The Academy Film Archive is located in Hollywood, California at the Academy's Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study.

The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, the educational and cultural arm of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Dedicated to the appreciation, study and preservation of our motion picture heritage, the Archive's activities include collection, preservation, documentation, exhibition and research access to films.

The Academy announced its plan to collect motion pictures upon its founding in 1927 and made its first film acquisition two years later, in 1929.

The Archive’s collection now includes over 100,000 items, covering some 70,000 individual titles. The interests of the Academy Film Archive have historically included:

• Film and video documenting the history of the Academy and the Academy Foundation, including its public programs, lectures, symposia, and presentations.
  
  
• Film, kinescope and videotape of Academy Awards ceremonies extending back to 1949, along with additional news material and special coverage of the awards show.
  
  
• Academy Award-nominated films in all categories, including documentaries, shorts, and foreign films.
  
  
• Films and film programs associated with the Student Academy Awards.
  
  
• Ongoing film festival collections, including the Latino International Film Festival and the PXL This! Pixelvision Film Festival
  
  
• Documentary film holdings include the collection of the International Documentary Association, with which the Academy has a close relationship; approximately 800 documentaries produced and distributed by the National Council on American-Soviet Friendship; and World War II-era propaganda and informational films.
  
  
• Early cinema, including the Lumière, Méliès and Blackhawk Collections, and the Paper Print Collection, a result of the Academy's early collaboration with the Library of Congress.
  
  
• Visual effects and technical achievements - through submissions for the Academy Awards process the Archive has acquired a substantial collection of visual effects reels, makeup and sound test reels, and film and video documentation of the Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards.
  
  
• Home movies and amateur films, particularly those related to the history of Hollywood, the motion picture industry, and the history of the Los Angeles region.
  

For additional information about materials held by the Archive, please contact our access center at (310) 247-3016.