Swiss Film Archive

The Cinémathèque suisse, formerly known as the Archives cinématographiques suisses (Swiss Film Archive), is Switzerland's national institution for the collection, preservation, study, and presentation of film heritage. Headquartered in Lausanne, it is a Swiss state-approved non-profit foundation recognized by the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) as one of the ten most important cinematheques in the world. The institution operates across three sites: its administrative headquarters and screening rooms at the Casino de Montbenon in Lausanne, its research and archiving centre in Penthaz, and a German-language documentation office in Zürich. Founded in 1948, it serves as the sole national institution responsible for gathering and preserving the bulk of Swiss cinematic and audiovisual production.

The origins of the Cinémathèque suisse trace back to 1 October 1943, when the Archives cinématographiques suisses was founded in Basel with support from the Kunstmuseum Basel, by a group of independent film enthusiasts. When Basel withdrew subsidies in April 1948 due to political concerns, the collections were transferred to Lausanne. On 3 November 1948, the Association cinémathèque suisse was established in Lausanne, co-founded by Freddy Buache, and officially inaugurated in 1950 by Erich von Stroheim. Initially located in precarious conditions at Place de la Cathédrale without a projection room, the institution received its first municipal subsidy from Lausanne in 1950. Claude Emery served as first director until 1951, when Freddy Buache assumed leadership for 45 years, profoundly shaping the institution. In 1981, the Cinémathèque converted from an association to a private foundation and moved to the Casino de Montbenon, acquiring proper screening facilities. Hervé Dumont directed from 1996 to 2008, followed by Frédéric Maire from 2009. A pivotal development came with the 2010-2019 renovation and expansion of the Penthaz archiving centre, inaugurated on 6 September 2019 at a cost of 50.6 million Swiss francs, with Federal Councillor Alain Berset in attendance. Since 2002, Article 5(c) of the Swiss Film Law has enabled federal funding, with the Federal Office of Culture now providing two-thirds of the budget alongside the canton of Vaud and the City of Lausanne.

The Cinémathèque suisse maintains comprehensive collections spanning all genres of moving image heritage. Its holdings include fiction films, documentaries, Swiss newsreel archives (Ciné-Journal suisse), commissioned and advertising films, amateur and family films. The non-film collections encompass books, periodicals, scripts, documentary files, photographs, posters, slides, cinematic apparatus, pre-cinema materials, institutional archives, and private paper collections. As of 2019, the institution held 85,000 film titles equivalent to 700,000 reels, 10,000 scripts, 26,000 books, 720,000 periodicals, 500,000 to 1 million posters, 2,000 to 2,800 cameras and apparatus, 2.8 to 3 million photographs and iconographic items, over 120 estates and collections, and 240,000 documentary files. The collections also include diapositives, glass plates, Ektachromes, original celluloids, animation figures, sets, festival trophies, and graphic works. Approximately 400 films are donated annually by filmmakers, distributors, and collectors, and the institution undertakes restoration of 15 to 20 films per year.

The Cinémathèque suisse's collections are distinguished by their international scope and Swiss national significance. The institution's early acquisition strategy capitalized on Switzerland's market dominated by imported films, enabling the collection of vast holdings of foreign feature films deposited by distributors upon commercial contract expiration, an operation consuming approximately 90 percent of available funds. The archive maintains the Ciné-Journal suisse newsreel collection, deposited in 1975, and since 1972 has archived all films awarded by the Federal Department of Home Affairs, compensating for the absence of legal deposit for cinematic works in Switzerland. The institution has cultivated significant relationships with major filmmakers: Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Marie Straub maintained close affiliations with the Cinémathèque throughout their careers. The archive's restoration work has been showcased internationally, including a carte blanche presentation at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979 featuring restored heritage films. Its collections were ranked sixth among the world's most important in 1995, following those of Bois d'Arcy, Brussels, London, Moscow, and Washington.

The Cinémathèque suisse operates across three distinct sites. The Casino de Montbenon in Lausanne serves as the administrative headquarters and houses daily screening facilities with two projection rooms, occupied since 1981. The Penthaz Research and Archiving Centre, located near Lausanne in the canton of Vaud, constitutes the primary archival repository. Opened in 1992 in a former bookbinding workshop to consolidate collections previously dispersed across ten sites, the centre underwent major renovation and expansion from 2010, culminating in the 2019 inauguration of a 13,000 square metre facility. The Penthaz building includes 5,300 square metres of basement archive space across three levels, designed for proper storage of hundreds of thousands of film reels and posters. The federal government purchased the Penthaz building in 1998, and the 2010-2019 project marked the first federal building dedicated to cinema in Switzerland. The Zürich documentation office, acquired in 2002, operates as the German-language branch, incorporating the former 'Zoom' cinematic documentation centre with its 30,000 press files and 75,000 photographs. Additionally, the City of Lausanne purchased the Capitole cinema in 2010 for the Cinémathèque's use, with renovation beginning in 2021 and opening in 2024.

The Cinémathèque suisse is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, with its main public facilities at the Casino de Montbenon offering daily screenings. The Penthaz Research and Archiving Centre, situated near Lausanne in the canton of Vaud, functions primarily as a preservation and research facility rather than a public visitor destination. The Zürich documentation office serves the German-speaking region. The institution employs approximately 100 professionals as of 2023, with 75 full-time positions distributed across the three sites: about 50 staff at Penthaz, and the remainder divided between Lausanne and Zürich. As a private foundation with state approval, it receives primary funding from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, supplemented by the City of Lausanne and the canton of Vaud. Jean Studer, chairman of the Bank Council of the Swiss National Bank, has chaired the Foundation Board since 1 July 2016. The Cinémathèque maintains active membership in the International Federation of Film Archives and hosts the FIAF congress, most recently in 2019 in Lausanne on the occasion of the institution's 75th anniversary.