Culture"
  
   

• European Audiovisual Observatory figures on film market in 2011
  2011 was a year of stabilisation at the European box office. Based on provisional data the European Audiovisual Observatory estimates that EU gross box office returns increased marginally by 0.7% from EUR 6.37 billion to EUR 6.4 billion, still the highest level on record. Cinema attendance remained stable with an estimated 962 million tickets sold.
  2011 saw European films claiming back market share which they had lost to US 3D blockbusters in 2009 and 2010. Based on provisional figures, estimated market share for European films in the EU climbed from 25.2% to 28.5% in 2011, back to the ‘pre-3D’ levels of 2007 and 2008. Market share for US films (1) on the other hand fell from 68.5% to an estimated 61.4%. This would be lowest level since 2001. Market share for European films produced in Europe with incoming US investment, such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The King’s Speech, increased from 5.0% to 8.4%.
  EU production levels continued to grow to 1 285 feature films in 2011, 59 films more than in 2010 and a new record high. Growth was driven both by an increase in fiction, up 26 films, as well as feature documentaries, up 33 films. Total production volume splits into 915 fiction films (71% of total feature films) and at least 370 feature documentaries (29%). With over 200 national initiative feature films produced in 2011, France and the UK were the countries with the highest production levels in Europe.
  Boosted by a unique legislative approach making distributor contributions mandatory, France made the most rapid progress in digitising its screen base and further strengthened its position as Europe’s largest digital cinema market with a total of 3 656 digital screens by the end of 2011, by far the largest digital screen base in Europe. The UK and Germany followed at a distance with 2 724 and 2 303 digital screens, while there were around 1 500 digital screens in the remaining three major European theatrical markets of Spain, Italy and the Russian Federation.
  Press release

 

11 June 2012

• Directive on orphan works – agreement between the European Parliament and the Council
  The European Parliament (EP) and the Council have agreed on the text of the EP and Council Directive on certain permitted uses of orphan works. The agreement still needs to be formally ratified by the Council and the EP Plenary.
  This Directive will create a legal framework to ensure the digitisation and lawful, cross-border online access to orphan works contained in the collections of certain cultural institutions, including film heritage institutions (FHI), when the orphans are used in the pursuance of their public interest mission.
  In the agreed text:
  - FHI are clearly included in the scope;
  - Partial orphans are also included;
  - Specific rules on where to carry out the diligent search in the case of cinematographic works provide legal certainty;
  - Uses limited to public interest missions, but FHI may generate revenues for covering the cost of digitisation;
  - Fair compensation for appearing right-holders.
  More information on the agreement

• MEDIA Programme – support to digitisation of cinemas
  Deadline: 31 July 2010
  The European Commission has launched a call for proposals for the digitisation of cinemas. The annual budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at EUR 2 000 000. The financial contribution awarded is a subsidy and takes the form of a lump sum, of maximum EUR 20 000 per screen.
  More information on the Call

• "Digital Revolution - the Active Audience", June 2012 – Report commissioned by Cine-Regio
  The report "Digital Revolution - the Active Audience" looks at the implications for film of changing consumer demand patterns, fuelled by a new wave of digital development. It assesses the challenges to existing models but focuses on the potential for new demand-driven strategies for business and public policy, based on three core themes: reach, experience and engagement.
  The report

 

24 May 2012

• Europeana Plenary 2012 - 13-15 June, Leuven, Belgium
  The Europeana Plenary 2012 is entitled "Connecting Society through Culture...the power of partnerships, open data and cutting edge technology". It takes place in Leuven, from 13 to 15 June.
  Around 250 professionals from cultural heritage institutions, the open data community, technology experts and software developers from Europe and beyond are expected to attend.
  Information and registration

• Prestoprime magazine – AV insider
  First number includes the following articles:
  - Archives on My Mind: AV Insider meets Tony Ageh, one of the top senior managers at the British Broadcasting Corporation. Tony co-created BBC’s iPlayer project, conceived the Guide at The Guardian and helped launch the first incarnation of Wired UK.
  - Looking to a Digital Future: How do you move 19 museums, 9 research centres and a zoo into the digital? Anne Van Camp leads the Smithsonian Institution Archives and tells all about her role in the slow, but sure, progression of a massive enterprise into a “Digital Smithsonian.”
  - Training for the Future of Audiovisual Preservation I: Julia Noordegraaf manages the Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image programme at the University of Amsterdam.
  - Training for the Future of Audiovisual Preservation II: Howard Besser manages the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation programme at NYU.
  - Keeping Audiovisual Content Alive…Presto Please!
  - Budgeting for a Digitisation Project: There be Dragons…: Good information about digitisation and preservation costs is crucial for archives. But most of the cost models developed so far have problems.
  - Better Film Scanning through Science: At the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Erwin Verbruggen and his colleagues started their film scanning in 2009. But Erwin’s ambitions start where others stop.
  The magazine

 

22 May 2012

• Council conclusions on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation
  On 10 May 2012, the Council adopted conclusions on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation. These Conclusions are Member State's follow-up to the Commission Recommendation of 27 October 2011 on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation.
  
  The document invites Member States to:
  
  "· consolidate their strategies and targets for the digitisation of cultural material;
  · consolidate the organisation of digitisation and the provision of funding for digitisation, including through promoting the use of public-private partnerships;
  · improve the framework conditions for the online accessibility and use of cultural material;
  · contribute to the further development of Europeana, including by encouraging cultural institutions to bring all relevant digitised cultural material into the site;
  · ensure long-term digital preservation;
  
  while taking into account the different levels of progress on, and approaches to, digitisation as well as the overall budgetary consolidation efforts being made in Member States;"
  
  Full text of the Conclusions
  The Commission Recommendation

 

8 May 2012

• "Making Copyright Work for Libraries and Consumers" - Workshop - 30 May 2012, European Parliament, Brussels
  This workshop is hosted by the Member of the European Parliament Marietje Schaake. It is organised by Copyright for Creativity (c4c), in cooperation with the European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC), Consumers International (CI), the European Bureau of Library Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA), the Electronic Information For Libraries (eIFL), the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and Informations Sans Frontières (ISF).
  The two sessions of the workshop are:
  "Index or Footnote? - How to ensure that libraries power the information society" (09:30 - 12:45)
  "I Want It Now! - Creators addressing consumers' needs in the digital age" (13:45 - 17:15).
  For more information or to confirm attendance, please contact rsvp@copyright4creativity.eu

• Online Distribution of audiovisual works in the EU – European Parliament draft Resolution
  The European Parliament is drafting a Resolution on online distribution of audiovisual works in the European Union. The rapporteur is the French Member of the European Parliament Jean-Marie Cavada.
  
  The vote of the draft report in the Legal Committee is planned on 19/06/2012 and in the EP Plenary on 10/09/2012.
  
  Follow the procedure

 

10 April 2012

• MEDIA 2007 – Support to Video on Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution – Call for proposals
  Deadline: 25 June 2012
  Digital technologies have made European audiovisual works more easily accessible outside their country of origin thanks to new ways of transporting audiovisual content. The competitiveness of the audiovisual content industry in Europe will strongly depend on the use of these new technologies in the distribution stage.
  The main objective of this scheme is to support the creation and exploitation of catalogues of European works to be distributed digitally across borders to a wider audience and/or to cinema exhibitors through advanced distribution services, integrating where necessary digital security systems in order to protect online content. It encourages the European audiovisual industry to adapt to new developments in digital technology.
  The budget for this call 6,725,000 EUR.
  More info on the Call

• Training: FRAME - Future for Restoration of Audiovisual Memory in Europe
  FRAME is a training course on new technologies applied to the restoration, digitization, preservation and use of audiovisual media archives. The third edition of the FRAME training course, designed for the European professionals1 of the media industry, will take place in 2012 at Ina headquarters in Bry-sur-Marne (near Paris).
  In the digital world, the use of audiovisual content benefits from a wide range of new outlets such as webplateforms, smartphones and tablets. FRAME address the issue of new technologies applied to the restoration, digitization, preservation, marketing and use of television and film archives. Examples of new use of archival content in various media platforms will be showcased.
  The working language of the course will be English. Each session is open to 12 participants. Deadline for application is 11 May 2012.
  The course will be divided in 2 parts. Participants can apply to attend one or both parts.
  Session I: Preservation and digitization of audiovisual media
  Monday June 18 - Friday June 22 2012.
  Session II: Organization, marketing and use of archival digital content
  Monday October 15 - Friday October 19 2012.
  This training is co-financed by MEDIA.
  Applications and full program

22 March 2012

• ICT Work Programme 2011-2012 – Call 9: Digital preservation and access to cultural resources
  EU-funded ICT research on access to cultural heritage and digital preservation deals with leading-edge information and communication technologies for expanding the availability of Europe's rich cultural and scientific resources and for enhancing user experiences with them. This research also investigates how digital content created today will survive as the cultural and scientific knowledge of the future.
  Call 9 of the ICT Work Programme 2011-2012 is open until 17 April 2012. Two objectives of this call are of interest for European Film Heritage Institutions: Digital preservation and access to cultural resources.
  
  Target Outcomes of the Objective 4.3 - Digital Preservation:
  - More reliable and secure preservation technologies and methods
  - Technologies and systems for intelligent management of preservation
  - Interdisciplinary research networks
  - Promotion schemes for the uptake of digital preservation research outcomes
  BUDGET – 30 mio €
  
  Target outcomes of Objective 8.2 - Access to cultural resources:
  - Technologies for creating personalised and engaging digital cultural experiences
  - Open and extendable platforms for building services that support use of cultural resources for research and education
  - Improved and affordable technologies for digitisation of special forms of cultural resources, including tools for virtual - reconstructions
  - Awareness raising of research results
  BUDGET – 40 mio €
  More information on the Work Programme

• State aid: Commission approves France’s plan to digitise its film heritage
  The European Commission has ruled that a French scheme to support the digitisation of historic cinematographic works is compatible with the EU rules on state aid, inter alia because it helps promote culture while limiting the distortions of competition. The scheme is aimed at making European film heritage available to the widest possible audience thanks to new technology. The French scheme will support the restoration and preservation of works of particular interest in terms of heritage. Short and feature films produced up to 1999 will be eligible, along with historic silent films. A €400 million budget over six years will be set aside for the measure.
  Press release

• European Investment Fund - Cultural and Cultural and Creative Sector Guarantee Facility Project
  This funding facility is aimed to support the Cultural and Creative Sector, understood as "all sectors whose activities are based on cultural values and/or artistic and creative expressions, whether these activities are market or non-market oriented and whatever the type of structure that carries them out. These activities include the creation, the production, the dissemination and the preservation of goods and services which embody cultural, artistic or creative expressions, as well as related functions such as education, management or regulation”. The sector includes in particular architecture and design, arts and crafts,  audiovisual and multimedia, books and press, cultural heritage and archives, libraries, music,  performing arts, video games and visual arts.
  Presentation

• MEDIA Mundus: Commission's €5 million boost for international film projects
  Some 35 film-related projects are to receive a total of €5 million in funding from the MEDIA Mundus programme – the European Union's international cooperation and exchange programme for the audiovisual industry (see list below). The projects will help to strengthen the distribution of European films in non-European markets and vice-versa.
  Press release

14 march 2012

• Future Cinema Communication – Public Consultation Open until 14.06.2012
  The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the state aid criteria it proposes to use to assess Member States' film support schemes in future. The criteria are set out in a draft Communication, on which the Commission invites comments by 14 June 2012. The final Communication is due to be adopted by the Commission in the second half of 2012.
  EU Member States provide an estimated €3 billion per year in film support: €2 billion in grants and soft loans and €1 billion in tax incentives. Around 80% of this is for film production. France, the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain offer the majority of this financial support.
  Point 39 of the consultation document refers to film heritage:
  "39. Films should be collected, preserved and accessible for future generations for cultural and educational purposes. Therefore, as a condition of the aid, it is recommended that Member States require and support producers to deposit a copy of the aided film suitable for long-term preservation in the film heritage institution designated by the funding body."
  Consultation documents
  
  
  ”What can art and culture do in a time of crisis?” – Team Culture 2012
  "What can art and culture do in a time of crisis?” That is the assignment given by the Danish Minister for Culture, Mr Uffe Elbæk, to 12 European cultural notabilities when they met in Copenhagen on 27-28 February.
  The members of the cultural task force "Team Culture 2012" will explore Europe to find examples of art and culture that are making a difference and impacting society at large. Team Culture 2012 will end in June at a big meeting in Brussels, where the findings will be presented to an invited audience of decision makers, members of the European Parliament and European ministers for culture.
  The film sector is represented in this task force by Vibeke Windeløv from Denmark. He is an Independent Film Producer, owner of Windelov Productions.
  Press release

13 March 2012

• EFG1914 – A European project digitising films about World Word I
  With the advent of EFG1914, a major European co-operation project enters a new phase: Within the last three years (2008-2011), The European Film Gateway (EFG) became a frequently used web portal for finding films and film-related material from the film archives and cinémathèques of Europe, making available more than 500.000 objects to date.
  Now, the follow-up project EFG1914 was kicked off. It will digitize up to 650 hours of film from and about World War I, and make the digitized film collections available on the Internet through the EFG Portal www.europeanfilmgateway.eu and the European digital library Europeana (www.europeana.eu).
  During the 1910s, a considerable amount of film material was produced, covering the events of the Great War. Today, the largest part of this historical material is considered lost: About four fifths of the contemporary film production are estimated to not have survived until today. Many of the preserved films still rest only on analogue film. This enables the archives to effectively preserve the material. However, access to these films still remains a cumbersome and costly task. With the help of EFG1914, this task is now made easy and efficient by digitizing the film material. The films are expected to become available over the next two years, just in time for the 2014 centenary. At the same time, the project serves as a means of facilitating good practices of film digitization and digital preservation by pooling the individual archives’ considerable experience in this field.
  Press release
  Project website 

• EUscreen – audiovisual sources online
  This first issue of the Journal of European Television History and Culture follows up on the central theme of the first international EUscreen conference held in Rome in October 2010.
  The articles reunited in this first issue explicitly address the challenges of contextualising television material online and touch upon such a broad variety of questions as: the ontological status of digitised sources, analysing and interpreting them, how online access to audiovisual sources affects historical storytelling and whether the “archival turn” shapes a new historical consciousness for our European cultural heritage
  EUscreen

8 March 2012

• DAEFH study – edited executive summary
  An edited colour version of the executive summary of the study on a Digital Agenda for European Film Heritage is available online.
  We invite you to print it in colour and read it!
  Executive summary

• Irish Film Archive – Promotional video
  The Irish Film Archive has launched its Preservation fund with a short video. Screened throughout cinemas in Ireland and available to watch on the internet, it is hoped that the film will raise awareness of the importance and variety of the material held in the archive collections. The campaign aims to fundraise money to allow the archive to build a new Preservation and Research centre.
  Watch the video

• Revision of the Public Sector Information Directive – Cultural Institutions
  In 2003, the EU adopted the Directive on the re-use of public sector information (PSI Directive). This Directive regulated how public sector bodies should make their information available for re-use in order to remove barriers such as discriminatory practices, monopoly markets and a lack of transparency.
  In the framework of its "Open data strategy", the European Commission has proposed a revision of the Public Sector Information Directive. This proposal is currently being discussed by the European Parliament and the Council.
  In the 2003 Directive, Cultural Institutions are excluded from the scope of the Directive. Now, the draft directive introduces an obligation for libraries, museums and archives to make accessible and available for re-use documents in the public domain. For the purpose of this Directive, document means "any content whatever its medium (written on paper or stored in electronic form or as a sound, visual or audiovisual recording)".
  The Commission proposal

• Europeana – workshop on technological solutions - 8 March 2012, Luxembourg
  The ASSETS project (Advanced Service Search and Enhancing Technological Solutions for the European Digital Library) aims to improve the accessibility of Europeana's digital and multimedia content which today counts over 25 million referenced documents and over 1 500 contributing organisations.
  ASSETS, which was launched in March 2010 for two years of research and innovation funded by the European Commission, is soon coming to an end. ASSETS is notably addressed to Museums/Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Research & Education Organizations, Cultural Portals, Publishers and Private companies active in digital libraries.
  The final results of one of the most significant development projects associated with Europeana will be presented during the 'Innovation4Culture - ASSETS 2012' workshop on 8 March 2012 in Luxembourg.
  More information

 

13 February 2012

• Film funding in Europe – Report from the European Audiovisual Observatory
  A new report on Film Funding in Europe produced by the European Audiovisual Observatory highlights the following facts:
  - In 2009 an estimated 2.1 billion Euros flowed to the film and television sector from public funding bodies based in Europe.
  - Total spend by these funds grew almost without interruption from 1998 onwards but stagnated in 2009 as fund income came under pressure.
  - Growth in spend was paralleled by rapid expansion in the number of funds – from 208 in 2004 to 280 in 2009, mainly through the creation of regional funds.
  - Public authorities and television are the main sources of finance for funding bodies, though funds seek actively to broaden their income base.
  - Over two-thirds of all spending in 2009 went to production (all phases) with promotion an area of increasing importance.
  Press release

09 February 2012

• Film Heritage reports available online
  Member States' third report on the application of the 2005 EP and Council Recommendation on Film Heritage are available on-line, both in the original language and in English. In addition to Member States, Croatia has also submitted a report.
  Member States' third report

• Orphan works
  The European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) discussed the amendments to the Commission proposal on a Directive on orphan works on 25 January 2012. The Committee will vote on the amendments on 1 March and the Plenary in the week of 21 May.

