About

Film Atlas is an encyclopedic online resource pairing high resolution imagery with scholarly essays to document the history of film as a physical medium from the dawn of cinema to the present. Facilitated by collaboration between international archives, this dynamic reference, research and teaching tool offers a comprehensive visual guide to every motion picture film format, soundtrack and color process ever invented. 

It is a collaboration between the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and the George Eastman Museum, with generous funding provided by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation, the George Eastman Museum Publishing Trust Endowment, and FIAF (Eileen Bowser Memorial Fund). 

A beta version of the website was launched in May 2024 to the FIAF community. A full public launch will follow in 2025.

More than 600 formats and processes will eventually be documented on the site with over 200 different authors contributing to the text. This digital publication is regularly updated as new texts are delivered.

 

Credits

Editor James Layton
Project Coordinator Crystal Kui
Production Associate Margaux Chalançon
L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation Research Assistant Oleksandr Teliuk 

Web Developer Jean-Pascal Cauchon (The Green ID)
Copy Editor Tom Cabot (Ketchup Productions)
Translators Margaux Chalançon, Kae Ishihara
 

FIAF Christophe Dupin, Elsa Degerman
George Eastman Museum Peter Bagrov, Bruce Barnes, Tyler Wallace, Caroline Yeager

 

Contributing archives and individuals

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (US): Andrew Bradburn, Randy Haberkamp, Theo Gluck, Andy Maltz, Mike Pogorzelski, Sean Savage, Cesario Tio, Norma Vega

British Film Institute (UK): Jane Fernandes, Elena Nepoti, Kieron Webb

Simon Brown (UK) 

Cayuga Museum (US): Karyn Radcliffe

Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (France): Simone Appleby, Béatrice de Pastre 

China Film Archive (China): Jiang Shiyang, Liu Wenning

Cinémathèque française (France): Laurent Mannoni

Cinémathèque suisse (Switzerland): Caroline Fournier

Deutsche Kinemathek (Germany): Elisa Jochum, Paul Marie

East Anglian Film Archive (UK)

François Ede (France) 

Filmoteca de la UNAM (Mexico): Albino Alvarez Gomez

Filmoteca Española (Spain): Marián del Egido

Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé (France): Luis Fau, Anne Gourdet-Marès

George Eastman Museum (US): Nancy Kauffman, Sophia Lorent, Gordon Nelson, Beth Rennie, Alice Wynd

Robert A. Harris (United States)

Sadanobu Iida (Japan)

Instituto Moreira Salles (Brazil): Leon Barg 

Library of Congress (US): Heather Linville, David Pierce, George Willeman

Malkames Collection (US): Bruce Lawton

The Museum of Modern Art (US): Cara Shatzman

National Archives and Records Administration (US): Audrey Amidon, Criss Austin

National Museum of American History – Smithsonian Institution (US): Stephanie Kurasz, Shannon Perich

National Science & Media Museum (UK): Toni Booth, Mary Freeman

Brian Pritchard (UK)

Österreichisches Filmmuseum (Austria): Stefanie Zingl

Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (US): William Estrada, Brent Riggs, Betty Uyeda

Swedish Film Institute (Sweden): Julia Mettenleiter

Tangible Media Collection (US): John Wallace

Karl Thiede (US) 

Timeline of Historical Film Colors (US/Switzerland): Barbara Flückiger

Toy Film Museum (Japan)

UCLA Film & Television Archive (US): Jillian Borders, May Hong HaDuong, Steven Hill, Todd Weiner

University of South Carolina (US): Daniela Currò, Heather Heckman

US Department of Interior, National Park Service, Thomas Edison National Historical Park (US) 

USC HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive (US): Dino Everett