>> View NFA collections on EFG The Film Archive in Prague was founded in 1943 by the Czech-Moravian Film Centre to protect film materials against war operations. In 1946, it became a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). Having been part of the Czechoslovak film institute, the archive was transformed into the independent National Film Archive (NFA) by the decree of the Minister of Culture in 1992.
Presently, the NFA belongs to the most important national cultural institutions in the Czech Republic and to the largest film archives in the world. NFA is also a full member of the Association des Cinémathèques Européenes (ACE). The basis of the collections at the NFA – by law the holder of a legal deposit of the national audiovisual works – are positive and negative film materials of national production: feature and non-feature films (documentary, animated, popular-scientific, newsreels and others) since the beginnings of Czech film production in 1898 till the end of the nationalized film production in 1991 – the whole amounting to over 150 million meters of film. Therewithal, the NFA takes care of collections of photos, posters, promotional and advertising materials, designs and text documents. Offer more intensive preservation and easier access to these materials, the NFA established a specialised digitisation working-site.
The NFA library – 70 500 books and magazines, film scripts, clippings from Czech newspapers and new information sources (own databases, digital library, etc.) - has the largest collection of film literature and ranks among the most significant libraries in the Czech Republic. The NFA publishes key filmographic works – Catalogues of Czech Feature Film (I – VI) in Czech and English; since 1992 periodically the Film Year Book. NFA’s editorial work also comprises film anthologies (historical and theoretical works), original and translated literature, special collection of DVD, the Film Review and Iluminace - the revue on theory, history and aesthetics of the film. Every year, the NFA presents holdings and collections of the national film production according to interests of organisers on many events in the Czech Republic and abroad.