• Connecting Europe Facility
  On 19 October 2011, the European Commission tabled a plan which will fund €50 billion worth of investment to improve Europe's transport, energy and digital networks. As regards digital services, the money would be also used to support Europeana. The proposals are currently being discussed by the Council and the European Parliament.
  In relation to Europeana, the application guidelines propose the following:
  "The development of the core service platform will build on the current Europeana portal. The platform – which requires the development, operations and administration of distributed computing, data storage facilities and software – will provide a single access point to European cultural heritage content at item level, a set of interface specifications to interact with the infrastructure (search for data, download data), support for the metadata adaptation and ingestion of new content, as well as information on conditions for reuse of the content accessible through the infrastructure.
  It will also provide the means for establishing an interaction with content providers, users (citizens accessing the portal) and re-users (creative industries), for the promotion of the platform, coordination of related networks and information exchange."
  Press release
  Application guidelines (page 24)
  Detailed presentations

• EU funding for "Digital content, open data and creativity" - Workshop - 29 February 2012, Luxembourg
  The 6th Call for Proposals for the CIP ICT PSP will be open from 1 February until 15 May 2012. A general information day on the 6th Call for Proposals will be held on Friday 3 February 2012 in Brussels.
  The Theme 2 "Digital content, open data and creativity" of the CIP ICT PSP programme will support 3 objectives in 2012:
  – Objective 2.1: Europeana and creativity;
  – Objective 2.2: Open Data and open access to content;
  – Objective 2.3: eLearning.
  The total funding available for this Theme is 41 M€,
  A specific workshop on Theme 2: "Digital content open data and creativity" takes place on 29 February 2012 in Luxembourg.
  Registration
   2012 Work Programme

• European Expert Network on culture
  The EENC has been set up at the initiative of the European Commission Directorate General for Education and Culture. The project comprises a group of high-level experts in the field of cultural policy who provide reports and studies on a range of topics according to requests of the European Commission. The coordination of the network has been entrusted to a consortium led by Interarts and Culture Action Europe following an open call of tender launched in 2010:
  EENC
  Culture Action Europe

• Patrimoine audiovisuel de Balkans
  L’INA lance, avec le soutien de l’Instrument Européen de Préadhésion de la Commission européenne, le projet Balkan’s Memory qui vise à sensibiliser les décideurs de la région des Balkans à la nécessité d’investir dans la sauvegarde, la numérisation, la valorisation et la gestion de leur patrimoine culturel audiovisuel.
  De nombreuses institutions sont associées au projet : la radiotélévision serbe, la cinémathèque yougoslave de Belgrade, le centre national des archives du film de Zagreb, le centre national des archives du film du Monténégro, la radiotélévision du Monténégro, la radiotélévision de Macédoine, le centre des archives du film de la Macédoine, les archives nationales du film de Bosnie et Herzégovine, la FIAT/IFTA et le CNC (Archives Françaises du film).
  Ce projet se déroulera sur 30 mois à partir de janvier 2012.
  Une première conférence inaugurale, en mai 2012 à Zagreb, rassemblera les acteurs régionaux travaillant à la sauvegarde du patrimoine audiovisuel et cinématographique.
  INA 
  Communiqué de presse

31 January 2012

• Entertaining Europe in the Electronic Age – Speech by Neelie Kroes
  Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda Creativity for the Creative Sector, delivered a speech on "Entertaining Europe in the Electronic Age " at the  European Parliament Intellectual Property Forum, that took place on 24 January 2012.
  The speech
  Programme of the EP Intellectual Property Forum

• European Digital Cinema Report – European Audiovisual Observatory
  A new report from the European Audiovisual Observatory and MEDIA Salles shows that around 18 500 digital screens had been installed in Europe by the end of 2011. This means that over 52% of European screens are now capable of digital projection, up from just 4% three years ago.
  Press release

• Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of the Audiovisual Heritage
  The 2001 European Convention for the Protection of the Audiovisual Heritage is part of the Council of Europe's work on cultural co-operation. Central to the Convention and the Protocol is the principle of compulsory legal deposit of all moving-image material produced or coproduced and made available to the public in each signatory state. Legal deposit involves a requirement not just to deposit a reference copy with an officially designated archive but also to look after the material and do the necessary conservation work. In addition the material has to be available for consultation for academic or research purposes, subject to the international or national rules on copyright. So far, 7 countries have ratified the Convention, of which 4 are Member States of the EU (France, Hungary, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic).
  The Convention
  Implementation reports of France, Hungary, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic

• Music creators conference - 2-4 February 2012, Brussels
  The conference is organised by the European Composer & Songwriter Alliance (ECSA). ECSA is formed by the three main genre specific networks in Europe:
  - ECF – European Composers Forum
  - FFACE – Federation of Film and Audiovisual Composers in Europe
  - APCOE – Alliance of Popular Music Composers Organizations in Europe
  The aim of the organizers is to make a leap forward in the ongoing search for a fair balance between the needs of the creator and those of the user. Speakers include composers, Members of the European Parliament and officials from the European Commission.
  Programme and registration

26 January 2012

• Film Heritage reports available online
  Member States' third report on the application of the 2005 EP and Council Recommendation on Film Heritage are available on-line, both in the original language and in English. In addition to Member States, Croatia has also submitted a report.
  The reports

• Orphan works
  The European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) discussed the amendments to the Commisison proposal on a Directive on orphan works on 25 January 2012. The Committee will vote on the amendments on 1 March and the Plenary in the week of 21 May.

• Connecting Europe Facility
  On 19 October 2011, the European Commission tabled a plan which will fund €50 billion worth of investment to improve Europe's transport, energy and digital networks. As regards digital services, the money would be also used to support Europeana. The proposals are currently being discussed by the Council and the European Parliament.
  In relation to Europeana, the application guidelines propose the following:
  "The development of the core service platform will build on the current Europeana portal. The platform – which requires the development, operations and administration of distributed computing, data storage facilities and software – will provide a single access point to European cultural heritage content at item level, a set of interface specifications to interact with the infrastructure (search for data, download data), support for the metadata adaptation and ingestion of new content, as well as information on conditions for reuse of the content accessible through the infrastructure.
  It will also provide the means for establishing an interaction with content providers, users (citizens accessing the portal) and re-users (creative industries), for the promotion of the platform, coordination of related networks and information exchange."
  Press release
  Application guidelines (see p.24)
  Detailed presentations

• EU funding for "Digital content, open data and creativity" - Workshop - 29 February 2012, Luxembourg
  The 6th Call for Proposals for the CIP ICT PSP will be open from 1 February until 15 May 2012. A general information day on the 6th Call for Proposals will be held on Friday 3 February 2012 in Brussels.
  The Theme 2 "Digital content, open data and creativity" of the CIP ICT PSP programme will support 3 objectives in 2012:
  – Objective 2.1: Europeana and creativity;
  – Objective 2.2: Open Data and open access to content;
  – Objective 2.3: eLearning.
  The total funding available for this Theme is 41 M€,
  A specific workshop on Theme 2: "Digital content open data and creativity" takes place on 29 February 2012 in Luxembourg.
  Registration
  2012 WP

• European Expert Network on culture
  
  The EENC has been set up at the initiative of the European Commission Directorate General for Education and Culture. The project comprises a group of high-level experts in the field of cultural policy who provide reports and studies on a range of topics according to requests of the European Commission. The coordination of the network has been entrusted to a consortium led by Interarts and Culture Action Europe following an open call of tender launched in 2010:
  EENC
  Culture Action Europe

• Patrimoine audiovisuel de Balkans
  L’INA lance, avec le soutien de l’Instrument Européen de Préadhésion de la Commission européenne, le projet Balkan’s Memory qui vise à sensibiliser les décideurs de la région des Balkans à la nécessité d’investir dans la sauvegarde, la numérisation, la valorisation et la gestion de leur patrimoine culturel audiovisuel.
  De nombreuses institutions sont associées au projet : la radiotélévision serbe, la cinémathèque yougoslave de Belgrade, le centre national des archives du film de Zagreb, le centre national des archives du film du Monténégro, la radiotélévision du Monténégro, la radiotélévision de Macédoine, le centre des archives du film de la Macédoine, les archives nationales du film de Bosnie et Herzégovine, la FIAT/IFTA et le CNC (Archives Françaises du film).
  Ce projet se déroulera sur 30 mois à partir de janvier 2012.
  Une première conférence inaugurale, en mai 2012 à Zagreb, rassemblera les acteurs régionaux travaillant à la sauvegarde du patrimoine audiovisuel et cinématographique.
  INA
  Communiqué de presse

 

16 January 2012

• Danish Presidency of the EU
  Over the next six months, the Danish Film Institute and local partners present numerous film events on the occasion of the Danish EU Presidency. While Denmark will be leading political negotiations in the EU Council of Ministers over the next six months, the cultural agenda of the Presidency spells Danish cinema and film culture.
  The Danish Film Institute has launched four initiatives which aim to promote Denmark as a film nation during the Presidency, giving European audiences and film professionals a chance to get closer to the films, the filmmakers and the policies.
  Among the initiatives is a Blu-ray box of twenty films – from household names like von Trier, Bier, Refn and Leth to internationally lesser known directors – which is sent out to Danish embassies and cultural institutes in order for them to arrange screening events with local partners.
  More information

•  European Standards on Interoperability of film databases – website
  The followng website is regularly updated in order to provide informacion and advice on the application of the European standards EN 15744 and EN 15907 on the interoperability of film databases:
  filmstandards.org

•  26th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival  - 23-30 June 23rd 2012, Bologna
  The next edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato is taking place from 23 to 30 June in Bologna.
  More information

• Film Restoration Summer School / FIAF Summer School 2012
  The mission of the Film Restoration Summer School / FIAF Summer School 2012 is to promote the dissemination of knowledge in the restoration field for current and future generations in world archives.
  Sessions:
  On-line Distance Learning: 9 May – 20 June
  Theory Classes: 23 – 30 June
  On site training at the laboratory L’Immagine Ritrovata: 2 – 13 July

• Patrimoine cinématographique, éducation et construction de la cinéphilie aujourd’hui – journée d'étude - 17 janvier 2012, Paris.
  Organisée par l’Institut National du Patrimoine en partenariat avec Slate.fr, la coordination de cette rencontre a été confiée à Marc Vernet, professeur d’études cinématographiques à l’université Paris 7 et
  Jean-Michel Frodon, journaliste et critique à Slate.fr, professeur à Sciences Po.
  Cette jourée particulièrement destinée aux enseignants bénéficie du soutien de l'Académie de Paris.
  Voir le programme

• Colloque "Révolution numérique : et si le cinéma perdait la mémoire ?" – Vidéos disponibles
  La Cinémathèque vient de publier sur son site internet les vidéos du colloque du 13 et 14 octobre 2011 "Révolution numérique : et si le cinéma perdait la mémoire ?".
  Vous pouvez consulter cet ensemble via les liens ci-dessous :
  13 octobre
  14 octobre

20 December 2011

• Open Data Strategy for Europe includes museums and archives
  The Commission has launched an Open Data Strategy for Europe, which is expected to deliver a €40 billion boost to the EU's economy each year. Europe’s public administrations are sitting on a goldmine of unrealised economic potential: the large volumes of information collected by numerous public authorities and services. Member States such as the United Kingdom and France are already demonstrating this value.
  
  The strategy to lift performance EU-wide is three-fold: firstly the Commission will lead by example, opening its vaults of information to the public for free through a new data portal. Secondly, a level playing field for open data across the EU will be established. Finally, these new measures are backed by the €100 million which will be granted in 2011-2013 to fund research into improved data-handling technologies.
  
  These actions position the EU as the global leader in the re-use of public sector information. They will boost the thriving industry that turns raw data into the material that hundreds of millions of ICT users depend on, for example smart phone apps, such as maps, real-time traffic and weather information, price comparison tools and more. Other leading beneficiaries will include journalists and academics.
  
  The Commission proposes to update the 2003 Directive on the re-use of public sector information by:
  - Making it a general rule that all documents made accessible by public sector bodies can be re-used for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, unless protected by third party copyright;
  - Establishing the principle that public bodies should not be allowed to charge more than costs triggered by the individual request for data (marginal costs); in practice this means most data will be offered for free or virtually for free, unless duly justified.
  - Making it compulsory to provide data in commonly-used, machine-readable formats, to ensure data can be effectively re-used.
  - Introducing regulatory oversight to enforce these principles;
  - Massively expanding the reach of the Directive to include libraries, museums and archives for the first time; the existing 2003 rules will apply to data from such institutions.
  
  The draft Directive will now be discussed by the Union legislator composed of the European Parliament and the Council.
  
  Press release
  Commission's proposal (in all EU official languages):

2 December 2011

• Opening up Europe's cultural treasures to the online world – Speech by Neelie Kroes
  Education, Youth and Culture Council Brussels, 29 November 2011
  "Without digitisation, our cultural heritage — the artefacts in Europe's libraries, museums, galleries and archives — is like gold lying in a vault somewhere. We need to give ordinary people the key to access it. They can come up with so many creative re-uses: in apps, education, tourism, or as a source for further art."
  Read the speech

• Horizon 2020 – EU Research Programme for 2014-2020
  On 30 November 2011 the European Commission presented a package of measures to boost research, innovation and competitiveness in Europe. Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has announced Horizon 2020, an €80 billion1 programme for investment in research and innovation. Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou has put forward a Strategic Innovation Agenda for the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), which will receive €2.8 billion of funding under Horizon 2020. In parallel, Vice-President Antonio Tajani has announced a complementary new programme to boost competitiveness and innovation in SMEs, with an additional budget of €2.5 billion. The funding programmes run from 2014 to 2020.
  
  For the first time, Horizon 2020 brings together all EU research and innovation funding under a single programme. It focuses more than ever on turning scientific breakthroughs into innovative products and services that provide business opportunities and change people’s lives for the better. At the same time it drastically cuts red tape, with simplification of rules and procedures to attract more top researchers and a broader range of innovative businesses.
  
  Horizon 2020 will focus funds on three key objectives. It will support the EU’s position as a world leader in science with a dedicated budget of €24.6 billion, including an increase in funding of 77% for the very successful European Research Council (ERC). It will help secure industrial leadership in innovation with a budget of €17.9 billion. This includes a major investment of €13.7 billion in key technologies, as well as greater access to capital and support for SMEs. Finally, €31.7 billion will go towards addressing major concerns shared by all Europeans, across six key themes: Health, demographic change and well-being; Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research and the bio-economy; Secure, clean and efficient energy; Smart, green and integrated transport; Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials; and Inclusive, innovative and secure societies.
  Press release

• Is copyrigth working?  
  Read Commissioner Kroes' blog

29 November 2011

• "Collège au cinéma" en France - 28.11.2011, Paris
  Les Rencontres nationales "Collège au cinéma" se sont déroulés à La Cinémathèque française, en présence d'Eric Garandeau, président du CNC.
  Cette journée qui a réuni l'ensemble des coordinateurs du dispositif a proposé deux tables rondes : "Partenariats et bonnes pratiques" et "Transmettre le cinéma à l'ère numérique".
  A cette occasion, le CNC a publié un bilan des actions menées de 2009 à 2010 dans le cadre de ce dispositif d'éducation à l'image.
  Plus d'information sur les rencontres

• Cent films de la Cinémathèque de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
  La Cinémathèque de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles a lancé l'ouvrage MEMOIRES DU MONDE, une anthologie du cinéma documentaire reprenant 100 films parmi les plus remarquables du 20ème siècle. Elle est accompagnée d'une mise en perspective historique de l'évolution du genre depuis les années 30 jusqu'à nos jours.
  Marianne Thys : MÉMOIRES DU MONDE
   

22 November 2011

• Who feeds the artist? – Speech by Neelie Kroes Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda - 19 November 2011, Avignon, France
  "In all sorts of sectors, ICT can help artists connect with their audience, directly and cheaply. And it can help audiences find and enjoy material that suits their specific needs, interests and tastes."
  Read the full speech

• Digital Cinema – European Parliament Resolution
  On 16 November 2011, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on "Digital cinema in the digital era", on the basis of a report prepared by Mr. Piotr Borys. The resolution was passed with 506 votes in favour, 27 against and 46 abstentions.
  The resolution stresses the importance of digital archiving in conserving and showing this national and European heritage.
  Read the press release

• European Commission Recommendation on digitisation
  On 27 October 2011 the European Commission adopted a Recommendation asking EU Member States to step up their efforts, pool their resources and involve the private sector in digitising cultural material.
  Read the presentation on the this Recommendation that the Commission's Services made to the Council Audiovisual Working Group on 11 November 2011

• Europeana Licensing Framework – Press conference - 28.11.2011 Luxembourg
  The European Licensing Framework provides the new legal framework of sharing metadata that Europeana will be using from 1st January 2012 onwards. This has been developed in the context of the project "Europeana Connect".
  The Europeana Licensing Framework will be presented at a press conference at the National Library of Luxembourg on 28 November:
  Read the presentation of Europeana Connect at the last Cinema Expert Group / Subgroup Film Heritage

• 2011 LUX film Prize
  The winner of the 2011 LUX film Prize is "Les neiges du Kilimandjaro" by French director Robert Guédiguian. Parliament's President Jerzy Buzek presented the prize to the film's producer, Marc Bordure, at a formal ceremony in its Strasbourg plenary chamber on 16 November 2011. The film questions the injustices of today's societies and their political and trade union conflicts, and makes a plea for tolerance.
  The other two finalists were "Attenberg" (Greece) by Athina Rachel Tsangari and "Play", (Sweden-France-Denmark).
  Presenting the prize, Parliament's President Buzek said "The European Parliament's LUX film prize serves as a reminder that what unites us is stronger than what divides us. It reminds us that the values, freedoms and indeed self-criticisms we share, are worth fighting for. It also reminds us that European movies have nothing to envy non-European productions."
  The European Parliament's LUX prize is awarded each year to films illustrating values that constitute European identity, the diversity of cultures in Europe or debate on the European Union integration process.
  The €90,000 prize money will pay to sub-title the winning film in the EU's 23 official languages, adapting the original for people with visual or hearing handicaps, and the cinema launch or production, in each Member State, of a 35mm or digital copy.
  Press release

18 November 2011

• EU research priorities in the Networked Media sector – Public consultation + Workshop - 27 January 2012
  In the context of the preparation of the FP7 ICT Work Programme 2013, the European Commission has launch a web-based public consultation, where all interested stakeholders have an opportunity to influence the definition of the future research priorities in the Networked Media sector.
  Submit your contribution
  A post-consultation Workshop will be held in Brussels on Friday 27 January 2012 in order to discuss and validate the views expressed by different actors through the above-mentioned web-based consultation. Attendance is free, but registration is required.

• Interoperability of film databases – implementation workshop - 14-16 December 2011, Valencia, Spain.
  A workshop to help organizations implementing the European standards on interoperability of film databases (EN 15744 and EN 15907) is taking place in Valencia on 14-16 December 2011. The workshop will be in English and Spanish.
  Agenda
  More information

• Éléphant : mémoire du cinéma québécois
  Le project Éléphant a pour but d’assurer l’accessibilité, la pérennité et le rayonnement du patrimoine cinématographique québécois. Dans le cadre de ce projet, quelque 800 longs métrages québécois seront petit à petit transférés sur support numérique (conventionnel et HD). Une fois numérisés, ces longs métrages québécois seront progressivement déposés sur la plateforme de télévision numérique illico sur demande de Vidéotron. Les films seront donc accessibles en tout temps. De plus, à l'exception d'un montant minimal destiné à couvrir une partie des frais d’opération de la plateforme, la totalité des revenus provenant de la diffusion de ces films sera versée aux créateurs et artisans du cinéma québécois, de telle sorte que Quebecor ne réalisera aucun profit.
  Le site Web du projet Éléphant permet aussi de consulter synopsis, photos de tournage, entrevues, affiches de films ou documents de référence.
  Visitez le site

10 November 2011

• European Commission Recommendation on digitisation
  On 27 October 2011 the European Commission adopted a Recommendation asking EU Member States to step up their efforts, pool their resources and involve the private sector in digitising cultural material. This is essential to make European cultural heritage more widely available and to boost growth in Europe's creative industries. The digitised material should be made available through Europeana, Europe's digital library, archive and museum (see www.europeana.eu).
  The Recommendation challenges Member States to develop solid plans and build partnerships to place 30 million objects in Europeana by 2015 compared to the 19 million available today; to get more in-copyright and out-of-commerce material online; and to adapt national legislation and strategies to ensure the long-term preservation of digital materials.
  Neelie Kroes, Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda said: "Europe has probably the world's greatest cultural heritage. It cannot afford to miss the opportunities offered by digitisation and hence face cultural decline. Digitisation brings culture into people's homes and is a valuable resource for education, tourism games, animation and the whole creative industry. Investing in digitisation will create new companies and generate new jobs."
  The Recommendation builds on the conclusions of the Comité des Sages (high level reflection group) on bringing Europe's cultural heritage online, established in 2010
  Read the Press release

• State aid to cinema – replies to the public consultation
  The replies to the public consultation that the Commission had launched about the assessment of State aid for films and other audiovisual works are available
  Read the contributions  

• Audiovisual Preservation at the beginning of the digital era - Workshop - San Sebastián, 24-25 November 2011
  This workshop is co-organised by Filmoteca Española and Euskadiko Filmategia. It will be devoted to the discuss the preservation of film and audiovisual material in the digital era. The language is Spanish.
  Read the programme:
  For more information, please contact  the Filmoteca Española.

