NFPF News

66 Films to be Saved by the 2024 NFPF Grants

The National Film Preservation Foundation is proud to announce the winners of its 2024 federally funded grants. 32 institutions—six of which are new to our grant programs—will use these awards to preserve 66 films. Though some have been previously digitized, our grants will ensure their full preservation on film, which under archival storage conditions remains a more reliable and stable medium than digital video.

Varnette's World (1979), directed by Carol Parrott Blue and featuring the art of Varnette Honeywood, will be preserved by the National Museum of African American History and Culture with NFPF support.

A prominent group of films focuses on the work of African American artists. Elijah Pierce: Woodcarver (1974) profiles the renowned self-taught folk artist, recipient of a 1982 National Heritage Fellowship, and will be preserved by Ohio State University. The … Read more

7 Movies Join the Online Field Guide to Sponsored Films

Bowl in style after enjoying The Golden Years (1960).

The NFPF has added another seven films to its Online Field Guide to Sponsored Films, a free digital screening room that presents entries from The Field Guide to Sponsored Films, written by Rick Prelinger and published by the NFPF in 2006.

The screening room hosts a total of 177 sponsored films, commissioned during the 20th century by a variety of American organizations: businesses promoting commercial products, charities highlighting their good works, advocacy groups bringing attention to social causes, and state and local governments explaining their programs. Though several of the new films are already online in low-resolution copies made from analog transfers, our videos are derived from HD scans created by the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center of the Library of Congress.

Time Out for Trouble (1961) … Read more

15 Video Upgrades Now Online

Thanks to the generosity of the Audio-Video Conservation Center at the Library of Congress 15 videos on the NFPF website have received high-definition upgrades. The films, preserved and first uploaded more than a decade ago, have been recently scanned by the Library, and viewers will appreciate the jump in visual quality.

Rips and Rishes (1917), directed by Larry Semon, now in HD.

Two films are from the “Lost and Found: Australia” project, begun in 2008 to preserve and make available American silent films found in the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. The Prospector (1912) is a one-reel Western from the Essanay studio, while U.S. Navy of 1915 (1915) is a fragment from a documentary by Lyman H. Howe promoting American naval preparedness. Both were preserved by the Library of Congress with NFPF support.

The 13 remaining films are from “Lost and Found: New … Read more

THE RED MARK at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival

The fastest way out of the penal colony of Nouméa, as seen in The Red Mark (1928), preserved by and screening at the San Francisco Silent Festival.

On Sunday, April 14th the San Francisco Silent Film Festival will the premiere the new restoration of The Red Mark (1928), a prison-set potboiler preserved with NFPF support.

Directed by James Cruze, best known for epics The Covered Wagon (1923) and Old Ironsides (1926), the film is a set on the South Seas prison island of Nouméa. Its governor is De Nou (Gustav von Seyffertitz), who loves nothing more than sending a inmate to the guillotine. Pickpocket Bibi Ri (Gaston Glass) has won his freedom and refuses to leave the island without his girl (Nina Quartero), but she has caught the creepy, jealous eye of De Nou...

"A powerful story, though not a pretty one," was the judgment of Motion Picture … Read more

Catch MAN AND WIFE at the UCLA Festival of Preservation

Norma Shearer goes mad in Man and Wife (1923), preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Early April brings the return of the biennial UCLA Festival of Preservation, showcasing UCLA Film & Television Archive's latest preservation and restoration projects on the big screen. All screenings are free, and on April 7 attendees will have the opportunity to see the short feature Man and Wife (1923), preserved through a Roger Mayer Legacy Grant administered by the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Directed by John L. McCutcheon and starring Norma Shearer and Maurice Costello, Man and Wife was an independent production filmed in Fort Lee, New Jersey, known in the silent era as “Hollywood on the Hudson.” The film’s exuberantly melodramatic plot, involving secret identities, a character returning from the dead, insanity, and bigamy, caused … Read more