SFI is providing 14m EUR, with funding support from the European Union.

The Digital Audiovisual Project has been a priority of the Slovak Film Institute. The Slovak Audiovisual Fund has already undertaken a major project of funding digital conversion of Slovakia’s small cinemas.

SFI general director Peter Dubecký told FNE, "I consider the Digital Audiovisual Project crucial for Slovak cinema from the future point of view. Thanks to it, a digitalisation center is being built which is able to convert film art to digital form. Thanks to this project, the Slovak Film Institute has become a modern archive of the 21st century and has become a leader in the field of digitalisation within the Central European region. Slovak cinema and filmmakers deserve it, especially after what happened to the Koliba film ateliers during the privatization in early 90’s. I´m very happy that Slovak director Martin Šulík, after visiting the digitalisation center, said that he can see the future of Slovak cinema here."

The project will build two specialised digitalisation workplaces and digitalise at least 58,700 audiovisual cultural objects, including at least 1,000 film works. RTVS will digitalise the remaining 57,700 audio and video works. At the same time, the Digital Audiovisual Project will create the basis for systematic handling of these digitalised audiovisual works in current formats which meet European standards, saving selected works from mechanical destruction or other decay, and it will also facilitate access to works to be used for educational, training, scientific and research purposes.

In June 2014, the Slovak Film Institute in partnership with Minister of Culture Marek Maďarič inaugurated a modern centre for digitalisation and digital restoration of films. The new digitalisation centre is located in the basement of SFI’s Cinema Lumière. 

The project will end on 30 June 2015 and its impact will be monitored for the next five years, through mid-2020.

Source of information: SFI