• Digital Agenda for European Film Heritage – Study
  The preliminary findings of the study on a Digital Agenda for European Film Heritage were presented to the Audiovisual Working Group of the Council in October.
  Read the presentations:

• Digital film restoration within archives – Symposium
  This symposium, organised in cooperation with Filmarchiv Austria and the Austrian Film Museum, took place from 21 to 23 September 2011 in Krems, Austria. Participation included: George Eastman House, EYE Film Institute Netherlands, Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen, Imperial War Museum London, Fuji Film Corporation, Danish Film Institute, Filmarchiv Austria, Austrian Film Museum, and others.
  Read the presentations

• Collecte et la conservation des films du dépôt légal sur support numérique au CNC - étude
  Le CNC a lancé une étude portant sur les différentes solutions à mettre en œuvre afin de collecter et de conserver les films sur support numérique lorsqu'ils sont déposés au CNC au titre du dépôt légal. Voir l'étude

 

22 September 2011

• Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Key Principles on the Digitisation and Making Available of Out-of-Commerce Works - 20 September 2011
  Libraries, publishers, authors, and their collecting societies have agreed to a set of Key Principles that will give European libraries and similar cultural institutions the possibility to digitise and make available on line out-of-commerce books and learned journals which are part of their collections. The Key Principles contained in this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will encourage and underpin voluntary licensing agreements while fully respecting copyright and recognising that right holders should always have the first option to digitise and make available an out-of-commerce work. The MoU is an essential part of the efforts of stakeholders and of the Commission to address the needs of mass digitisation by European cultural institutions.
  Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
  Press release

• Digital Film Restoration within Archives – Symposium - 21-23 September 2011, Krems, Austria
  The symposium covers a wide range of theoretical subjects from restoration ethics to documentation, as well as on practical challenges of the new digital technologies.
  Participating archives & institutions include George Eastman House, EYE Film Institute Netherlands, Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen, Imperial War Museum London, Fuji Film Corporation, reto.ch Ltd, Danish Film Institute, Arri Group, JOANNEUM RESEARCH, hs art, Filmarchiv Austria and the Austrian Film Museum.
  The programme  

• Digital cinema: what does the future hold for cinematheques?” - 13-14 October 2011, Paris
  This international symposium is co-organised by the Cinémathèque Française and the French CNC.
  More information on the Symposium 

16 September 2011

• Informal Meeting of Ministers for Culture and Audiovisual Affairs - 9 September 2011
  The EU Ministries for Culture and Audiovisual Affairs met in Warsaw on 9 September.
  ’Making audiovisual resources accessible undoubtedly poses a huge challenge, but also an opportunity for a new Renaissance,’ said Bogusław Zdrojewski, Minister of Culture and National Heritage, in his opening address. The minister stressed that digitalisation and bringing culture online can generate unprecedented benefits in the spheres of culture, economy, and science. He also said that ’Digitalisation is extremely important to us also as a method of combating exclusion in access to culture".
  Read the Press release

• Film Heritage - Third Implementation Report
  The European Commission informed the Council Audiovisual Working Group about the preparation of the Third Implementation Report on the 2005 Film Heritage Recommendation at its meeting of 13 September.
  The deadline for submission of Member States' report to the European Commission is 16 November 2011.
  Read the presentation
   

• Term of protection of the rights of performers and phonograms producers on music recordings
  On 12 September 2011, the Council adopted by qualified majority a directive extending the term of protection of the rights of performers and phonogram producers on music recordings within the EU from 50 to 70 years. The Belgian, Czech, Dutch, Luxembourg, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish delegations voted against and the Austrian and Estonian delegations abstained.
  Member states will have to incorporate the new provisions into their national legislations within two years.
  Adoption of the directive, which modifies directive 2006/116/EC, follows an agreement with the European Parliament at first reading.
  The Commission submitted the proposal in July 2008 and the European Parliament voted in April 2009.
  Read the press release and the text of the new directive

13 September 2011

• Archive & Restoration Symposium - 13-14 October 2011, London
  The symposium, "Large Scale Digitization of Cultural Heritage - Challenges and Technical Developments," will address the current issues that Archive facilities are facing, and the technical challenges that manufacturers are solving. The symposium includes presentations on challenges that Archive facilities faced in the past and are facing today, on solutions for digitization and on technical developments in Archive solutions as well as workshops and an exhibition on products around archiving.
  The venue is the BBC Television Centre in London.
  More information on the Symposium

• AXES – Research in audiovisual libraries
  AXES is a project funded under the EU 7th Research Framework Programme.
  The goal of AXES is to develop tools that provide various types of users with new engaging ways to interact with audiovisual libraries, helping them discover, browse, navigate, search and enrich archives. In particular, apart from a search-oriented scheme, it will explore how suggestions for audiovisual content exploration can be generated via a myriad of information trails crossing the archive. This will be approached from three perspectives (or axes): users, content, and technology.
  AXES technology aims to open up audiovisual digital libraries, increasing their cultural value and their exposure to the European public and academia at large.
  The project runs from January 2011 to December 2014. Its total cost is 8.35 million euro, of which 5.9 is EU contribution.
  More information on AXES, or via Cordis

9 August 2011

• Digital Agenda for European Film Heritage - On-line consultation
  Deadline: 29 September 2011
  The Commission is carrying out a Study on a digital agenda for European film heritage. It started on 10 January 2011 and will last for 11 months. An on-line consultation on the preliminary findings of the study is open until 29 September. Comments will be made public unless otherwise expressed. Please send your comments by e-mail to contact@dae-filmheritage.eu by 29 September 2011.
  The consultation paper

• Digital Agenda for European Film Heritage - Public workshop - 20 September 2011
  A workshop to validate the results of the study on a digital agenda for European film heritage takes place on 20 September 2011 at the Cinematek in Brussels. Invitations have been sent.
  If you would like to participate in the workshop and you have not received an invitation, please contact: contact@dae-filmheritage.eu
  Attendance is free, but limited to 120 participants.

• Digital single market - public consultation - Deadline: 18 November 2011
  The European Commission has published a Green Paper on "the online distribution of audiovisual works in the European Union: opportunities and challenges towards a digital single market".
  Chapter 5.1 is devoted to "Film heritage institutions", under the heading "Special users and beneficiaries":
  "Film heritage institutions have, in line with their public interest missions such as preservation, restoration and the provision of cultural and educational access to works in their collections, a strong interest in digitising their archives, making them available online and projecting them in digital format in their cinematheques. These institutions do not own the rights in the audiovisual works in their possession, but merely hold such works as a function of their role as cultural depositories. Such institutions have expressed the concern that clearing the rights for the works they hold is time-consuming and costly. They are concerned that the current EU framework does not provide them with sufficient legal certainty to carry out all the necessary processes for the fulfilment of their responsibilities, which might include media and format migration, and the transmission of works to one or more remote locations for preservation purposes, etc.
  The Green Paper on "Copyright in the knowledge economy", followed by the Commission Communication on "Copyright in the knowledge economy" opened discussion on the non-mandatory exceptions of Article 5(2)(c) (reproduction for preservation in libraries) and of Article 5(3)(n) (in situ consultation for researchers) of Directive 2001/29/EC on copyright in the information society. In order to provide them with legal certainty to carry out their tasks, European film archives have expressed the view that these exceptions should become mandatory and their application harmonised among Member States."
  
  Questions:
  21. Are legislative changes required in order to help film heritage institutions fulfil their public interest mission? Should exceptions of Article 5(2)(c) (reproduction for preservation in libraries) and of Article 5(3)(n) (in situ consultation for researchers) of Directive 2001/29/EC be adapted in order to provide legal security to the daily practice of European film heritage institutions?
  22. What other measures could be considered?"
  
  All interested parties are invited to comment on the ideas and questions raised in this Green Paper by email: markt-d1@ec.europa.eu  by 18 November 2011.
  The Green Paper

• European Congress of Culture - Polish Presidency - 8-11 September 2011, Wroclaw
  The Programme

6 July 2011

• Second EUscreen International Conference on Use and Creativity - 15-16 September 2011, Stockholm.
  EUscreen, the best practice network for Europe’s television heritage, organizes its Second International Conference on Use and Creativity. The conference takes place in Stockholm on 15 and 16 September 2011.
  The conference focusses on the online potential of European television heritage. It will explore creative approaches to enhance online accessibility of European television heritage. The goal is to expand methods to reach a wide range of users and to increase their engagement with online heritage materials.
  More information on the conference and on-line registration

• La gestion des fonds audiovisuels patrimoniaux confrontée à l’obsolescence technologique - Training - 26-27 September 2011, Paris
  A la faveur de l’absence de limitations en termes de matériaux, procédés et techniques, caractéristique de l’art contemporain (à partir des années 1960), des œuvres intégrant les technologies de l’image et du son sont ainsi entrées dans les musées. Fait nouveau, les problèmes ne résident plus seulement dans le vieillissement des matériaux (phénomène physique), qui constitue le cœur de cible de la conservation et de la restauration traditionnelles, mais dans l’obsolescence technologique des matériels, autrement dit la mise hors des circuits commerciaux de matériels remplacés par d’autres présentés comme plus performants (processus socio-économique).
  Public concerné : conservateurs, restaurateurs et professionnels du patrimoine cinématographique.
  Cette formation est organisé par l'Institut national du patrimoine français.
  Plus d'information sur la formation

• Questions de restauration du cinéma muet - Training - 17-18 Octobre 2011, Paris
  Martin Koerber, Chef du département Film de la Deutsche Kinemathek, a travaillé récemment à des restaurations aussi importantes que celles de Metropolis et Lulu. Il présentera l’état de l’art en la matière, les relations difficiles entre analogique/numérique et automatique/artisanal. Il analysera l’importance du son et de la musique dans le montage du cinéma muet à partir d’outils de présentation modernes et sur la base de nombreux extraits.
  Public concerné : restaurateurs et professionnels du patrimoine cinématographique.
  Cette formation est organisé par l'Institut national du patrimoine français.
  Plus d'information sur la formation

4 July 2011

• Digitisation of cinemas - MEDIA Programme
  The MEDIA programme has launched a call for proposals (EACEA/19/11) in order to support the digitisation of European cinemas, with a budget of 2M €. Deadline for proposals is 15 September 2011.
  More information on the Call for Proposals
   

• European Audiovisual Policy in the Digital era - Public hearing, 13 July 2011, European Parliament, Brussels
  On 13 July, from 15.00 to 17.30, the Culture Committee of the European Parliament organises a public hearing on the EU audiovisual policy in the digital era. Four experts from different organisations will speak on a wide range of issues related to the changes and challenges to the European audiovisual sector brought about by digital technologies, in particular as regards to access and distribution of content. In addition other issues will be addressed including digital cinema and the next generation of the MEDIA programme.
  More information on the Committee meeting
   

• Long-Term Audiovisual Digital Preservation - Training, 12-16 September 2011, Paris and Bry-sur-Marne, France.
  On 12-16 September 2011, PrestoCentre organises a course in 'Long-Term Audiovisual Digital Preservation: Strategy, Planning & Tools' in Paris and Bry-sur-Marne, France.
  With the audiovisual heritage of the 20th century at risk, managers and technical staff of the audiovisual industry need to be knowledgeable of, and understand how to use, the latest digital preservation technologies, in order to procure the safety of these documents of cultural heritage. Based on the experiences of some of the largest audiovisual and broadcast archives in Europe, this training will give a complete account of the tools and technologies available for the digital preservation of, and access to, audiovisual content, outlining strategies, workflows and architecture planning.
  Participants will include professionals from large audiovisual archives, service providers and technology providers. Registration is limited to 40 delegates.
  More information on the training and registration

22 June 2011

• European Filmgateway Symposium, 30 June - 1 July 2011, Bologna
  On 30 June and 1 July 2011, the Cineteca di Bologna hosts a EFG symposium called “Film archives and their users in the 'Second Century' – Risks and benefits of the transition to digital“. The international symposium, which is taking place during the Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival, focuses on the consequences of the transition from analogue to digital by looking at the self-perception of the archives, their relationship with their users as well as the implications of this paradigm shift for their daily work.
  More information on the conference

20 June 2011

• Assessing State aid for films and other audiovisual works - Public Consultation
  Deadline: 30 September 2011
  The European Commission has launched a public consultation as the first step of a review of the criteria used to apply EU state aid rules to Member States' financial support for making and distributing films. The current Cinema Communication is 10 years old. The Commission has published an issues paper identifying areas for reflection, such as competing to attract major film productions using state aid, and supporting activities other than production. The Commission invites interested parties to submit their comments by 30 September 2011.
  One of the questions concerns film heritage:
  "Since most European films receive public support, it could help to develop film culture/literacy and ensure that supported films are safeguarded for future generations if such funding is conditional on the supported films being deposited and available for cultural/educational use. Should a new Communication invite Member States to do so, especially if the public funding is over 50% of the film's budget?"
  More information on the public consultation
   

• Thirty years of science on the conservation of photographs - Conference, 20-23 June 2011, Logroño (Spain)
  According to the Conference Director:
  "The science of conservation and restoration of cultural heritage on photographic support is a professional field that has been developed in the last thirty years.
  
  Despite being so new, it has assumed the responsibility to contribute, from numerous institutions and working groups, to the permanence of such heritage contained in photographic records. And so it has strengthened the criteria for identifying materials; it has established diagnostic techniques, intervention protocols and a methodology for the custody, access and cultural exploitation, all of this within the practice of the code of ethics of this profession.
  
  Thirty years of research and scientific work have produced a huge amount of information, much of which is in full force while other has become obsolete or is out of the parameters of our code of ethics. However, its coexistence with the information contained in the Internet causes certain effects that need to be corrected.
  
  Numerous professionals believe that the time has arrived to review our field, summarize its history and point out the direction which marks the immediate future of our activity.
  
  We therefore propose the holding a conference whose proceedings allow to review how the different areas of our profession have developed and point out the operating lines of work for each of them."
  
  Agenda of the conference and registration

 

9 June 2011

• CISAC World Copyright Summit - Speech by Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission
  7 June 2011, Brussels
  Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda Copyright for the Single Market, opened the CISAC World Copyright Summit in Brussels on 7 June 2011.
  Mrs. Kroes concluded: "So let us again make Europe the best place to create, and let us bring our crown jewel – the single market – to copyright. It is time for us to live up to our European potential. As I have said, I am pragmatic about the solution we need to find. And just as I share your values and passion for the creative arts, so I hope that you will share my pragmatism. If we do it right, the Digital Single Market can boost Europe's economy, boost the diversity of our creative output, and boost artist rewards too."
  Read he speech

• CISAC World Copyright Summit - Speech by Michel Barnier, Member of the European Commission
  Read the speech

• "Key/Frames – The Filmic Document in the Digital Age“ - Conference - 8-9 June 2011, Vienna
  On 8 – 9 June 2011, the Filmarchiv Austria is hosting a conference entitled “Key/Frames – The Filmic Document in the Digital Age“ in Vienna. On the occasion of the upcoming launch of the EFG portal, the conference is going to examine the possibilities, contexts and perspectives of digitisation. The first day will close with a cinema session called “Digiwave“, presenting short films from the collections of Filmarchiv Austria that will be made available via the European Film Gateway and Europeana. Although the majority of the presentations will be in German, the second day will feature an international panel with speakers from the National Library Norway, the EYE Film Institute Netherlands and Europeana.
  Read the programme

• Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival, 25 June - 3 July, Bologna
  Read the provisional programme 

7 June 2011

• The creative potential of digital archives - EU Presidency Conference - 18-20 July 2011, Warsaw
  The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland organizes during the Polish Presidency in the Council of the European Union an expert conference in the area of culture, audiovisual and copyright. It will be held in Warsaw on 18-20 July 2011. The leitmotif of the conference is “Competences in Culture”.
  The conference is organised in 3 parallel sessions: Culture, audiovisual and copyright.
  The Audiovisual section is devoted to "THE CREATIVE POTENTIAL OF DIGITAL ARCHIVES".
  The aim is to exchange best practices of digital archiving, new emerging business models, as well as building workflows for digital preservation of film and audiovisual archives. 3 consecutive panels are scheduled:
  I. Future of digital archives (creative potential, commercial potential and business models).
  Issues to be discussed: digitisation of the audiovisual and film content and the creative potential of digitized materials.
  II. Reconstruction of film and audiovisual materials. Archives and film education.
  This panel will be devoted to digital reconstruction of high quality European films that are particularly exposed to damage and the educational aspect of digitizing film.
  III. Digital distribution of film and audiovisual materials.
  Here, the possible channels of distribution of film and audiovisual archives (VoD, digital cinema, etc.) will be considered.
  More information on the Conference

25 May 2011

• European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases - 4th Workshop - 22-24 June 2011, Paris
  Workshop related to the EC/EFT funded project “Promoting the Use of European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases".
  Location: Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC) - Paris
  
  The aim of the workshop is to acquaint film archivists and other experts from audiovisual heritage institutions with recent developments concerning the storing and retrieval of filmographic data. The focus will be on two new metadata standards developed by CEN /TC 372, EN 15744:2009 and EN 15907:2010. The introductory part of the workshop will give an overview of metadata standards in the audiovisual sector, and of how these relate to other instruments such as reference models, cataloguing rules, vocabularies, authority files, and data exchange specifications.
  An in-depth session will be devoted to the design principles behind EN 15907, to usage scenarios for this standard, and to how it can help in overcoming common interoperability issues between collections of filmographic data. This will be illustrated by examples.
  A major part of the workshop will consist of hands-on exercises using Web-based software components designed to demonstrate ways of curating filmographic metadata and of how these can be adapted for different uses. Participants are invited to contribute examples from their practical work, preferably difficult ones, for which solutions will be sought using the tools at hand. The final session will be a discussion of strategies and options for film archives that consider adopting the CEN standards in one way or another. This discussion will also touch upon the likely roles of audiovisual heritage institutions in an emerging infrastructure of linked data.
  Contact: Dr. Nikolaus Kovacs

