: The film is scanned at high resolutions (typically 4K or 8K) to capture every detail locked in the photochemical emulsion.
Preserving the Past: The Vital Work of The Film Foundation Established in 1990 by and a group of legendary directors—including Steven Spielberg , Francis Ford Coppola , Stanley Kubrick , and George Lucas
Guarding the Frames: How The Film Foundation Rescues Cinema’s Endangered History films restored by the film foundation
Perhaps the most vital work of The Film Foundation is the . Scorsese realized that Hollywood films have corporate backing, but a singular masterpiece from Senegal or Turkey has no champion. The WCP focuses on films that are "orphaned"—no rights holder, no studio, no money.
For decades, King Vidor’s masterpiece about the everyman existed only in muddy 16mm bootlegs. The original negative was destroyed in a vault fire. The Film Foundation located a nitrate print in Czechoslovakia, a safety fine-grain in France, and fragments at the Library of Congress. By piecing together these international orphans, they reconstructed Vidor’s stunning tracking shots and the famous "long shot of the office cubicles"—a visual metaphor that looks as modern as The Office but was made 100 years ago. : The film is scanned at high resolutions
This involves physically reproducing a film on the same medium, using modern workflows similar to the historic original production methods. The foundation often creates new film elements to serve as long-term preservation masters. In some cases, The Film Foundation has facilitated two separate restorations of the same film—first photochemical, then digital—as technology has advanced.
is the primary home for these restorations. Over 300 films restored by The Film Foundation are available on physical disc and their streaming channel, The Criterion Channel. Notable box sets include Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project (Volumes 1, 2, and 3), which collect exactly these rarities. The WCP focuses on films that are "orphaned"—no
: Directed by Abel Gance, this epic is famous for its groundbreaking technical innovations, including a widescreen triptych sequence requiring three synchronized projectors. The monumental restoration process synthesized footage from various archives globally, reconstructing Gance’s definitive vision with its original tinting, toning, and massive scale.