History of ACE

In 1991 a number of European Filmarchives founded an Association of Filmarchives of the European Community (ACCE) as well as the Projetto LUMIERE, which was part of and funded by the European Program MEDIA I. During the years that followed Projetto LUMIERE concentrated on three major activities:

• The restauration of European films
• A search for "lost" European film
• The compilation of a European Filmography

More than 1000 European films, mostly dating from the silent era were restored by joint efforts of archives in two or more countries, some 700 films in various collections were identified and the national filmographies of all EC countries, of which several had to be made from scratch, were compiled in a single massive database. An extensive account of the activities innitiated by LUMIERE was published in 1996. (Catherine A Surowiec [Ed.] / The Lumiere Project; The European Film Archives at the Crossroads, Lisbon, 1996) During this period ACCE, having the same members and board as Projetto LUMIERE, led a dormant life, since all the action took place within the context of LUMIERE.

When, in 1996, MEDIA I was replaced by MEDIA II the Projetto LUMIERE had to come to an end. It was then decided to wake up ACCE and at the same time expand it to the whole of Europe. The name of the Association was changed into: Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE). The General Assembly of ACE decided that all full, provisional and associate members of the Féderation Internationale des Archives du Film (FIAF) could become member. At this moment the ACE has 40 members.

Today ACE can offer

• nearly one million film titles of all European nationalities
• films preserved and restored to the highest professional standards
• easy access to both public and industry comprehensive collective databases of European film production and archives' holdings