24 May 2011

• Orphan works - Commission Proposal for a Directive
  Today, as part of the Commission's IPR Strategy, the Commission has adopted a proposal to establish common rules on the digitisation (the conversion of analogue data, for example images, video, and text into digital form) and online display of so-called 'orphan works'.
  Orphan works are works like books, newspaper or magazine articles that are still protected by copyright but the copyright holders cannot be located to obtain copyright permissions. They include cinematographic or audiovisual works. Orphan works are found in the collections held by European libraries.
  The digitisation and dissemination of orphan works pose a particular cultural and economic challenge – the absence of a known right holder means that users are unable to obtain the required authorisation, e.g. a book cannot be digitised. Orphan works represent a substantial part of the collections of Europe's cultural institutions (e.g., the British Library estimates that 40 percent of its copyrighted collections – 150 million in total - are orphan works.
  That is why common rules on how to deal with such works are needed in order to proceed with large-scale digitisation projects, such as the Commission's Europeana portal.
  The Commission's proposal, which takes the form of an EU Directive, rests on three pillars. First, the proposal contains rules on how to identify orphan works. It provides that the user has to conduct a diligent search to find the copyright holder. In this search, the user should rely on sources such as databases and registries. One such tool that exists in the book publishing sector is ARROW, the Accessible Registry of Rights Information and Orphan Works. It is hoped that other sectors will also develop similar central rights information databases. Doing so would greatly simplify and streamline the conduct of a reliable diligent search.
  Secondly, the proposal establishes that if the diligent search does not yield the identity or location of the copyright holder, the work shall be recognised as an orphan work. This status shall then, by virtue of mutual recognition, be valid across the European Union. This implies that once a work is recognised as an orphan work, it shall be recognised as such across the European Union. The proposal also foresees that there will be a generally accessible record of all recognised orphan works.
  Thirdly, the proposal establishes the uses that can be made of the orphan works and the conditions for such uses depending on their nature. Thus, the current proposal should make a major contribution to the development of various European digital library initiatives and their accessibility for everyone throughout the European Union. Clear rules on what works can be posted online as orphan works will also provide the beneficiaries of the Directive – not only libraries, museums and archives but also film heritage institutions and public service broadcasters - with a sound legal framework that safeguards them against claims of copyright infringement. In this respect, a degree of legal certainty can be achieved that will exceed the one that can be achieved on the basis of existing private agreements.
  On the other hand, the envisaged rules provide for clear methods of redress by which a reappearing right holder can assert his copyright and thereby end the orphan work status.
  Read the Proposal for a Directive (provisional version)
  Read the citizen summary
  Read the Memo on Orphan works
  Read the press release on the Intellectual Property Strategy
   

• Digital Cinema - statistics
  According to the European Audiovisual Observatory digital screens in the EU have more than doubled in 2010 with 3D once again the driving force.
  The number of European screens equipped with DLP Cinema or SXRD technology on 31 December 2010 totalled 10,346 with a 120.9% rise compared to the previous year. Compared to the total number of screens in Europe, in December 2010 digital screens had achieved a market penetration of 29%, as against 13.4% the previous year.
  Read press release
   

• European Film Agency Directors (EFADs) declaration at Cannes 2011
  Read the press release
   

• Contribution of culture to the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy - Council Conclusions
  On 19-20 May 2011, the Council adopted conclusions on the contribution of culture to the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy
  The conclusions underline the fact that the cultural and creative sector has the potential to generate
  growth and quality jobs, and therefore has an important role to play in achieving the objectives of
  the strategy and its flagship initiatives, such as the Digital Agenda for Europe or Innovation Union. In particular, the conclusions examine culture's specific input to the 2020 strategy's main goals: smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
  Finally, the conclusions call on member states to use EU financial funds, such as Structural Funds,
  for cultural projects and on the Commission to incorporate culture in its future EU policy and
  financial instruments.
  The Council invites Member States and the Commission to "promote the digitisation of and access to cultural heritage and contemporary cultural content, including audiovisual works, in particular through Europeana, thus also promoting and preserving cultural diversity and multilingualism in full respect of the copyright and related rights".
  Read the text of the Council Conclusions
   

• Mobility for artists and for culture professionals- Council Conclusions
  On 19-20 May 2011 ministers discussed mobility information services for artists and culture
  professionals, on the basis of two questions prepared by the Presidency to structure the debate. The
  Council also adopted conclusions on this subject.
  
  Transnational mobility - which is a specific objective of the Culture Programme 2007-2013 -
  facilitates access for artists and culture professionals to the European labour market, and thus
  creates new job opportunities and promotes employment in the culture sector and in the wider
  economy. Improved mobility can also contribute to achieving the objectives of the Europe 2020
  strategy.
  
  In general, ministers underlined the added value of mobility for cultural diversity but most of them
  also acknowledge that there are several obstacles to the mobility of artists and culture professionals,
  such as lack of structures to tackle work and residence permit rules, copyright regulations, taxation,
  insurance, etc. Most member states have already launched or are upgrading and modernising their
  mobility information services either through internet portals and platforms or through specific
  services in the competent ministries.
  Read the Council Conclusions

 

18 May 2011

• France: Digitisation of cinematographic works
  The French government has signed an agreement with 6 French "sociétés détentrices de catalogues" (Europacorp, Gaumont, Pathé, SNC, Studio 37 and StudioCanal) in order to digitise at least 1000 feature films in French. The agreement was signed on 15 May 2011 in Cannes, in the presence of the "Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques" and the Cinémathèque française. The agreement is open to other cinematographic right-holders. Under this agreement, the State may finance up to 70% of the cost of digitisation. Digitised films should meet at least the 2K standard. In return, the right-holder should commit itself to do a commercial exploitation of the digitised works.
  In addition, the French CNC has announced a complementary support scheme for the digitisation of cinematographic works of highly artistic and cultural value. In principle, this should cover silent films and shorts. The scheme will also support the transfer to film of digitised films, when this is required to ensure its long-term preservation.
  More information on the scheme

16 May 2011

• Taking Care Of Orphan Works – EFG Open Conference on Rights Clearance in European Film Archives
  30-31 May 2011, EYE Film Institute Netherlands, Amsterdam
  Developing best practices for rights clearing and the IPR management of cinematographic works has been one of the aims and challenges of the European Film Gateway (EFG) project which is about to end this August. Although the EFG partner archives will be provided with the necessary tools to clear rights for the film-related material they want to publish online, one major question remains unsolved: how to facilitate access to and provide for the legal use of orphan works on Europeana and other cultural heritage portals?
  The conference would like to provide a platform to continue the discussion between the involved stakeholders and address the following key questions and issues:
  - How is the orphan works issue dealt within Europeana and the Europeana group of projects?
  - Which models do they consider appropriate to clear rights and facilitate online access to orphan works: legal solutions, contractual agreements, extended collective licensing, risk management?
  - Which models are applicable for the film heritage sector and which are not?
  - Examples of best practices for rights clearing and IPR management within European film archives
  The conference is organised and hosted by EYE Film Institute Netherlands, leader of the EFG Work Package “IPR Management and Administration”. EYE is supported by ACE , the Association of European Film Archives and Cinemathèques, initiator of EFG and one of the leading protagonists in the orphan works debate.
  Attendance of the conference is free of charge, however, please note that the amount of seats is limited.
  Registration website

4 May 2011

• European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases - 3rd Workshop - 25-27 May 2011, Prague
  The aim of the workshop is to acquaint film archivists and other experts from audiovisual heritage institutions with recent developments concerning the storing and retrieval of filmographic data. The focus will be on two new metadata standards developed by CEN: EN 15744:2009 and EN 15907:2010.
  Funded by the EU, organizers are able to reimburse travelling costs and hotel expenses for up to 15 participants from EU countries (film archivists, cataloguers, IT managers). More participants, also from Non-EU countries are welcome to register and come on their own expenses.
  The fourth and last workshop, with the same content as the previous three is planned on 22-24 June in Paris.
  Contact: Dr. Nikolaus Kovacs

28 April 2011

• Appointments at the European Commission
  In Directorate-General Information Society (DG INFSO):
  - Gerard de Graaf - Director of Directorate "Audiovisual, Media, Internet"
  - Michael Niebel - Head of Unit "Audiovisual and Media Policies". He is replacing Jean-Eric de Cockborne.
  
  In Directorate-General Internal Market and Services (DG MARKT):
  - Maria Martin-Prat - Head of Unit "Copyright". She is replacing Tilman Lueder.
   

• MEDIA Programme - Call for proposals for pilot projects
  The call for proposals is open until 14 June 2011. The types of actions considered under this Call for Proposals are:
  • Distribution: new ways of creating, distributing and promoting European audiovisual content via non linear services;
  • Open Media Production Environment;
  • Distribution - Promotion & Marketing: the use of web techniques to develop local Cinema Communities;
  • “Audiovisual Junction Portal”: to widen and improve the access and the exploitation of structured information of European audiovisual content.
  The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of actions is estimated at 1.5 million Euros. The financial contribution from the Agency cannot exceed 50% of the total eligible costs.
  Media Programme/Pilot projects
   

• MEDIA Programme - Call for proposals for Support for Video on Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution
  The call for proposals is open until 20 June 2011.
  The Video on Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution scheme constitutes one of the ways in which the MEDIA programme ensures that the latest technologies and trends are incorporated into the business practices of beneficiaries of the programme. Digital technologies have made European audiovisual works more easily accessible outside their country of origin thanks to new ways of transporting audiovisual content. The competitiveness of the audiovisual content industry in Europe will strongly depend on the use of these new technologies at the distribution stage.
  
  The main objective of this scheme is to support the creation and exploitation of catalogues of European works to be distributed digitally across borders to a wider audience and/or to cinema exhibitors through advanced distribution services, integrating where necessary digital security systems in order to protect online content. This Call for Proposals encourages the European audiovisual industry to adapt to new developments in digital technology.
  
  The Digital & Online environment is a powerful but unforgiving environment. Competition for attention is severe and with hours of content being added every second, careful planning and execution is required to bring European content to the attention of the largest possible audience. Applicants will have to demonstrate that they have understood the medium clearly and present a coherent catalogue, business plan and editorial strategy. They must have a well developed, appropriate and targeted marketing strategy capable of attaining the goals set out in their application.
  
  The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of actions is estimated at 7 million Euros. The financial contribution from the Agency cannot exceed 50% of the total eligible costs. The maximum contribution per action under these guidelines is EUR 1,000,000.
  Media Programme - New Tech
   

• FRAME Training - Future for Restoration of Audiovisual Memory in Europe
  The FRAME training course, Future for Restoration of Audiovisual Memory in Europe, will take place in 2011 near Paris.
  In the digital world, the exploitation of audiovisual content benefits from a wide range of new outlets such as Internet and mobile phones. FRAME will address the issue of new technologies applied to the restoration, digitization, preservation and use of television and film archives. Examples of new use of archival content using various media platforms will be showcased.
  The working language of the course will be English. Each session is open to 12 participants. Deadline for application is 6 May 2011.
  Programme:
  Session I: Preservation and digitization of audiovisual media (20-24 June)
  Session II: Organization, marketing and use of archival digital content (17-21 October)
  FRAME training course is organized by Ina SUP, the Ina European centre for research, training and education on Digital Media, in partnership with the International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU/UER) and the MEDIA programme.
  Ina-sup website
   

• The future of the EU Culture Programme
  The 965 submissions the Commission received during the public consultation on a future funding programme for culture are published on the Commission's website:
  A report on the public consultation will be published by the Commission before the end of May 2011.
  The contributions
   

• Cultural statistics
  Eurostat has just released its 2011 pocketbook "Cultural statistics".
  The 2011 pocketbook
  The Press release
  Special Eurobarometer on European Cultural Values:
   

• Hungarian Presidency Conference on the Future of the Audiovisual Industry
  The EU Hungarian Presidency held a conference on the future of the audiovisual industry on 19th and 20th April in Budapest.
  Final programme:
  Conference website
  "VoD, a new channel for distribution of films" - Dragoslav ZACHARIEV, EuroVoD, UniversCiné - presentation
  "Content for the hybrid world?" - Ian Christie, Europa Cinemas -  presentation

12 April 2011

• Conference on the Future of Audiovisual Industry - 19-20 April 2011, Budapest
  This Conference, organised by the Hungarian Presidency, devotes one of its panels to audiovisual archives in the digital era. Speakers include:
  Nicola Mazzanti (Royal Film Archive of Belgium), Johan Oomen (Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision), Elzbieta Wysocka (Filmoteka Narodowa / Polish National Film Archive), Vera Gyürey – Director of the Hungarian National Film Archive and Emjay Rechsteiner (Images of the Future /EYE Institute).
  Conference website
   

• MEDIA Call for proposals - Continuous training - Deadline: 15 June 2011
  Continuous training scheme aims to develop a comprehensive training offer for professionals responding to the actual needs of the European audiovisual industry.
  The eligible applicants are European institutions, associations, organisations and companies whose training activities contribute to the implementation of the objectives of the programme MEDIA. The following can apply:
  — film and television schools,
  — universities,
  — specialist vocational training establishments,
  — private companies in the audiovisual sector,
  — organisations/professional associations specialising in the audiovisual sector.
  The maximum amount available under this call for proposals is 2 500 000 EUR.
  Guidelines, Calls and Application forms
   

• The 14th British Silent Film Festival - 7-10 April 2011
  This year's theme was 'Music, Sound and the British Silent Film'. The Festival continued the exploration into the use of music and sound in presenting silent film, particularly as it moved towards its transition to synchronised sound. The festival aim was to recreate the experience of cinema going from the Great War to the late silent period; looking at the unlikely relationship between radio and the silent film, celebrating the centenary of the birth of the British newsreel and hosting the world premiere of the restored musical score for the Russian fantasy film Morozko.
  The British Silent Film Festival
   

• RFE/RL’s Polish broadcast archives now available to stream
  Radia-Wolnosci

08 April 2011

• Ximon.nl - VOD-platform for Dutch film and audiovisual heritage
  Ximon.nl, the new online streaming platform of the Dutch film and TV heritage institutions, is being launched today April 7th. As some of you may recall, Ximon shared its experience with making digitalized content available to the public through the internet during the Cinema Expert Group conference in October last year. Through the platform of Ximon well over 650 hours of high quality feature films, documentaries and TV-drama is now available to the public. The earliest work dates from 1901 and the latest productions were made in 2010. Prices start from 0.99 eurocents for a video which can be easily paid online. Ximon’s platform automatically adjusts the quality of the video stream, even up to full HD (1080p), depending on the end-users’ bandwidth and local computerpower. New features of the VOD-platform also include ‘collections’ that may contain up to 40 video’s sharing a common theme (period, actor, city, producer etc). Initiators EYE Film Institute Netherlands (Film) and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (TV) plan to make their whole digitalized repository available through Ximon in the next couple of years.
  Websites
  www.ximon.nl (consumers);
  www.ximon.org (institutions and business).
  Contact: Marc Jurgens, director
  Ximon.nl presentation at the last meeting of the Cinema Expert Group:
   

• EuropeanaConnect workshop on Extended Collective Licensing, 31 March - 1st April 2011, Luxembourg
  EuropeanaConnect is a Best Practice Network funded by the European Commission within the area of Digital Libraries of the eContentplus Programme. Its overall objective is to deliver core components which are essential for the realisation of Europeana, the European Digital Library as a truly interoperable, multilingual and user-oriented service for all European citizens.
  In this context, a workshop on Extended Collective Licensing was organized on 31 March and 1st April. Eye film institut represented ACE at this workshop.
  Presentations
  Filmotech Netherlands: a voluntary Extended Collective Licensing model in the audiovisual sector"
  EuropeanaConnect

30 March 2011

• European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases - Workshop
  13-15 April 2011, Copenhagen
  Agenda of the 2nd workshop on the Use of European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases
  Registration by e-mail
   

• The First World War in everyday documents - Europeana
  The First World War in everyday documents” was launched 24 March with a call to the public in Germany to participate in building a digital European archive by contributing private memorabilia from the First World War.
  The project is looking for photographs, letters, diaries, short films, audio recordings, objects and their stories. Following the launch of the project, four roadshows take place in Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Munich and Stuttgart. The project is a partnership between Europeana, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and Oxford University.
  Press release
  Project launch

• Digital Agenda Assembly - 16-17 June 2011, Brussels.
  The Digital Agenda for Europe is the European Union's strategy for developing the digital society and economy. It was launched in May 2010.
  
  The Digital Agenda Assembly is a milestone in the delivery of the Digital Agenda, which foresees "an annual Digital Assembly in June bringing together Member States, EU institutions, citizens' representatives and industry to assess progress and emerging challenges". This event thus aims at supporting the DAE by assessing progress, identifying challenges and stimulating contributions.
  
  The first Digital Agenda Assembly will take place in Brussels on 16-17 June 2011, in the "Autoworld" site, close to the Schuman square.
  The Digital Agenda Assembly website
   

• Future EU Research and Innovation Funding - Public Consultation
  The European Commission has presented a Green Paper which proposes major changes to EU research and innovation funding to make participation easier, increase scientific and economic impact and provide better value for money.
  The Commission invites stakeholders to participate in a public consultation on the future EU Research and Innovation Funding. The responses received will be analysed carefully be the Commission services. They will be used to design the proposals, to be presented by the Commission by the end of 2011, for a legislative decision of the Council and Parliament on the Common Strategic Framework. The changes will be introduced in the next EU budget after 2013.
  Deadline for contributions is Friday 20 May 2011.
  The Public Consultation

29 March 2011

• The Future of Copyright - speech by Francis Gurry, Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization
  25 February 2011, Queensland University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
  Read the speech

16 March 2011

• Research - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) - Work programme 2010-2011
  ICT is one of the themes of the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013) of the European Community for research (FP7).
  Two of the challenges presented in this work programme could be of interest for European Film Heritage Institutions:
  
  Objective ICT-2011.4.3 Digital Preservation
  Digital preservation research focuses on developing technologies, systems and tools for safeguarding digital content. The objective is to preserve digital content in a more effective and cost-efficient manner while protecting its authenticity and integrity, significantly reducing the loss of irreplaceable information, and ensuring it may be reused in the future.
  Target outcomes:
  a) More reliable and secure preservation technologies and methods.
  b) Technologies and systems for intelligent management of preservation.
  c) Interdisciplinary research networks bridging technological domains and scientific disciplines concerned with information, and expertise in end-user needs.
  d) Promotion schemes for the uptake of digital preservation research outcomes including outreach to new stakeholders and road mapping activities.
  
  Objective ICT-2011.8.2 ICT for access to cultural resources.
  Target outcomes:
  a) Technologies for creating personalised and engaging digital cultural experiences;
  b) Open and extendable platforms for building services that support use of cultural resources for research and education;
  c) Improved and affordable technologies for the digitisation of specialised forms of cultural resources;
  
  Specific call info on those areas (including the planned date for opening the call) is described in pages 135-137 of the work programme - Call PF7-ICT-2011-9
  The ICT workprogramme 2011-2012
  ICT on Cordis
  ICT Research & Innovation on Europa

• ICT Policy Support Programme - Digital Content
  An information day dedicated specifically to Theme 2 "Digital Content" of the ICT Policy Support Programme was held in Luxembourg on 8 March 2011.
  Agenda and presentations

• Training: FRAME, Future for Restoration of Audiovisual Memory in Europe - 20-24 June 2011, 17-21 October 2011, Paris.
  FRAME is a training course on new technologies applied to the restoration, digitization, preservation and use of audiovisual media archives.
  In the digital world, the exploitation of audiovisual content benefits from a wide range of new outlets such as Internet and mobile phones. FRAME addresses the issue of new technologies applied to the restoration, digitization, preservation and use of television and film archives. Examples of new use of archival content in various media platforms will be showcased.
  The working language of the course will be English. Each session is open to 12 participants. Deadline for application is 6 May 2011.
  FRAME training course is organized by Ina SUP, the Ina European centre for research, training and education on Digital Media, in partnership with the International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU/UER) and the MEDIA Programme.
  Frame training course

• Report "Comité des Sages" on bringing Europe's cultural heritage online
  Read a detailed presentation
  The Commission is preparing a Communication on Europeana and digitisation for the 2nd quarter of 2011.

2 March 2011

• Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) - 2011
  The 2011 Work programme for the Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) is now approved and available online:
  Work programme
  
  The 2011 Work Programme contains 5 Themes. Theme 2 is "Digital content", with a budget of 38 M€ for 2011. This encompasses 4 priorities:
  2.1 aggregating content in Europeana
  2.2 digitising content for Europeana
  2.3 raising awareness of Europeana and promoting its use
  2.4 eLearning.
  An information Day on Theme 2 "Digital Content" is taking place on 8 March 2011 in Luxembourg.
  Registration
  
  The ICT PSP programme is executed by call of proposals in order to select pilot projects, thematic networks or best practice networks. The call for proposals for 2011 is now open. The deadline for submission is Wednesday 1 June 2011, at 17:00 hours (Brussels local time).
  On 28 February, the Commission organized an information day on the ICT PSP programme.
  Presentations
  Information days will be also held in Member States.
  The ICT PSP Programme is one of the three Programmes under the CIP (Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme). It is not a research programme. It supports the application of technologies that have already been developed and tested by research programmes. The CIP runs from 2007 to 2013.
  More information

• Vocational Education for Digital Curators
  Work has begun on Digital Curator Vocational Education Europe (DigCurV), a new project funded by the European Commission's Leonardo da Vinci programme.
  DigCurV aims to address the availability of training needed by curators in the library, archive, museum and cultural heritage sectors to develop the new skills that are essential for the long-term management of digital collections.
  The thirty-month project brings together organisations from Europe, Canada and the USA with a strong track record of international work in the field of digital libraries and digital preservation.
  For further details please visit
  DigCurV

• filmarkivet.se - Swedish archival moving image material on-line
  As of 10 February 2011, more than 300 archival films are available on-line for free at www.filmarkivet.se, a joint project between the Swedish Film Institute and the National Library of Sweden. The majority of the films originates from the Swedish Film Institute’s Archival Film Collections; mainly shorts, non-fiction films, news-reels and commercials – films that reflect the transformation of Swedish society over the last century. The ambition is to increase the number of films available with 300 each year.
  The site is available in Swedish only, but from any computer in the world. None of the films have sub-titles, but information about the project is available also in English. Each film is presented with a short synopsis and production credits. Many of the films are also presented with a longer piece to put the films into context.
  www.filmarkivet.se

17 February 2011

• Filmportal.de
  Filmportal.de is the central platform for free-of charge information on German Cinema. The website is bilingual German-English.
  It offers detailed credits of currently 75,000 German feature films ranging from 1895 till today. As of now, 8,000 titles are covered in-depth, featuring synopses, reviews, photos or posters. Moreover, filmportal.de lists over 168,000 names relevant for German film and has over 4,600 biographies available. In addition to this, extensive "Theme Worlds" offer introductory texts on important periods and aspects of German film history.
  www.filmportal.de

• Screening the Future 2011 - New Strategies and Challenges in Audiovisual Archiving - Conference
  14-15 March 2011, Hilversum, The Netherlands.
  Organised by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.
  The conference will include the launch of the PrestoCentre by the Europeana group project PrestoPrime. The PrestoCentre is a European audiovisual competence center on digital preservation. It will based on the previous experience of the PrestoPrime partners BBC, RAI, ORF, INA and B&G.
  Conference website 
  PrestoCentre
  PrestoPrime

• The "FUTURE of the MEDIAs" - Public hearing - 18 March 2011, Brussels
  The audiovisual landscape is changing rapidly worldwide due to new technologies and globalisation. This opens up myriad opportunities and challenges for the audiovisual industry. Digital technologies are making audiovisual works more accessible and offer new ways of story telling and engagement with the audiences.
  
  Do we therefore need new business models? How can the MEDIA programmes best support the audiovisual sector? What will the audiovisual industry look like after 2013 and how can MEDIA respond to current and future challenges?
  
  The European Commission is organising a public hearing to discuss the "FUTURE of the MEDIAs". We are looking forward to stimulating discussions, on Friday 18 March 2011 at the European Commission, Gasperi meeting room, Charlemagne Building, Rue de la Loi 198, 1040 Brussels from 9 am to 4 pm.
  
  Register here

9 February 2011

• Digital Agenda for European Film Heritage (DAEFH) Study
  The website for the study on a Digital Agenda for European Film Heritage (DAEFH) is now operational.
  This study was launched by the European Commission on 10 January 2011 and runs for 11 months. An on-line consultation on the preliminary finding of the study is planned at the beginning of July. A workshop to validate the results of the study is taking place on 20 September 2011 in Brussels.
  www.dae-filmheritage.eu

• Digital cinema and film heritage - European standardization
  The first update of the EU 2010-2013 ICT (January 2011) standardization programme has included an invitation to European standardization bodies (ESOs) to propose standardization initiatives related to:
  - conditions for the submission of digital films to archives and the conditions for their preservation
  - digital projection of digitised heritage films
  
  Actions launched under this work programme are expected to be finalised by 2013.
  Read point 17 of the first update of 2010-2013 ICT Standardisation Work Programme for industrial innovation:
  The Work Programme

• Europeana Libraries project
  Europeana Libraries is a project that will bring the digital collections of some of Europe’s leading research libraries to Europeana. Funded by the European Commission’s IST-PSP programme, Europeana Libraries will be the first cultural digitisation project to investigate full-text searching of the 5 million objects it adds to Europeana. The project started in January 2011 and will run for 2 years.
  
  Even if the vast majority of content will be text and images, audiovisual material will be ingested through Europeana Libraries project:
  - Tartu University Library will bring in 100 video clips in Estonian, German, Russian, English. Subject: European history.
  - Wellcome Trust Library, UK will bring in c. 900 clips (movies) from around 450 titles. This archive of moving images has been selected from the historical medical film collections of the Wellcome Library. It consists of around 450 titles that have been produced over the past 100 years. Topics cover all aspects of medicine, health and social care provision and practice in the UK.
  - Vienna University Library will bring in 200 videos (each 1 hr) in German & English - History of Science and Medicine: Videos of current research activities, e.g. talks by 10 Nobel Prize winners
  Press release

• Cineteca di Bologna launches CINESTORE Website
  Videos and photos from the diverse collections of the Cinteca di Bologna as well as books and DVD editions are now available online. The amount of materials offered by CINESTORE will increase periodically, and parts of the digitised collections will also be accessible via the European Film Gateway (EFG).
  An English version of the website is coming soon.
  Cinestore

• EYE Launches Website Instant Cinema
  EYE Film Institute Netherlands launched a global platform for experimental and art films with its new website. The goal of the project, initiated by filmmaker and multimedia expert René Daalder, is to make the remarkable works of experimental filmmakers and artists accessible to audiences worldwide. The website features both classics from the experimental genre as well as new films by young filmmakers.
  Instant Cinema

• Formations sur le patrimoine cinématographique à l'INP (Paris)
  Le catalogue des séminaires proposés dans le domaine du patrimoine cinématographique pour l’année 2011 à l'Institut National du Patrimoine (INP) à Paris est disponible en ligne.
  Catalogue de formation

4 February 2011

• ICT Policy Support Programme - Draft Work Programme 2011
  
  ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) aims at stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and best use of ICT by citizens, governments and businesses.
  
  The ICT PSP Management Committee has given a positive opinion on the ICT PSP Draft Work Programme 2011. The running European Parliament scrutiny period will end in February and formal adoption is expected by the end of February 2011.
  Draft Programme  
  
  The 5th Call for Proposals will be published soon after formal adoption, from 28 February to 1 June 2011 (to be confirmed).
  
  THEME 2 concerns DIGITAL CONTENT. It will cover two main activities in the area of digital content, namely support to Europeana and the digitisation of cultural heritage material, and to digital learning.
  
  The Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) aims to promote access to knowledge, cultural diversity and creative content, and facilitate the digitisation and dissemination of cultural works in Europe. In line with the DAE, support will go to libraries, archives and museums across Europe wishing to contribute to the further development of Europeana as the single, direct and multilingual gateway to Europe's cultural heritage. This will be achieved by enhancing its content base to encompass as wide-ranging a collection of works as possible on all forms of media.
  
  The theme will focus on aggregating content already existing in digital form and on fostering digitisation of content that is representative of the diversity and richness of Europe's cultural heritage. These actions will pave the way for cultural institutions to deploy further efforts for digitisation and online accessibility. This will be complemented by awareness raising to promote the use of Europeana content for research, learning and leisure and to further encourage cultural institutions to provide content through the site.
  
  The total funding available for this theme is 38 M€, encompassing four objectives:
  Objective 2.1 – Aggregating content for Europeana
  Objective 2.2 - Digitising content for Europeana
  Objective 2.3 – Raising awareness of Europeana and promoting its use
  Objective 2.4 – eLearning
   

• 2nd workshop on the Use of European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases
  13-15 April 2011, Copenhagen.
  
  Location:
  Det Danske Filminstitut / Danish Film Institute
  Gothersgade 55 - DK-1123 København K
  
  Funded by the EU, costs and hotel expenses for up to 15 participants from EU countries (film archivists, cataloguers, IT managers) will be reimbursed.
  
  Please mail your application to: Ronny Loewy Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF e.V.
  c/o Colosseo Walther-von-Cronberg-Platz 6 - 60594 Frankfurt am Main

• Public Hearing on Audiovisual Productions - Presentations on-line - 13 December 2010
  On December 13, 2010, the European Commission convened a public hearing on audiovisual productions and the online distribution of audiovisual works in the EU. The hearing contributed towards the preparation of a Green Paper on online distribution of audiovisual works, as announced in the Digital Agenda for Europe.
  Presentations
   

31 January 2011

• Digitisation of cultural heritage in the EU - EU study
  The European Commission has awarded a contract to Deloitte for assessing the impact of the digitisation of cultural heritage in the EU. The work will last for 10 months, and the final report is expected for end October 2011.
  
  The main objective of the study is to assess the direct and indirect impact of digitisation of cultural heritage on economic, social and environmental variables. The assessment exercise will define and compare different scenarios, by using, among others, cost-benefits analysis and return on investment techniques.
  
  The assessment will be based on empirical data directly or indirectly collected by the contractor about ongoing digitisation projects and digital libraries, mainly within the European Union, but looking also at some cases with an extra-European dimension.
  For more information on this study, send an e-mail

• Guidelines for Copyright Clearance and IPR Management - Eye Film Institute
  In order to bring archival materials held in film archives online and giving access to them, rights clearing is a central topic in the framework of the European Filmgateway (EFG) project. EYE Film Institute, EFG's project partner, has established Guidelines for Copyright Clearance and IPR Management.
  
  The report includes:
  - an overview of legal frameworks in EU countries for the film sector
  - guidelines how to successfully clear rights related to film works
  - copyright basics (moral rights vs. exploitation rights, orphan works etc)
  - diligent search guidelines for rights holders.
  
  Final Guidelines on Copyright Clearance and IPR Management
  Eye Film Institut, Amsterdam

• Copyright in the digital era - speech by Commissioner Barnier - 22/01/2011
  Read the speech

27 January 2011

• Events organised during the Hungarian EU Presidency
  Conference: "The Contribution of Culture to the Implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy”
  28 February - 1 March 2011, Budapest
  
  Expert conference: "The future of the audiovisual market - creative contents in the online media"
  19-20 April 2011, Budapest
  
  Expert Conference: “The Digitalisation of Cultural Heritage and Long Term Preservation –
  The Role of e-Infrastructures” - 23-24 June 2011, Budapest
  Official website of the Hungarian EU Presidency
   

•  Events planned during the Polish EU Presidency
  
  The Polish presidency is planning to hold an expert conference between 18-20 July entitled "COMPETENCES IN CULTURE". It will cover three main themes:
  - Creative potential of digital archives
  - Management of copyright and related rights in digital environment
  - Cultural competences – role of culture and creativity in the building of the intellectual capital of Europe.
   

• Video on Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution - MEDIA projects in 2010
  The list of projects supported by MEDIA in 2010 in the fields of Video on Demand (VoD) and Digital Cinema Distribution can be consulted:
  
  Highlights related to film heritage among the 18 supported projects:
  - Some of the VoD platforms offer also archival documentaries, sometimes for free
  Doc Alliance Films  
  Docsonline.tv
  
  Europe's Finest is a collection of film classics and current arthouse films for D-cinemas in Europe.
  This project was presented at the Cinema Expert Group / Subgroup Film Heritage in 2009
   
  The Europa Film Treasures platform aims to open a new window on the meticulous and devoted work of European film archives which have safeguarded part of the world’s memory in images. In liaison with assignees and depositors, Europa Film Treasures presents precious films from the world over.
  In operation since 1 May 2008, EFT is already a great success: almost 17 millions of pages viewed, more than 1 260 355 unique visitors and around 1.5 million film viewings.
  
  30 film archives representing 19 countries currently propose a first selection of 123 films of all genres and all periods (from 1896 to 1999). New titles will complete this 2011 selection in the coming months.
  The aim is that the Internet user has the possibility of viewing these films free of charge (original versions, full-screen format, subtitles available in 5 languages, music added for silent films) and can discover classic films through several accesses thanks to the editorial work.
  
  Plans and special focus for 2011 will include new films, business model evolution, new graphic design, intensive online promotion integrating social networks and finally the creation of a new diffusion space thanks to web TV.
   

• Pilot projects supported by MEDIA in 2010
  Pilot Projects
  More information on MEDIA Pilot projects
   

• Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival, 25 June to 2 July 2011
  The 25th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival is taking place between Saturday, June 25 and Saturday July 2, 2011 in Bologna. More information will be soon may available on
  Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival
  The Festival Archive allows you to search the index of the 4500 films screened over the last 24 years, the catalogue, the winners of the DVD Awards - Il Cinema Ritrovato, video footage of evenings in Piazza Maggiore as well as pictures
  Archives

21 January 2011

• Cultural impact of European cinema
  “Beyond the Box Office”, a presentation and debate on the cultural impact of European cinema, took place on Thursday 2nd December 2010 at the European Parliament, hosted by Mary Honeyball and Nessa Childer (MEPs).
  See the presentation
  
  This presentation was the result of the study "Story we tell ourselves - The Cultural Impact of UK Film 1946–2006", commissioned by the UK Film Council. Key findings are:
  - Film is central to people's everyday lives and plays an important role in our national culture;
  - Increasing access to and encouraging debate on film heritage is central to a vibrant film culture;
  - The digital age is providing audiences with new ways to access and interact with film.
  "Story we tell ourselves"
  “Beyond the Box Office”

•  A Century of Danish Cinema
  The Danish Film Institute has launched "Danish Film History", by Peter Schepelern, Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies, University of Copenhagen.
  The overview guides you through the silent era to the first decade of the new millennium—from escapism to social realism, from family comedies to the Dogme film, from mainstream to avant-garde, from action flicks to Danish docs.
  Organized chronologically decade for decade, Danish Film History is embellished with images and filmposters. If you are curious about Danish cinema, here is where to start:
  Danish Film History

18 January 2011

• Challenges of the digital era for film heritage institutions" - Study
  Following an open tender procedure, the European Commission has concluded a contract with peacefulfish Productions Ltd to conduct a study on the “Challenges of the digital era for film heritage institutions”. Red Cat Technologies, the University of Helsinki/IPR University Center and the external expert Nicola Mazzanti are subcontractors of peacefulfish.
  
  The study follows up the Council Conclusions of 18/19 November 2010, in which the Council invited Member States and the Commission to study in detail the challenges and the opportunities arising from the digital era for film heritage institutions.
  The studied started on 10 January 2011 and will last for 11 months.
  
  The expected results of the study are the following:
  - Detailed description of the challenges that film heritage institutions are facing in relation to collection of digital film material, storage and long-term preservation of digital film material, digital restoration, digitisation and integration in Europeana, access to collections thanks to new technologies and digital cinema distribution.
  - Comparison with other sectors facing the same challenges: European and American Production Companies, American Film Heritage Institutions, Public Service Broadcasting archives and Space Data.
  - Proposals for legal/organisational/technical changes have to be introduced to ensure that film archives will continue to perform their role in the digital era and their cost.
  - Evaluation of the awareness and readiness of film heritage institution for these changes.
  - Policy options for EU and Member States action (backed by a cost/benefit analysis) as well as recommendations and a calendar for changes in Film Heritage Institutions.
  
  An on-line consultation on the preliminary finding of the studies is planned in the summer. A workshop to validate the results of the study will be held in the second half of September in Brussels.
  
