Academy Film Archive

The Academy Film Archive established in January of 1991. The film archive is housed in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Center for Motion Picture Study. The Center for Motion Picture Study also contains the Academy’s film library, the Margaret Herrick Library. Together, the Academy Film Archive and the Margaret Herrick Library are housed in a 1907 Spanish-Romanesque building that used to be the water treatment plant in Beverly Hills.

The Academy Film Archive’s collection came from the Academy’s early acquisition of films as part of their film library. The Academy established a film research library in 1928. The main focus for this library was paper materials, however, films were being acquired by library as early as 1929. Around this time, the film library came to the attention of Margaret Gledhill – later Margaret Herrick – who saw the potential of a centralized film related repository, as there was nothing similar in America at the time. 

In 1946, Margaret Herrick, who was a librarian and at this time was working as the Academy’s executive secretary, accepted the film libraries first manuscript collection, the William Selig Papers. This manuscript collection, and similar acquisitions that followed, helped cement the Academy’s film library place in the American film industry.

With the opening of the Center for Motion Picture Study in 1991, the Academy Film Archive was established. The archive took in the Margaret Herrick Film Library’s collection of motion picture prints. At the time of opening, the archive held approximately 12,000 items. The founding collection included documentaries, early cinema, special effects reels, video materials related to the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and many other collections.

The Academy Film Archive’s collection now holds over 230,000 items. Highlight collections include the personal collections of many notable filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, whose collection includes home movies which show case a lighter side and sense of humor from the Master of Suspense. The archive also holds filmmaker collections from Cecil B. DeMille, David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, William Friedkin, and other collections from directors and filmmakers. The archive also houses all the Academy-Award winning films in the categories of Best Picture and Documentary Feature.

The Academy Film Archive’s website includes a statement that perfectly encapsulates their work, “Dedicated to the preservation, restoration, documentation, exhibition and study of motion pictures, the Academy Film Archive is home to one of the most diverse and extensive motion picture collections in the world.” You can learn more about the Academy Film Archive and browse their extensive collection by visiting their website, https://www.oscars.org/film-archive.

About the Archive, Oscars. Accessed November 24th 2020. https://www.oscars.org/academy-film-archive/about-archive.

Film Archive Collections, Oscars. Accessed November 24th 2020. https://www.oscars.org/film-archive/collections.

Top Marks for New AMPAS Center. American Cinematographer, vol. LXXII, no. 3. Published March 1st 1991. FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals.

Coco, Anne & Romero, Jenny. Documenting Cinema: The Evolution of the Film Librarian. Journal of Film Preservation, no. 9747 - 53. Published October 1st 2017. FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals.

Harris Mehr, Linda. Center for Motion Picture Study. The Margaret Herrick Library and the Academy Film Archive.. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol. XVI, no. 119 - 25. Published March 1st 1996. FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals.