CINEMATEK has been collecting film-related documents since 1938:


66.000

Books

5.970

Periodical publications

including film magazines (3,800 titles), yearbooks (820 titles) and film festival publications (1,350 titles)

30.000

Posters


850.000

photographs

1,380.000

press documents

6.000

Original Film Screenplays



These different types of collections belonging to the film-related collection will be clarified below. Books and magazines can be requested in the library via the online catalogue. The catalogue is only available in French or Dutch.


 ©Bea Borgers

Books

The 66,000 titles of our library form a unique collection of information about both Belgian and world cinema. Our first works date back to before 1900, the pre-cinema period. Furthermore, we continuously keep on expanding our collection by acquiring more than 600 titles on a yearly basis. Aside from precious and rare works, we also offer more recent paperbacks. These books are intended for both the general and the specialised public.

Our book collection consists of:

  • biographies and memoirs of actors and directors

  • reviews and movie interpretations

  • books about film theories

  • research per movie genre (drama, science fiction, thriller, documentary, ...)

  • research per geographical region (by country, by continent, by region)

  • works about the history of film and pre-cinema

  • research about movie esthetics

  • published scripts

  • ...

The topics covered are very diverse and highly relevant (film aesthetics, video on demand, ...)


 ©Bea Borgers

Periodical publications

Our periodical publications are divided into three subcategories: magazines, annuals and festival catalogues.

The magazine collection has over 3,800 titles. The oldest magazines of this collection stem from the 20th century, such as Pathé programme or The Edison Kinetogram.

This collection highlights Belgian magazines with rare titles like Weekblad Cinema or Revue du cinéma belge, but more recent series such as Andere Sinema, Soundtrack, Le Moniteur du film en Belgique or Filmmagie cannot be overlooked either.

Great attention is also paid to the conservation and acquirement of foreign magazines in different languages. Our magazine collection considers academic, thematic and popular titles:

  • Screen International

  • Le Film français

  • Théorème

  • Framework

  • Spectator

  • Blink Blank

  • La septième obsession

  • So Film, Filmcritica

  • Kino Ikon

  • Science Fiction Film and Television

  • Projections - The Journal for Movies and Mind

  • L’Avant-scène Cinéma

  • ...

Our annuals are composed of over 800 titles. We distinguish two kinds:

  • publications that give an overview about the last cinema year with a description of all films released, analyses and statistics such as Annuel du cinéma, Filmjaarboek, …

  • Guides with contact information of people and companies who are active in the film industry, for example the Annuaire Bellefaye.

Finally, we have the festival catalogues with over 1,400 titles.

For many years, we have followed the major national and international film festivals and indexed the catalogues they publish each year. This rich historical collection includes publications from the early years of festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Locarno as well as the most recent catalogues from festivals such as:

  • Filmfest Gent

  • Viennale

  • Annecy Festival International d’Animation

  • Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival

  • Bologna Cinema Ritrovato

  • Paris Cinéma du réel

  • ...


 ©Bea Borgers

Paper and Digitized Posters

This collection of 30,000 posters, on paper or in digital format, contains almost exclusively posters of films that were screened in Belgium. Most of the Belgian posters were created by Belgian poster designers.

Among others, we have a collection of 102 posters by poster artist Jos De Cock, who designed around 400 film posters between 1947 and 1957.

Beside Belgium, other countries are also represented in our poster collection (France, United States, ...)

Our library displays posters of different formats:

  • French posters (120x160cm)

  • Anglo-Saxon one-sheets (70x100cm)

  • Belgian posters (40x60 and 60x800cm)

We are currently further inventorying and digitizing our poster collection.


 ©Bea Borgers

Paper and Digital Photographs

The photo library has more than 816,000 photos for 54.650 movie titles, of which 630,000 are on paper, mainly from:

  • Belgian and international movies
  • publicity and promotional photos

  • Set and on location stills

  • portraits of actors and directors

  • themed photos
    • cinemas

    • cameras

    • movie libraries

    • studios

    • ...

  • photos taken at filmfestivals

Thanks to the publicity photos of the movies, largely deposited by Belgian distributors, the whole history of Belgian movie exploitation can be found in this collection.

It consists of photos of famous set photographers, both international and Belgian:

  • Marie-Françoise Plissart

  • Kris Dewitte

  • Jean-Michel Vlaeminckx

  • ...

This paper photo collection has fully been digitized and is complementary to the originally digital photos that had been collected throughout the past ten years.


 ©Bea Borgers

Digital Press Files

These files are mainly composed of press clippings from popular newspapers and magazines, both published in Belgium and abroad.

This multilingual collection, that dates from the beginning of the 20th century, consists of:

  • movie reviews

  • interviews

  • bio-filmographies

  • articles about film festivals

  • lists of award-winners and prizes

  • articles about all audiovisual themes

  • ...

The collection also contains the official ‘press files’ that were edited by distributors and producers at the occasion of a movie launch, both for Belgian and international movies, including the additional promotion materials.

These last few years, the collection has also been expanded with other digital or digitized sources, originally from the start of the 20th century:

  • old movie programmes

  • correspondence

  • newsletter articles

  • digitalized Belgian movie magazines

  • ...

The digital database with more than 1,380,000 indexed documents, supplemented with metadata, can be searched in full text. This multilingual collection is the perfect tool to study, among others, the reception of films by film critics and the general public.


Screenplays


Archive Holdings

Both individuals as well as corporations or organisations can deposit their archive holdings with us.

These holdings are particularly interesting for researchers to study the activities of directors and the Belgian movie industry.

We conserve archive holdings from:

  • festivals such as Film Fest Gent, EXPRMNTL, Écran du Séminaire des Arts

  • movie clubs like the Zottegem movie club

  • production houses

  • distribution companies

  • ...

(We are very proud to conserve holdings of: )

  • Chantal Akerman/Paradise Films

  • Thierry Zéno

  • Marion Hänsel

  • Benoît Lamy

  • Rik Kuypers

  • Emile Degelin

  • Georges De Meyst

  • Charles Dekeukeleire

  • Frans Buyens

  • Lydia Chagoll

  • Jean-Marie Buchet

  • ...

Holdings from individuals can contain artistic and formal documents related to both finished or non-finished movie projects:

  • scripts

  • Pre-productions

  • production contracts

  • distribution and sales movies

  • administrative documents and accounting

  • correspondence and notes

  • pictures and posters

  • press cuttings

  • press files

  • ...

In cooperation with the Chantal Akerman Foundation, the archives of Chantal Akerman and Paradise Films are currently being catalogued, inventoried and digitized. A thorough scientific knowledge of her work makes it possible to offer answers to the questions of researchers, of programme makers who want to show her work or of artists and filmmakers who draw inspiration from it.



Access to our FILM RELATED

Are you looking for photographs, posters, books or documents for your research project, start here.

Cinematek Website 56

Access to our FILM RELATED

Looking for photos, posters or documents for your exhibition or museum, start here.

Cinematek Website 10

Access to our FILM RELATED

If you are looking for an image for your book, production or documentary, please start here.

JP 22