  Studies page on avpolicy
  Terms of reference of the study
   

• Europeana Strategic Plan 2011-2015
  
  Europena has published the Strategic Plan outlining its further development and support to Europe’s Digital Agenda.
  Strategic Plan  2011-2015

10 January 2011

• Promoting the Use of European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases - Workshops
  The invitation is issued by the CEN/TC 372 project team on "Promoting the Use of European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases" and is addressed to a wider circle of potential participants - beyond the circle of CEN/TC 372 experts - coming from all members of ACE (Association des Cinémathèques européennes) and other interested institutions with audiovisual holdings.
  Having had the first workshop on last October 2010 organized by the Cineteca Nazionale in Rome the further three workshops (each with the same content) will take place in:
  Copenhagen, April 13-15, 2011 at the Danish Film Institute
  Prague, May 25-27, 2011 at the Národný Filmoví Archiv / National Film Archive
  Paris, June 22-24, 2011 at the Centre national du cinéma
  
  Each workshop will start about noon on its first day and will end early afternoon on the third day.
  The deadline for registration is January 31st 2011.
  More information and registration:
  Ronny Loewy
  Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF e.V.
  c/o Colosseo Walther-von-Cronberg-Platz 6
  60594 Frankfurt am Main
  Tel: +49 69 961220-641 (CEN)

• Digital Agenda: "Comité des Sages" calls for a "New Renaissance" by bringing Europe's cultural heritage online
  The report of the Comité des Sages (high-level reflection group) on Digitisation of Europe's cultural heritage was delivered on 10 January 2011 to Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, and Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner responsible for Education and Culture. The report urges EU Member States to step up their efforts to put online the collections held in all their libraries, archives and museums. It stresses the benefits of making Europe's culture and knowledge more easily accessible. It also points to the potential economic benefits of digitisation, including through public-private partnerships, for the development of innovative services in sectors like tourism, research and education. The report endorses the Digital Agenda's objective of strengthening Europe's digital library Europeana and suggests solutions for making works covered by copyright available online. The Comité des Sages on Digitisation comprises Maurice Lévy, Elisabeth Niggemann and Jacques de Decker. The report's recommendations will feed into the Commission's broader strategy, under the Digital Agenda for Europe, to help cultural institutions make the transition towards the digital age.
  Press release:
  Comité des Sages' recommendations:
  Executive summary: FR - DE
  The Cost of Digitising Europe’s Cultural Heritage -
      A Report for the Comité des Sages of the European Commission prepared by Nick Poole, the Collections Trust (November 2010)

•  "Audiovisual Production in the EU - Opportunities and Challenges" - ACE presentation at the Public Hearing
  13 December 2010, Brussels.
  The European Commission organised a public hearing in the framework of the envisaged Green Paper entitled "Audiovisual Production in the EU - Opportunities and Challenges."
  The Hearing took place on 13 December 2010 in Brussels. Panel 3 was devoted to audiovisual archives.
  ACE, represented by EYE Film Institute Netherlands, Leontien Bout (legal Counsel) and Géraldine Vooren (legal Counsel), made a contribution concerning copyright issues encountered during daily practice of film clearing.
  ACE contribution
   

09 December 2010

• 2010 European Parliament film prize: « Die Fremde » - 24 November 2010
  The LUX Prize (in Latin, lux means light) was established in 2007 as a tangible symbol of the European Parliament’s commitment to the European film industry and its creative endeavours.
  
  The 2010 Lux prize went to the film « Die Fremde » (When we leave) depicting the struggle of a young Turkish woman living in Germany and her attempt to build a life outside the cultural norms of her community. The winning director, Feo Aladag, who wrote, directed and produced the film, was the first woman to compete for the prize.
  
  The EP President Jerzy Buzek announced the winner in a special ceremony on Wednesday 24 November. Before opening the envelope with the winning name, he thanked the directors of the three competing films for dealing « in a very sensitive way » with the issue of individual and group identity. He said this question is crucial to Europe. « If we want to create a true European demos, we have to be able to truly understand each other. What better way than through culture, art, music and, of course, films? » He said films mirror society and, as such, can bring a deeper understanding of what it means to be a European in a united continent which embraces “our many identities –local, regional, national and European.”
  
  Doris Pack, the head of the Parliament’s culture and education committee, said at the press conference after the award ceremony that the film Die Fremde had affected her. She said many of her colleagues had told her that it had “opened their eyes” about the problem of honour killings.
  
  Die Fremde’s lead actress Sibel Kekilli was at the ceremony, as were the directors of the two other films short listed for this year's prize: Filippos Tsitos who directed “Akadimia Platonos" and Olivier Masset-Depasse who directed "Illégal".
  
  The Lux prize is worth some €90,000. The money goes to subtitle the winning film in all official EU languages, adapt the original version for visually- or hearing-impaired people and produce a 35 mm print for each EU Member State for the DVD release.
  
  More information on the Lux Prize
  Pictures of the ceremony
  Trailer of the film

 

• New rules for Eurimages co-production funding
  From 1 January 2011, the Eurimages Regulations for Co-production Support require project to include a digital master copy for cinema release (min. 2K compatible with DCI specifications or ISO norms on D-Cinema).
  
  Eurimages is the Council of Europe fund for the co-production, distribution and exhibition of European cinematographic works. Eurimages aims to promote the European film industry by encouraging the production and distribution of films and fostering co-operation between professionals.
  
  More information on Co-production support

 

• Digitisation and Online Exploitation of Broadcasters’ Archives - European Audiovisual Observatory report
  
  The European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, has published a new IRIS Special report: "Digitisation and Online Exploitation of Broadcasters’ Archives".
  
  The report examines current challenges to television archives in the digital era of online content. The report is the fruit of a workshop co-organised in April of this year by the Observatory and its partner organisation, the Amsterdam-based Institute for Information Law (IViR).
  
  Adrian Sterling of the University of London opens the report by recommending that “collecting societies should establish a global internet licensing agency to which prospective users of protected material on the Internet […] can apply for the necessary global licences without territorial restriction”.
  
  The report then allows various representatives of major European archives to present their systems and working methods. Austria’s ORF, for example, only employs qualified lawyers to enter the extremely complex rights-related information on its archives into its centralised database. The Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision functions via the so-called Archive Agreement: a document signed by “practically all parties involved in audiovisual production and in the clearing of copyright and related rights”. This unique document gives the Institute a legal green light for the reproduction and communication to the public of copyrighted works within the framework of its archival, educational and cultural functions in the digital era. The BBC’s iPlayer supplying an extensive on-demand catch-up service clearly represents a major challenge in this context. Rob Kirkham of the BBC states that almost 70 new licensing agreements were signed between the BBC and various right-holders’ bodies during the development period of the iPlayer.
  
  Dealing with the thorny problem of territorial restrictions on copyright, Bernt Hugenholtz of the IViR points out that television archives wishing to offer their holdings on line have to clear rights covering some 27 states, clearly “a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis their main competitors outside the EU”. In examining possible solutions, Hugenholtz mentions the possibility of multiterritorial licensing which would allow broadcasters to simulcast via Internet primary broadcasts for which only local rights have been cleared. He states, however, that “a truly structural and consistent solution, which would immediately remove all copyright-related territorial obstacles to the creation of a single market, would be the introduction of a unified European Copyright Law”.
  
  The report concludes by looking at cross-border exploitation of archives on line from a political and economic point of view, but also from the standpoint of the rights holders.
  
  More information on the report

 

• ICT Policy Support Programme - Call for Proposals 2011
  
  The next Work Programme and Call for Proposals 2011 for the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) are currently being prepared. Formal adoption is expected in early 2011. The 5th Call for Proposals will be published soon after formal adoption. A specific Information Day will be organised in Brussels at this time. These activities are currently planned for February 2011 but exact timing still needs to be confirmed. 
  More information on the ICT Policy Support Programme

 

• Future Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme - Public Consultation - Until 4 February 2011
  This public consultation forms part of an impact assessment which will inform the design of a possible successor programme to the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP 2007-2013), consisting of three operational programmes:
  - the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme
  - the ICT – Policy Support Programme
  - the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.
  
  The consultation is being undertaken in order to provide the Commission with public views on what the future priority areas for an EU intervention in these areas should be, and what instruments should be used.
  
  This consultation is one instrument among an array of research tools that will be used to inform the development of CIP II. In addition to the public consultation, the Commission is also organising a public conference, meetings with stakeholders, evaluations, etc.
  More information on the public consultation
  The consultation tool
  
   

22 November 2010

• Council Conclusions on film heritage, including the challenges of the digital era
  The European Ministers of Culture and Audiovisual adopted Council Conclusions on film heritage, including the challenges of the digital era, on 18-19 in Brussels.
  In these Conclusions, the Council endorses the points raised in the 2nd Report on the implementation of the Film Heritage Recommendation (adopted in July 2010).
  In the Conclusions, the Council
  - recognizes that the intellectual property rights framework has to provide sufficient legal certainty to allow film heritage institutions to carry out their public interest missions, notably preservation, restoration and, where appropriate, provision of cultural and educational access to deposited works;
  - invites Member States to adapt the existing instruments establishing mandatory legal or contractual deposit of cinematographic works forming part of their audiovisual heritage taking into account the transition to digital production and distribution and to ensure appropriate enforcement of theses instruments;
  - invites Member States to ensure that film heritage institutions may benefit from adequate rights in relation to preservation and cultural and non-commercial use films supported by national and regional funds as well as of related material;
  - invites the Member States and the Commission to promote the application of European standards on the interoperability of film databases and, if necessary, establish common standards for the submission of digital files to film heritage institutions.
  Full text of the Conclusions
  Background information on the Council meeting
  Press release

• Council Conclusions on European cinema in the digital era
  The European Ministers of Culture and Audiovisual Council adopted Conclusions on European cinema in the digital era on 18-19.
  In these Conclusions, the Council highlights that "digitisation of cinemas also offers opportunities for promotion of and access to European film heritage. Appropriate measures at various levels are therefore required to maximise these opportunities, including for education purposes";
  Full text of the Conclusions

• Sectoral Approaches to Digitization - The Film Archives
  ACE presented the view of film archives on digitisation at the Conference organised by the Belgium Presidency on 23 October 2010
  Conference website
  Presentations

16 November 2010

• "Audiovisual Production in the EU - Opportunities and Challenges" - Public Hearing - 13 December 2010, Brussels.
  The European Commission is organising a public hearing in the framework of the envisaged Green Paper entitled "Audiovisual Production in the EU - Opportunities and Challenges."
  The Hearing will take place on 13 December 2010 in Brussels, from 9 am to 5 pm.
  The way in which cinematographic and other audio-visual works are produced, distributed, marketed and made available to consumers is undergoing significant change. Technological developments have altered both the modes of exploitation of audio-visual content as well as consumer expectations and choice.
  The purpose of this hearing is to seek the views of interested parties on the opportunities and challenges of the online distribution of audio-visual works, in particular the emergence of new on-demand services. The aim of the hearing is to seek the views of interested parties on the opportunities and challenges of the online distribution of audiovisual works, in particular the emergence of new on-demand services.
  Panel 3 is devoted to audiovisual archives.
  Agenda and registration

• Bringing Europe's Culture Heritage Online - Papers presented at the Public Hearing
  The presentations and recorded video of the Public Hearing on "Bringing Europe's Culture Heritage Online", that took place on 28 October, are now available
  Presentations and video
  ACE paper 

12 November 2010

• Archimages 2010 - De la création à l'exposition: les impermanences de l'œuvre audiovisuelle
  17-19 November, Paris
  Check the final programme

• A digital world of opportunities - Speech by Neelie Kroes European Commission Vice-President
  5 November 2010, Avignon
  Read the speech

• Image and identity of Europe - the role of cinema and of film literacy - Speech by Wim Wenders
  27 October 2010, European Parliament, Brussels
  
  Extracts from the speech:
  "We have to concentrate more on the emotional side of Europe!
  ...
  Culture” as a whole, and in the widest sense, is the glue that forms identity and that determines the soul of Europe. And cinema has a privileged position in that realm: There simply is no more efficient and popular way to spread and communicate social, moral and cultural messages: Like no other medium film generates identification and establishes emotional and cognitive connection.
  Film does not only project pictures, it reflects the very picture of our society, with its values, habits, hopes and fears. More than that: Film shapes these values, forms these habits and influences trends of hopes and fears.
  Movies helped to invent and to perpetuate the „American Dream“. They can do wonders for the image of Europe, too.
  If only Europe would make more use of its very own cinema for its own image, as well as for its identity.
  If only Europe would not be so shy about its greatest asset: culture, and, yes, film culture!
  ...
  I am here today as a representative of the European Film Academy, to appeal to those who have the political power and means to assure to the moving image a higher importance in education than granted until today.
  Shouldn’t the children, who are growing up in a world dominated by images of all sorts, be given a serious chance
  to learn that grammar and that vocabulary? A lot of us are certainly right to worry about the fact that reading books is losing it’s attraction for young people, but isn’t it even more inconsequent if we are giving up help and instruction how to read images from the beginning, or worse: leave it to groups with blank commercial interests?
  We appeal to the EU member states to take the subject of “film education” or “cinema literacy” on the agenda of the council of ministers in charge of education and culture, with the aim to allow film, like art and literature, to become a stable, integrative part of the school curricula and not be treated any longer as a complementary programme."
  Read the full speech
   

21 October 2010

• Cinema and Cultural Identities - Public Hearing at the European Parliament - 27 October 2010
  The Public Hearing is devoted to two topics:
  - Cinema, a cornerstone of European identities
  - Distribution and promotion of European co-productions: key aspects for keeping European cinema alive
  Agenda of the hearing

12 October 2010

• COLLATE project: Unique Collection of Censorship Material Back Online
  More than 16.500 digitised film-censorship related documents from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s are now available in a specially created online repository. This unique collection, featuring protocols of the national censorship boards, censorship cards, contemporary press articles, title and dialogue lists as well as film stills, provides significant insights into the production and reception of films at that time. The documents do not only illustrate well-known cases of censorship from this period, such as 'Battleship Potemkin' or 'All Quiet on the Western Front'. They also provide information about less famous films or film works that are now considered lost. In some cases, these censorship documents are the only remaining contemporary reference to these lost films. Apart from their significance as source for (film)historical research, the censorship certificates often represent an invaluable resource for film archivists who are working on the restoration or reconstruction of a film work.
  
  The collection had been assembled from various film and state archives by Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF, Filmarchiv Austria and Národní Filmový Archiv in the framework of the EU-funded project 'COLLATE: Collaboratory for Annotation, Indexing and Retrieval of Digitized Historical Archive Material'. COLLATE, running from 2000 to 2003, created a collaborative online working environment for cataloguing, indexing and annotating those documents. However, after the end of the project, the assembled material had only been available within a closed system. In order to bring the material back online for EFG, Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF joined forces with experts from the Department of Multimedia and Internet Applications at the FernUniversität in Hagen, migrating the stock to a new public online system. Full-scale search and access of the collection will be possible via the EFG and Europeana portal later this year.
  COLLATE project description from 2003:
   

• Digital Agenda: Commission consults on re-use of public sector data
  Consultation open until 30 November 2010
  The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the EU Directive on the re-use of public sector information (PSI). PSI covers all sorts of data generated by public sector bodies - e.g. maps, meteorological, legal, traffic, financial and economic information - that can be re-used by anyone else in innovative products such as car navigation systems, weather forecasts, and travel information applications ("apps") that can be downloaded on smart phones. Contributions to this consultation will feed into the review of the PSI Directive, part of the Digital Agenda for Europe that aims to contribute to the EU goals of increasing competitiveness, innovation and job creation. The consultation will run until 30 November 2010.
  Currently, the PSI Directive is not applicable to information held by cultural, educational and research establishments and public service broadcasters. One of the questions on the on-line consultation refers to the opportunity or not of extending the scope of the Directive to those sectors.
  On-line consultation website
  Press release:

27 September 2010

• Commission supports digitisation of European cinemas - Commission Communication
  The European Commission has announced a new strategy aimed at helping European cinemas to go digital and to encourage more of them to screen European-made films, thus ensuring a wider choice for cinema-goers. The cost of digital equipment is prohibitive for many small cinemas and the Commission's strategy sets out options for financial support, including state-aid and backing from the European Regional Development Fund and EU MEDIA programme, which supports the film industry. One of the opportunities created by the move to digital is to increase the feasibility of converting films made in the first years of cinema to preserve them for future generations.
  
  Chapter 4. of the Communication is devoted to film heritage:
  4. Challenges of digital cinema for film heritage
  As underlined in the Second report on the implementation of the Film Heritage Recommendation, transition to digital cinema puts the ability of future generations to have access to digital films at risk. As regards the collection of digitally-produced or digitised films in film heritage institutions or specialised heritage cinemas, there is a need to update the legal instruments establishing legal or compulsory deposit of films, in order to cover films produced in all media. The establishment of standards at European level specifying the conditions for the submission of films to archives and for their preservation is also important.
  However, since many questions are still open about the storage and long-term preservation of digital material, all options for preserving digital films should be considered, as well as benchmarking between Member States and other sectors. Investments in research, equipment and professional training in this field are very important. Finally, film heritage institutions or specialised heritage cinemas also need to be equipped to project in digital format and are to be included in the Member States' strategies for equipping cinemas. Definition of standards for digital projection of heritage films is also necessary.
  
  COM(2010) 487 final  (24.9.2010)
  Press release

• Future of the MEDIA Programme - Public consultation - open until 30.11.2010
  The consultation is open to individual citizens, public and private bodies, local/regional authorities, ministries and relevant stakeholders in the audiovisual sector both inside and outside the EU and in the European institutions and associations.
  The purpose of the consultation is to gather input on the next round of the MEDIA programme after 2013, especially its objectives, activities and types of support.
  The MEDIA 2007 Programme (2007-2013)
  The objective of the MEDIA 2007 programme plays are the following:
  - to preserve and enhance European cultural diversity and its cinematographic and audiovisual heritage, guarantee accessibility to this for Europeans and promote intercultural dialogue;
  - to increase the circulation of European audiovisual works inside and outside the European Union;
  - to strengthen the competitiveness of the European audiovisual sector in the framework of an open and competitive market.
  Contributions received will be published online.
  MEDIA programme
  Online consultation
   

• Future of the Culture Programme - Public consultation - open until 15.12.2010
  The European Commission launched the public consultation on the future EU Culture Programme. This consultation is part of a wider consultation aimed at gathering views to be taken into account in the Commission's proposal for a new Culture Programme.
  The results of this consultation will be analysed and summarised in a report that will be published on line in the first quarter of 2011.
  Public consultation

• EUscreen - Conference on Content Selection Policy and Contextualisation - 7-8 October, Rome, Italy.
  EUscreen started in October 2009 as a three-year project funded by the European Commission’s eContentplus programme. Over the project’s duration more than 30,000 items representing Europe’s television heritage (videos, photographs, articles) will be made available online through a freely accessible multilingual portal. The portal will be launched in 2011 and will be directly connected to Europeana. The EUscreen consortium is co-ordinated by University of Utrecht and consists of 28 partners (comprising audiovisual archives, research institutions, technology providers and Europeana) from 19 different European countries.
  The EUscreen best practice network is hosting a two-day international conference on content selection policies and contextualisation in the audiovisual domain. It will be held in Rome on 7 and 8 October 2010. The conference will focus on contextualisation of audiovisual material. Attendance is free, but pre-registration is compulsory as the number of seats is limited. The complete programme is published online at www.euscreen.eu.
  The first conference day begins with a keynote speech by Professor. Andrew Hoskins, Professor of Cultural Studies at Nottingham University. The day will continue with plenary sessions by Dr. Lilian Landes, scientific co-ordinator of the recensio.net project at Bavaria State Library and Dr. Alec Badenoch, from Utrecht University. The afternoon programme includes three case studies and a keynote speech lecturer and filmmaker Professor. Johan Söderberg.
  The second conference day will be devoted to two half-day workshops. The first workshop will focus upon creative reuse of archive material. Peter B. Kaufman, president of Intelligent Television, will talk about ‘Unlocking Audiovisual Value’ through reuse. His keynote speech will be followed by four case studies (from INA, Sound and Vision, VRT and ELTE).
  The central topic of the second workshop is ‘selection criteria and success indicators for large-scale AV digitisation programmes’. It begins with a keynote address from Professor. John Ellis, Professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London, and will be followed by case studies from the BBC, DR, Memoriav and Sound and Vision. Both days also include panel discussions.
  More information and registration details
   

8 September 2010

• Boosting cultural heritage online in Europe - Open consultation on behalf of the Reflection Group
  The Reflection Group (Comité des Sages) has been entrusted by the European Commission to come up with recommendations on how best to speed up the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material. This consultation is launched by the Comité to feed its reflection and subsequent recommendations. As the cultural sector is undergoing a revolutionary transition worldwide, Europe is looking for innovative solutions to reap the social and economic benefits of the technological advances. The Comité des Sages is therefore seeking your views on key issues of this process, including on the sources of funding for digitisation, the exploitation models of content digitised with public funding or on conditions governing public-private partnerships for digitisation. You are invited to respond to the consultation by 30 September 2010. The Comité des Sages will analyse the responses and a follow-up hearing is scheduled to take place in Brussels on 28 October 2010.
  Public consultation
  Press release

• ICT research: preserving Europe's digital data for future generations
  Tools developed using EU funds to ensure that digitally stored data can be preserved, accessed and understood for the indefinite future are now available in the form of open source software. The EU's CASPAR (Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval) research programme involved researchers from the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Israel, Italy and the UK. This work complements initiatives such as Europeana, the European digital library. The EU has contributed € 8.8 million of the €15 million total cost of the project under the European Commission's research funding programme (Sixth Framework Programme 2001-2006). Until now large volumes of electronic data such as official records, museum archives and scientific results have been unreadable or at risk of loss because newer technologies could not read it or allow current users to understood it. Application of ICT research to benefit Europe's citizens and businesses is a key element of the Digital Agenda for Europe adopted by the Commission in May 2010.
  Press release
  CASPAR Project

• Digital Future of the European Cinemas: enhancing regional competitiveness - Conference
  15 September 2010, European Parliament, Brussels
  The conference will address the challenges for the future culture industry and the opportunities it creates for the modern regions. The project Malopolska Digital Cinema Network will be presented. It is the only project of this kind financed by structural funds.
  More information on the conference
  Agenda

19 August 2010

• "Promoting the Use of European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases"- 25 October - 27 October 2010, Rome
  Workshop addressed to experts from institutions with audiovisual holdings, organized by the Cineteca Nazionale
  Deadline for registration: 30 September 2010.
  Applications should be sent to Marco Rendina.
   

