About the FIAF Summer School

From photochemistry to digital technology, the FIAF Summer School offers a training platform for all the practical skills relating to the trade of film restoration. Part of the tradition of Summer Schools offered by FIAF since 1973, the Film Restoration Summer School/FIAF Summer School arrived in Italy for the first time in 2007. The lessons found their ideal classroom within the Bologna Cineteca and L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, and brought together film-restoration professionals from all over the world, the course programme being devised with the help of the FIAF Technical Commission. The hospitality was also made possible thanks to the support of ACE (Association des Cinémathèques Européennes) and the European Union’s MEDIA programme. Its success in 2007 led to plans to repeat the course every two years ever since. The next FIAF Film Restoration Summer School (as it is now called) is due to take place in the summer of 2024.

One Course, Three Phases

The Film Restoration Summer School/FIAF Summer School course is divided into three phases. The first involves distance learning: each week from May to the end of June the selected participants download texts chosen by the school’s instructors covering the technical and theoretical aspects of film restoration. During the second phase the students come to Bologna for the Cinema Ritrovato festival, allowing them to learn more about the conservation of film heritage through participation in screenings, lessons, and special meetings. Finally, the last phase takes place in the Immagine Ritrovata workshop space, offering a genuinely hands-on apprenticeship in the different steps of photochemical, sound, and digital restoration.

Learn more about past FIAF Summer Schools here.

Learn more about the next FIAF Summer School here.