Highlights

Soon to be digitised…
© Fotolia

What can be done to make Europe's cinematographic heritage more accessible to public? One option is digitisation of analogue material. European film heritage institutions and film archives have already started this work, which requires updating their practices and could raise legal questions. On 18 November the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council adopted conclusions on what could be done to advance digitisation of European films.

The Council agrees that digitising film heritage can improve Europeans' quality of life: digital copies would be accessible not only to film makers or schools, but to everyone.

First of all because it is easier and cheaper to produce multilingual subtitles and dubbing for digital copies than for analogue ones.

In addition, with digitisation films can be made available via the internet. Member states are encouraged to make their digitised film heritage available online. This could be done, for instance, through "Europeana" – Europe's public virtual library, which contains digital books, films, paintings and other works.

The Commission is asked to examine how best to ensure a favourable legal framework for film archives. Intellectual property rights must be clarified to ensure legal certainty for film heritage institutions, consumers, authors and creators.

Finally, the Council understands that today's cutting-edge digital technologies might be obsolete in 20 years, just as videotapes and cassettes are today. It therefore asks the Commission to continue supporting research into the long-term preservation of both digitised and digital-born material.

More information:
Press release (pdf)
Webcast press conference 
www.europeana.eu