• "Prospects for the development of training systems for the preservation and diffusion of the Audiovisual Heritage" - 7-8 June 2010, Madrid
  Conference organised within the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union
  Conclusions of the Conference
   

• “From the AVMS Directive to the Cinema communication: towards a global and coherent approach of the European cinema” - 4-6 July 2010, Mons
  Conference organised within the framework of the Belgian Presidency of the European Union
  Conclusions, workshops reports and presentations of the seminar 

2 July 2010

• Audiovisual Archives in the 21st Century - Conference - 13-14 October 2010
  The conference is organised by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the context of the International Film Festival of Ghent. The Commission organizes the Cinema Expert Group / Subgroup Film Heritage on 15 October in Brussels, in order to facilitate the attendance by international participants.
  The conference takes place in the framework of further development of the EU’s Digital Agenda. Based on a broad vision on audiovisual heritage it seeks to be complementary to the Council conclusions regarding European film heritage and the challenges of the digital era, which will be published during the Belgian EU Presidency.
  The objectives of the conference are the following:
  - discuss the digitization of film and audiovisual heritage in the framework of the current European context (with the development of the European Digital Library Europeana), while focusing on the challenges regarding funding, business models, access, copyright and the interoperability of collections;
  - emphasise the importance of digitization for the preservation and disclosure of European audiovisual heritage;
  - emphasise the role that digitization can play in ensuring cultural diversity;
  - generate support in the film and audiovisual sector in Belgium and abroad for sectoral and cross-sectoral cooperation;
  - contribute to policy recommendations on digitizing film and audiovisual heritage through panel discussions, debates and the exchange of good practices.
  Programme of the conference 
  Concept note
  Registration online until 20 September
  For further information: info@ava21.be
   

• Archimages09 - "Archives : numériser les images, et après ?" - 18, 19 and 20 November 2009, Paris
  Archimages est un colloque professionnel sur le devenir en Europe des archives de cinéma et de l'audiovisuel. Il appartient au cycle des Rencontres européennes du patrimoine.
  Les archives cinématographiques et audiovisuelles sont aujourd’hui, un peu partout dans le monde, motrices dans la recherche, qu’il s’agisse de la recherche fondamentale en systèmes d’information, du développement de services novateurs en direction de leurs publics ou des liens patiemment tissés avec la recherche universitaire ou la recherche des amateurs. A côté d’interventions individuelles, débats et tables rondes ont aidé aux synthèses nécessaires sur ce que le numérique change pour le statut de l’archive, celui de l’image numérique, la représentation du contenu des fonds numérisés, le partage du catalogage et de l’indexation, et l’intégration des produits de la recherche.
  Read and listen to all the interventions
   

• Archimages10 - "L’œuvre d’art audiovisuelle dans les collections" - 17-19 November 2010, Paris
  Le Colloque Archimages10 se déroulera autour du thème "L’œuvre d’art audiovisuelle dans les collections" du 17 au 19 novembre 2010, à Paris.
  Cette année, Archimages examinera, à l’heure du tout-numérique, le statut, la place et la fonction de l’œuvre audiovisuelle dans les collections patrimoniales, de son acquisition à sa conservation.
  
  Ce thème est susceptible d’intéresser les conservateurs des musées et des bibliothèques, confirmés ou en formation, sur des questions comme : rôle de la puissance publique et du collectionneur, du conservateur et du commissaire, production et propriété intellectuelle, supports et dispositifs, cinéma et art contemporain.
  
  Colloque Archimages
  Entrée libre - Réservation nécessaire: patrimoine-cinematographique@inp.fr

30 June 2010

• Prospects for the development of training systems for the preservation and diffusion of the audiovisual heritage - Conference organized by the Spanish Presidency - 7-8 June Madrid
  Conclusions .
  Conference website (EN - ES)
  
  Related documents:
  "Référentiel des métiers du patrimoine cinématographique en France", March 2008, French INP.
  "Competences needed in film and audiovisual archiving",  April 2008, French INP .
   

• Présentation du programme « Culture et Audiovisuel » pour la Présidence belge du Conseil de l’Union européenne
  Press release
   

• Orphan works and Costs for Rights Clearance - Assessment - May 2010
  The assessment of the orphan works issue and costs of rights clearance was carried out by the Commission's Services on the basis of the replies to a questionnaire sent to a number of cultural institutions or organisations from all sectors. It is a fact-finding exercise and does not prejudge of the outcome of the Commission's work in this area.
  Assessment of the orphan works issue and costs of rights

22 June 2010

• Calendar of the Belgium Presidency
  The Belgium Presidency is organising the following events:
  
  - Seminar "From the AVMS directive to the Cinema communication : towards a global and coherent approach of the European cinema" (5-6 July, Mons)
  www.colloquemons2010.be
  
  - European Conference on E-Inclusion 2010 "Delivering Digital Europe in Public Libraries" (20-21 September)
  www.ecei10.eu
  
  - Conference "Audiovisual archives in the 21st century" (13-14 October, Gent)
  www.ava21.be

17 June 2010

• Europeana: next steps - Council Conclusions - 10 May 2010
  The Council of the European Union adopted Council Conclusions on "Europeana: next steps" on 10 May 2010.
  The Council acknowledges that "the digitisation and online accessibility of the Member States cultural material, and digital preservation, are essential in order to highlight that cultural heritage, to inspire the creation of content and to encourage new online services to emerge".
  The also considers that, "for the further development of Europeana, it is necessary to (…) Continue efforts to stimulate a broader geographical spread and to find a better balance between the different types of content offered through Europeana (books, photographs, archival documents, cinematographic and audiovisual material, museum collections, etc...) taking into account the particular needs of resource-intensive types of content such as audiovisual material."
  Member States are invited to "Contribute to raising awareness among the general public about Europeana, for example by organising campaigns in collaboration with the cultural institutions to make the site known among its potential users".
  The Council conclusions

• "From the AVMS directive to the Cinema communication: towards a global and coherent approach to European cinema" - Seminar - 4, 5 and 6 July 2010, Mons (Belgium)
  The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union organises a seminar on the topic "From the AVMS directive to the “Cinema” communication: towards a global and coherent approach to European cinema" on 4-6 July 2010 in Mons.
  The discussion will be based on the following three specific subjects:
  - Implementation of the provisions outlined by the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS Directive) aiming to promote European cinematic creations in on demand audiovisual services;
  - The role played by public funding at all stages of the cinematographic production chain;
  - The various forms of cinematic support mechanisms: the relationship between culture and industry.
  Attendance by invitation only.
  More information on the seminar

• Interoperability and standards - speech by Commissioner Kroes - 10 June 2010
  Interoperability and standards is one of the seven action area in the Digital Agenda for Europe.
  Mrs. Kroes, Commissioner for Digital Agenda, explains this action area in her speech of 10 June at the Open Forum Europe 2010 Summit.
  Commissioner Kroes address at Open Forum Europe 2010 Summit
  More on Digital Agenda for Europe

 

9 June 2010

• Study on the "Challenges of the digital era for film heritage institutions"
  The European Commission has launched a call for tenders in order conduct a study on the "Challenges of the digital era for film heritage institutions". The call for tenders is published in the OJ 2010/S 108-163209 of 05/06/2010.
  The deadline for receipt of tenders is 1 September 2010 at 16.00.
  The tender documents can be found here

7 June 2010

• European Standards on interoperability of film databases - EN 15907
  The European standard EN 15907 "Film identification - Enhancing interoperability of metadata" (Identification des films - Moyens d'améliorer l'interopérabilité des métadonnées - Ensembles et structures des éléments; Identifikation von Filmen - Verbesserung der Interoperabilität) was approved according to the CEN (European Committee for Standardization) procedures on 11 May 2010. 16 CEN Members voted in favour and 13 abstained. No member voted against this European standard.
  The next step is the implementation of this European standard as a national standard by national standardization bodies.

26 May 2010

• Orphan works - ACE survey
  The Association of European Film Archives and Cinémathèques (ACE) conducted a new survey on the amount of orphan works held in European film archives to get a clearer picture regarding the dimension of orphans in the film heritage sector.
  The key findings are:
  • 21% of all film works held in the responding 24 film archives (ca. 225.000) may be considered orphans,
  • 45% of these considered orphans (ca. 100.000) could be available through the European Film Gateway (aggregator for the film heritage sector for Europeana) if a legal or pragmatic solution for rights clearing existed,
  • 55% of the requests for the use of orphan works are for cultural purposes, while 44 % of the requests are for commercial purposes,
  • 60% (ca. 135.000) of the orphans held in the respondents’ archives were produced before 1950,
  • 34% of the orphan works are non-fiction films.
  The ACE survey

•  Training systems for preservation and diffusion of the Audiovisual Heritage - Conference
  7-8 June 2010, Filmoteca Española, Madrid.
  The Spanish Presidency is organizing a conference on the topic "Prospects for the development of training systems for the preservation and diffusion of the audiovisual heritage" in the Filmoteca Española (Madrid) on 7-8 June.
  The purpose of this Conference is centred on learning how other institutions, such as Museums and Libraries, deal with the training of their technicians for the preservation and diffusion of the cultural heritage that they hold; to which extent the bodies dedicated to the European Cultural Heritage take into account the knowledge on the preservation of the audiovisual heritage, and how the educational systems incorporate, in case they do, the training on this matter; and, finally, it reflects on past European initiatives related to training in the preservation of the cultural heritage and on the experience by film archives in the production of educational contents.
  The conference would try to detect the advisability and the possibilities of introducing into the different levels of learning the contents and subjects required for transmitting the knowledge on the preservation of the film heritage, as is the case with the other elements traditionally considered cultural goods and, if pertinent, we would put forward the opportunity of imparting specialized training at a European trans-national level that would contribute to the development of the idea of Europe in all matters related to the cultural heritage and its diffusion.
  Draft programme

• Lithuanian documentaries on the Internet
  On 3 May, 2010 the Lithuanian Central State Archive, started implementation of a 30-month project called Lithuanian documentaries on the Internet. The Archive has received support of about 2.8 million for this project from EU Structural Funds. The objective of the project is the preservation of Lithuanian documentary heritage by digitisation as well as its accessibility for everyone via the Internet. It is expected that the project will digitize and transfer to the Internet 1000 titles of Lithuanian documentaries, created in the period 1919-1960.
  Contacts for further information: Valerija Juseviciute - t. 370-5-247 78 29
   

• Exposion "Tournages Paris-Berlin-Hollywood"
  8 mars - 1 août, Cinemathèque française, Paris.
  Deux cent photographies rares et anciennes pour découvrir l’univers légendaire des studios et plateaux de tournage à une époque où Paris, Berlin et Hollywood étaient les trois capitales les plus importantes du cinéma.
  A l’origine de l’exposition, il y a deux collections : celle de la Cinémathèque française (une photothèque de quelque 500 000 clichés) et celle d’un grand cinéphile, Gabriel Depierre. Les premiers clichés représentant un tournage datent du milieu des années 1890, avant même l’avènement officiel du Cinématographe Lumière:
  Plus d'info sur l'exposition
  Voir aussi: Zoom sur L'album photos de "La femme sur la lune" de Fritz Lang
  
   

20 May 2010

• A Digital Agenda for Europe - Commission Communication
  19 May 2010
  Implementing the ambitious Digital Agenda for Europe unveiled on 19 May 2010 by the European Commission would contribute significantly to the EU's economic growth and spread the benefits of the digital era to all sections of society. Half of European productivity growth over the past 15 years was already driven by information and communications technologies and this trend is likely to accelerate. The Agenda outlines seven priority areas for action: creating a digital Single Market, greater interoperability, boosting internet trust and security, much faster internet access, more investment in research and development, enhancing digital literacy skills and inclusion, and applying information and communications technologies to address challenges facing society like climate change and the ageing population. Examples of benefits include easier electronic payments and invoicing, rapid deployment of telemedicine and energy efficient lighting. In these seven areas, the Digital Agenda foresees some 100 follow-up actions, of which 31 would be legislative. The Digital Agenda is the first of seven flagship initiatives under the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
  Read the Communication
  The Digital Agenda website
   

• "The Audiovisual Archive of the 21st Century" - Conference - 13-14 October, Ghent, Belgium.
  The Flemish Community is organizing a conference in the framework of the Belgian Presidency. It will deal with the challenges and opportunities of digitisation of film and audiovisual heritage. It will take place on 13 and 14 October in Ghent, Belgium. Participation is only by invitation.
  More information: www.ava21.be (available from mid-June).
   

  "Europeana next steps" - European Parliament Resolution - 5 May 2010
  The European Parliament Resolution on "Europeana, the next steps", based on a report by German MEP Helga Trüpel, underlines the potential of the site as a common access point to Europe's collective heritage and calls on Member States to bring more digitised content into Europeana.
  Today, Europeana gives direct access to 7 million digitised objects from Europe's cultural institutions, up from 2 million at its launch in November 2008. Some 37.4% of the digitised items come from France, followed by Spain with 13.2%, but content from some Member States is very limited, and masterpieces from many EU countries are still missing.
  The Parliament's Resolution also addressed other issues that have to be tackled to ensure the success of Europeana, including the need to:
  - address a series of copyright related issues to facilitate the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural content. The report highlights in particular the issue of orphan works (works for which it is impossible to locate the copyright holders)
  - ensure sustainable funding for the site
  - raise awareness about Europeana among the general public and potential contributors.
  This resolution from the European Parliament is a response to the Commission's August 2009 Communication "Europeana - next steps". The Commission will take account of the Parliament's Resolution in defining a future policy on Europeana and other areas, including copyright questions for the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material, and the re-use of public sector information.
  The European Parliament's Resolution
  The European Parliament's press release
  The debate at the European Parliament's Plenary of 19 April 2010
  The European Commission's press release
  More information on Europeana
   

• "Digital agenda" - European Parliament Resolution  - 5 May 2010
  In this Resolution, the Parliament called for European citizens to have access to modern digital technologies, including high speed internet, and the essential skills to understand and use them. The Resolution also stressed that consumers should be able to freely access public services online and content across the European Union. The Parliament also underlined the need for consumers to know their rights in the digital environment and for a clear legal framework to protect these rights.
  In addition, the Parliament also said that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) should play an important role in promoting responsible energy consumption, and called on public services across Europe to halve their carbon footprint by 2015. The European Parliament's Resolution also emphasised the need to achieve a fully competitive electronic communications market, and asked EU institutions to eliminate the key regulatory obstacles to cross-border online transactions.
  The European Parliament Resolution
  The European Parliament Press Release
  The European Commission Press Release

28 April 2010

• EU reflection group on digitisation
  European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has announced that the European Commission will entrust three personalities - Maurice Lévy (CEO of Publicis), Elisabeth Niggemann (Head of the German National Library) and Jacques De Decker (writer) - to come up with recommendations on how best to speed up the digitisation, online accessibility and preservation of cultural works across Europe. This Reflection Group will examine the various ongoing initiatives involving both public and private partners (notably the Google Books project) and copyright issues to find ways to boost the digitisation efforts of the complete collections held by libraries, museums and archives in Europe. These recommendations will ultimately help Europeana, Europe's digital library, reach a new dimension: today the Europeana portal already offers access to over 7 million digitised books, maps, photographs, film clips, paintings and musical extracts, but this is only a small part of all the works held by Europe's cultural institutions. The establishment of the Reflection Group is part of the Commission's broader strategy to help the cultural sector make the transition towards the digital age. The Group, who will report to Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes and Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou, has been requested to submit its conclusions before the end of the year.
  The Press release
   

• Austrian Film Museum - Schlemmer Frame Collection / Visual Database
  The Schlemmer Frame Collection is constituted by 2254 frames and fragments of films, mostly silent and mostly from the period between 1910 and 1920. At present, 35% of the collection have been identified and a visual database of these beautiful images has been created.
  Although many film archives are in possession of these types of collections, it is the first time that one of them receives such detailed attention from researchers. The aim of the Austrian Film Museum is to make these images accessible to the larger public, to enable everyone to enjoy the colours and photography of early cinema, to constitute a historical resource for archivists and researchers, and to enlarge the debate about open archives and "orphan" collections held in those archives.
  The Schlemmer Frame Collection
   

• Granada Ministerial Declaration on the European Digital Agenda agreed on 19 April 2010
  Among other issues, the ministers responsible for the Information Society Policy of the European Union Member States agreed to consider the following actions:
  15. With regard to intellectual property rights, actively promote the development of European digital content markets through practical solutions to promote new business models and concrete measures to reduce market fragmentation for the reuse and access to digital content, while protecting and assuring the fair remuneration of rights holders.
  16. Provide support for the digitisation and dissemination of European cultural heritage through a systematic development of Europeana and other public private partnerships.
  17. Encourage the supply and access to the legal offer of high-quality content and respect of copyright on the internet through easing the complexity of multiterritorial licensing.
  The Granada Ministerial Declaration
   

19 April 2010

• The digitisation of cultural material: digital libraries and copyright - Seminar
  A European seminar on 'The digitisation of cultural material: digital libraries and copyright' took place in Madrid on 12 and 13 April.
  Summaries of the seminar: day1 - day2
  Programme

15 March 2010

• European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases - Vote on the second standard
  The Commission issued a standardisation mandate to CEN (European Committee for Standardization) for the adoption of European standards aimed at making possible the interoperability of film databases in 2005. As a result of this mandate, CEN has adopted the European Standard EN 15744:2009 "Film Identification – Minimum metadata set for cinematographic works".
  The vote of the second standard prEN 15907 "Film Identification – Enhancing interoperability of metadata – Element sets and structures" started on 11-03-2010 and will be open until 11-05-2010.
  Film archives have the opportunity to vote on this standard through their national standardization body.
  The list of national standardization bodies
   

• Promoting the Use of European Standards on the Interoperability of Film Databases
  The Commission finances a project for promoting the use of the European standards on interoperability of film databases, under the EU programme "ICT Standardization" . The project started in December 2009, and will run for 2 years. It is managed by DIN
  In order to recruit the experts for carrying out this project, DIN has launched an "Open Call for Project Team Experts". The deadline for applications has been extended until 20 March 2010.
  For more information:
  Dr. Nikolaus Kovacs, Secretary CEN/TC 372
  DIN - German Institute for Standardization Information Technology and selected IT Applications Standards Committee.  Tel.: +49 30 2601 2637
   

• Film Restoration Summer School/FIAF Summer School
  Deadline for applications: 9 April 2010
  This year’s edition of the Film Restoration Summer School/FIAF Summer School will start with theory lessons on film restoration via distance learning from 18 May to 22 June. During the Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival in Bologna (26 June - 3 July), the participants will be able to meet with international specialists before gaining restoration practice during the final two-week internship (5 -16 July). Interested professionals are invited to submit their applications by 9 April 2010.
  More information
   

• Restoration of Audiovisual Memory in Europe - Training
  Bry-sur-Marne (near Paris), 21 June to 2nd July 2010
  FRAME is a short term training on restoration of film archives delivered in the form of 4 modules. It is addressed to persons responsible of TV/film archives, owners of a catalogue, content creators for new media, distributors and trainers.
  - Module 1 Strategic approach in technical solutions for conservation and restoration. (1 day);
  - Module 2 From analogical to digital (3 days);
  - Module 3 What is a digital media (1 day);
  - Module 4 archiving and distributing digital media (4 days);
  The training is supported by the MEDIA Programme.
  More information
   

• Governance of Collective Rights Management in the EU - Public Hearing
  23 April 2010, Brussels   -  Deadline for registration: 9 April 2010
  On April 23, 2010 the European Commission plans to convene a Public Hearing on the Governance of Collective Rights Management in the EU. The aim of the hearing is to explore how the relationships between copyright owners, collecting societies and commercial users of copyright have evolved over time.
  The hearing is scheduled to take place on April 23, 2010, at the Albert Borschette Conference Centre, 36 rue Froissart, 1049 Brussels, from 9.30 to 17.00.
  The hearing will consist of three panels, each chaired by representatives of the European Commission. Each panel will comprise eight panellists. Each panellist will present a short statement. After the statements, a substantive debate with the audience is foreseen:
  PANEL 1 Relationship between Collective Rights Managers and Their Members
  PANEL 2 Relationship among Collective Rights Managers
  PANEL 3 Relationship between Collective Rights Managers and Commercial Users
  Registrations for the hearing should reach the following address by April 9, 2010: markt-d1@ec.europa.eu
  The maximum number of participants is 120. Should the number of registrations exceed the number of available places, the organisers will provide for an overflow room (salle d'écoute).
  Provisional agenda

25 February 2010

• Framework Agreement for Voluntary Deposit of Films in European Archives signed by Producers and Film Archives
  On the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Berlin International Film Festival, Claudia Dillmann, President of ACE and Luis Alberto Scalella, President of FIAPF, signed a framework agreement setting out new arrangements for voluntary deposit of films and film related materials in preservation archives. Purpose of the agreement is to substitute the FIAPF contract of 1971 and to adapt it to a digital environment and the enlargement of the European Union. It shall serve as a reference tool for voluntary use by the members of both parties and is completed by a model contract for bilateral negotiations.
  The European Commission's supported the negociation process and encourages the use of this model contract. The Model contract on ACE and FIAPF websites
  The Press release

5 May 2009

02 April 2009

• Workshop on "Preservation techniques and methodologies for digital audiovisual works"
  Prague, Czech Republic, May 20-23, 2009

The workshop is organised by CIANT - International Centre for Art and New Technologies in cooperation with FAMU - Film and TV Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. It is supported by the MEDIA Training Programme of the European Union.

Proposée par CIANT (Centre International des Arts et de Nouvelles Technologies de Prague), la formation TransISTor (pour Transdisciplinary Training in Information Society Technologies and Storytelling Media Creation) organise, avec le soutien du Programme MEDIA, un séminaires consacré aux techniques de conservation des oeuvres numériques. I l se tiendra à Prague (République Tchèque) du 20 au 23 mai 2009. Les participants bénéficieront de l’expérience de 14 experts internationaux dans ce domaine, dont

Richard Wright, BBC (UK)
Dalit Naor, IBM (Israel)
Richard Rinehard, UC Berkeley Art Museum / Pacific Film Archive (USA)
Don Foresta, Research artist and theoretician in art (USA/France)
and other lecturers from 7 countries

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 15th April 2009
Limited number of participants: 18
Contact : CIANT - Kubelíkova 27 - 130 00 Prague – République Tchèque – Tel : 00 420 296 330 967 – E-mail : transistor2009@ciant.cz

Site web : http://transistor.ciant.cz/2009/
 

• The COMMUNIA Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain
  The COMMUNIA Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain  is a project co-financed by European Commission eContentPlus Programme.
  The main goal of the COMMUNIA project is to build a network of organisations that shall become the single European point of reference for high-level policy discussion and strategic action on all issues related to the public domain in the digital environment, as well as related topics such as alternative forms of licensing for creative material (including, but not limited to, Creative Commons licenses), open access to scientific publications and research results, management of works whose authors are unknown (i.e. orphan works).
  The project has created a specific working group on "Libraries, Museums and Archives", which your institution may be interested to join http://communia-project.eu/WG3/.
  This network is organizing its next International Conference in Torino in June 2009 (http://communia-project.eu/conf2009).

19 March 2009

• EU Culture Programme: Call for proposal in the field of transnational mobility of artist and cultural professionals
  This call for proposals supports, on an experimental basis, the mobility of artists and cultural professionals. Its aim is to explore new ways of funding mobility at EU level, with a view to promoting cultural diversity, reducing imbalances (regional and ingoing / outgoing) and fostering intercultural dialogue. The results will help to test how EU level funding can provide added value in supporting transnational mobility, and consequently contribute to the preparation of the Culture Programme for the next programming period beyond 2013, as well as provide input to policy development. In this context, "artists and cultural professionals" refers to artists of all disciplines, practitioners, cultural institution managers, producers, promoters, researchers, journalists, operators, intermediaries in the cultural sector.
  Priority will be given to projects with a strong European dimension, which adopt a developmental approach to mobility and which open access to new target groups and geographical areas.
  Deadline for applications: 15 May 2009.
  The activities to be co-financed must start before 1 December 2009, and last less than 2 years.
  The total budget earmarked for co-financing these projects amounts to 1.500.000 EUR. The size of the grants will range between 50 000 and 250 000 EUR.
  This call for tenders is relevant for film heritage institutions, as most of its staff can be included in the category of "cultural professionals".
  All information on how to apply is available on the EC Culture Portal

• Conference "The future of intellectual property Creativity and innovation in the digital era"
  23-24 April, 2009, Committee of the Regions, Brussels
  The era of digital networks has given rise to new problems in the area of intellectual property. They include the question of how best to deal with the massive numbers of downloads of film, music and software via peer-to-peer file sharing, as well as copyright issues arising out of the digitalisation of entire libraries. The conference “The future of intellectual property“, which is organised by Goethe-Institut Brüssel, will address a range of issues that are raised by this exciting policy area. Above all: How can the concept of intellectual property be adapted to the realities of the digital era, and at the same time not become outdated and inefficient?
  Conference languages: English, German, French. Registration deadline: April 16th, 2009. The number of available places is limited.
  For further information and to register please visit: www.intellectualproperty-conference.eu

• Deuxième rencontre entre les collectionneurs privés et les centres d'archives cinématographiques - Conférence et débats sur les collections privées de cinéma
  Le 28 mars 2009 à 14h30, à la Cinémathèque française, salle Henri Langlois
  L’industrie cinématographique, au fur et à mesure de son évolution, a dévoré sa propre mémoire : à l’origine ce sont des collectionneurs – Will Day, Henri Langlois, Raymond Borde, Maria Prolo, James Card, Freddy Buache, etc. – qui ont rassemblé avec passion, parfois même clandestinement, films et archives, avant de fonder des associations ou d’entrer dans des institutions patrimoniales. C’est dire combien le rôle du collectionneur, dans l’histoire du cinéma mais aussi dans l’histoire de l’art, est essentiel. Malgré le travail de ces pionniers-collecteurs, malgré le travail actuel des cinémathèques qui essayent encore et toujours de compléter et de restaurer leurs fonds, malgré aussi le dépôt légal, il existe encore bien des lacunes à combler dans les collections publiques. Or, nous avons encore, un vaste réseau de collectionneurs privés, qui disposent parfois de films rares, voire uniques, dans tous les formats. Ils possèdent aussi parfois des archives, des affiches ou des appareils rarissimes, qui pourraient compléter les collections officielles ou la programmation des cinémathèques. La connaissance, l’expertise et l’érudition de ces collectionneurs sont également très appréciables. De toute évidence, un dialogue plus approfondi doit s’instaurer entre collectionneurs et cinémathécaires.
  
  Cette année, la rencontre, ouverte au public, portera sur le contenu et l’intérêt de ces collections privées, sur la façon de les faire connaître si besoin. On s’interrogera sur la position des collectionneurs face à la disparition progressive de l’argentique : peu à peu, beaucoup de ces passionnés installent chez eux un projecteur numérique et délaissent les projecteurs de films… On traitera aussi des différents fonds d’appareils conservés en France. Le président de l’Agence de Liaison Inter-Collectionneurs du Cinéma (l’ALICC), des collectionneurs, des responsables de cinémathèques, viendront exprimer leur point de vue. La rencontre sera accompagnée de projections surprises. Un débat avec le public clôturera la rencontre.
  
  Plus d'information: Laurent Mannoni, Directeur scientifique du patrimoine et du Conservatoire des techniques, Cinémathèque française
  Tel/Fax +33 01 53 79 01 56
  Plus d'info: Cinémathèque française

12 March 2009

• European standardization on interoperability of film databases
  The CEN enquiry for the draft standard prEN 15907 "Film identification – Enhancing interoperability of metadata – Element sets and structures" was launched on 26 February and will last until 26 July.
  
  You are invited to read this draft, and send your comments through your national standardization body. Your national standardization body should be able to provide you with a copy of the document. In any case, it will be made available from the websites of AFNOR and BSI:
  
  As announced in a previous news, the European standard EN 15744 "Film identification - Minimum set of metadata for cinematographic works" is already approved, and it will be published in the coming weeks.

 

• Funding opportunities: Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme, ICT Policy Support Programme (CIP / ICT- PSP): Work Programme 2009 - Theme 2 "Digital Libraries"
  The Community programme eContentplus12 already funded a number of projects in support of the European Digital Library between 2005 and 2008. The CIP/ICT-PSP programme will continue to support its further development, i.e. bringing in more content from different types of cultural organisations, work on interoperability and improving the service. Total funding available for the Theme 2 "Digital Libraries" is 25 M€. This theme intended to fund actions under the following five objectives:
  
  2.1: European Digital Library - services
  2.2: European Digital Library – aggregating digital content in Europeana
  2.3: European Digital Library – Digitising content for Europeana
  2.4: Open access to scientific information
  2.5: Use of cultural heritage material for education
  
  The work complete work programme can be downloaded:
  ICT PSP work programme 2009   -   Presentation
  The call for proposals opened on 29 January and will close on 2 June 2009.
  Information on how to apply
   

• Copyright: extension of the term of protection of recorded performances
  On 16 July 2008, the European Commission made a proposal for amending the existing copyright legislation, with the purpose of extending the term of protection for recorded performances and the record itself from 50 to 95 years. The European Parliament's position on this file will be discussed in the its Plenary Session of the 23rd of March ( at 5 o'clock). The vote will take place on the 24.
  More information

• Ariadne Website
  Ariadne is a Web magazine for information professionals in archives, libraries and museums in all sectors. Since its inception in January 1996 it has attempted to keep the busy practitioner abreast of current digital library initiatives as well as technological developments further afield. It concentrated originally on reporting in depth to the information community at large on progress and developments within the UK Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib), covering matters such as information service developments and information networking issues worldwide. It now additionally reports on developments in the field of Museums, Libraries and Archives within the UK and abroad.
  http://www.ariadne.ac.uk
  
  The latest issue contains an article on "European Film Gateaway":
  See also the articles on the PrestoSpace project in issue 39 and issue 47.

 

24 February 2009

• Copyright: extension of the term of protection of recorded performances
  On 16 July 2008, the European Commission made a proposal for amending the existing copyright legislation, with the purpose of extending the term of protection for recorded performances and the record itself from 50 to 95 years.
  This proposal is now in discussion in the European Parliament (EP) and in the Council.
  
  On the 12 February, the EP Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) backed the Commission proposal to extend the protection of the rights of performers and phonogram producers to 95 years. The EP is also considering whether the music proposal should be extended to the audiovisual sector. The EP Legal Affairs Committee has approved an amendment which requests the Commission to provide an impact assessment of the situation in the European audiovisual sector. This impact assessment should focus on the need for an extension of the term of protection of copyright to producers and broadcasters in the audiovisual sector:
  
  Proposed new recital: "The Commission should launch an impact assessment procedure in relation to the situation of the European audiovisual sector in order to consider the need for an extension of the term of protection of copyright to producers and broadcasters in the audiovisual sector; that procedure should be completed by 1 January 2010 so that a proposal for a new directive may be presented before June 2010."
  
  The position of the EP on this matter will be decided in one of its Plenary sessions in March 2009 (indicative date: 23 March).
  Commission's proposal
  More on the proposal
  More on the legislative procedure in the EP

• Study on "European Cinema Online- Past and Present"
  On the 17th of February, the European Cultural committee invited Mr Kern (Kea European Affairs) to present his study on "European Cinema Online- Past and Present" (June 2008).
  Summary of the presentation and the discussion at that meeting:
  The full study (EN, FR, and DE) is available here

• Conférence sur la préservation du patrimoine cinématographique: "Un siècle de laboratoires".
  Vendredi 6 mars 14h30, Cinémathèque française, 51, rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris
  Présentation

• European research project KEEP (Keeping Emulation Environments Portable)
  KEEP will develop an Emulation Access Platform to enable accurate rendering of both static and dynamic digital objects: text, sound, and image files; multimedia documents, websites, databases, videogames etc. The overall aim of the project is to facilitate universal access to our cultural heritage by developing flexible tools for accessing and storing a wide range of digital objects.
  More on the project

12 February 2009

• Study on "Public Domain in the Information society".
  The European Commission has launched an "assessment of the economic and social impact of the public domain in the information society". Through this study the Commission expects to have a first and general overview of what is the situation in Europe with regard to public domain material and to assess the economic and social potential of the accessibility to this material.
  
  This study is conducted by Rightscom Limited. It would be very useful for the consultant to gather information on this topic from film heritage institutions.
  If your institution is willing to contribute, please contact Mr. Mark Isherwood
  
  The objectives of the assessment are:
  • To estimate the number of works in the public domain in the EU and calculate approximately the levels and ways of use and main users of published works.
  • To estimate the current economic value of public domain works and estimate the value of works that in the next 10-20 years are to be released into the public domain and determine any change in its value whilst under copyright and once it is in the public domain
  • To identify and analyze the current practices for re-use of public domain content held by European cultural institutions and assess their capacity to implement the principles for re-use as established in the Public Sector Information Directive
  • To identify and analyze current available mechanisms for voluntary sharing of content and to ascertain the pros and cons of each mechanism highlighting the degree of use of the most successful ones and their impact based on relevant indicators.
  
  The person responsible for this study in the Commission is Juan Pelegrin
  Tender specifications

• 2009 Film Restoration Summer School / FIAF Summer School
  The deadline for application is 20 March.
  Programme
  Application form

3 February 2009

• MIDAS Project successfully completed
  Three years ago, the EU-supported MIDAS project (Moving Image Database for Access and Re-use of European Film Collections) took up the challenge of integrating catalogue information from 18 film archives from across Europe and to make these resources accessible online via a single gateway. The project has come to a successful conclusion: about 25,000 cinematographic works are available fast and direct for research via the internet via filmarchives online. The Portal covers non-fictional films such as documentaries and educational films, newsreels, commercial, industry, travel and sport films, as well as animated films. Content will keep growing: information, images and digitised films will be added since new archives are invited to join.
  filmarchives online
  Press release

• Project EDCine - Digital Technologies for Moving images -
  Symposium in Valencia (Spain) from 4 to 6 March 2009
  Organisé par EDCine, Digital Technology for Moving Images est un symposium qui se tient en 3 étapes dans 3 différentes villes européennes.
  L’objectif est d’expliquer aux cinéastes le métier des cinémathèques et aux archivistes le cinéma numérique.
  EDCine, un projet de recherche européen qui réunit 16 partenaires universitaires, industriels et institutionnels sous la houlette de l’Université Catholique de Louvain, se concentre sur les problèmes d’optimisation, d’amélioration et d’interopérabilité du cinéma numérique.
  La préservation de la diffusion des films pour les fonds d’archives et les cinémathèques, les formats numériques, la préservation numérique et les perspectives d’avenir pour l’archivage des films seront abordés lors des séminaires.
  Le prochain séminaire se tiendra du 4 au 6 mars à Valence (Espagne)
  Plus d'info:  www.edcine.org, www.ivac-lafilmoteca.es

• Opening of the Cinematek in Brussels
  Press release
  Cinematek

• Voting result on European standard
  The European standard EN 15744 "Film identification - Minimum set of metadata for cinematographic works" has been approved by CEN.
  Voting result (18 votes in favour and 7 abstentions)

20 January 2009

13 January 2009

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