The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national collection of film, television, sound, radio, video games, new media, and related documents and artefacts. The collection ranges from works created in the late nineteenth century when the recorded sound and film industries were in their infancy, to those made in the present day.
The NFSA collection first started as the National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library (within the then Commonwealth National Library) in 1935, becoming an independent cultural organisation in 1984. On 3 October, Prime Minister Bob Hawke officially opened the NFSA's headquarters in Canberra.
History of the organisation
The work of the archive can be officially dated to the establishment of the National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library (part of the then Commonwealth National Library, precursor to the National Library of Australia) by a Cabinet decision on 11 December 1935.[citation needed] It was continued post-War by the Library's Film Division.
After being part of the National Library of Australia (NLA) and its predecessors for nearly 50 years, the National Film and Sound Archive was created as a separate Commonwealth collecting institution through an announcement in Parliament on 5 April 1984 that took immediate effect.[2] At that time, an Advisory Committee was established to guide the institution.[citation needed]
On 21 June 1999, the name was changed to ScreenSound Australia, the National Collection of Screen and Sound, and changed again in early 2000 to ScreenSound Australia, National Screen and Sound Archive. It reverted to its original name, National Film and Sound Archive, in December 2004.[citation needed]
In 2000, Screensound joined the PANDORA Archive, the web archiving project started by the NLA in 1996, as a collaborating partner.[3]
The building is often classified as art deco, though its overall architectural style is technically "Late 20th Century Stripped Classical", the style of ancient Greece and Rome but simplified and modernised. It features a symmetrical façade, a horizontal skyline, classical columns and a central entrance. The decorative foyer features images of native flora, fauna and Aboriginal art and motifs. Face masks of well-known scientists from the late 19th century and early 20th century are featured on the foyer's walls as a reminder of its previous incarnation as the Institute of Anatomy.[citation needed]
The building also features a landscaped courtyard and theatre. In 1999, the building was extended to accommodate the Archive's growth. The new wing's design is in keeping with the Art Deco style of the main structure with details and finishes to match the original look.[citation needed]
In 2024, the NFSA won the Architecture and Building Conservation Award in the ACT Heritage Awards for the renewal of the building.[6]
Governance and people
Board
NFSA is governed by a board, as a statutory body. As of June 2024[update] the board members are:[7]
The Cinesound Movietone Australian Newsreel Collection, 1929–1975, a comprehensive collection of 4,000 newsreel films and documentaries representing news stories covering all major events in Australian history, sport and entertainment from 1929 to 1975. Inscribed on the Australian Memory of the World Register in 2003.
The earliest surviving Australian sound recording, "The Hen Convention", a novelty song by vocalist John James Villiers, with piano accompaniment, recorded by Thomas Rome in 1896, inducted into the Sounds of Australia.[15]
A 2010 study compared the curatorial practices of accessioning and cataloging for NFSA collections and for YouTube with regard to access to older Australian television programs. It found the NFSA to be stronger in current affairs and older programs, and YouTube stronger in game shows, lifestyle programs, and "human interest" material (births, marriages, and deaths). YouTube cataloging was found to have fewer broken links than the NFSA collection, and YouTube metadata could be searched more intuitively. The NFSA was found to generally provide more useful reference information about production and broadcast dates.[17]
NFSA Player
In June 2023 the NFSA launched the NFSA Player, a new digital streaming platform for on-demand content. The first content collection, Buwindja[18], was a curated selection of 17 titles reflecting the 2023 NAIDOC theme of For Our Elders.
In July 2024, NFSA Player made another 34 titles available for rent, including true crime and mystery, stories of postwar migration and early films from notable Australian artists and directors.[19]
Video Games
The NFSA announced plans to collect Australian-developed video games as part of its collection starting in 2019, with new titles to be added on an annual basis.[20]
In 2022 it joined with ACMI and The Powerhouse to acquire the hit multi-platform video game Untitled Goose Game, created by Victorian game developers House House.[21]
In 2024, the NFSA published the first international video game preservation survey, in collaboration with The Strong Museum of Play (US) and with the support of the BFI National Archive (UK), and called for increased international collaboration and recognition to advocate for the needs of the video game preservation community.[22]
Public Program
The NFSA runs a public program from its Acton building, including new release and repertory cinema screenings at Arc Cinema, panel discussions and Q&As, conferences, audiovisual installations, festivals and live music.
Free public spaces include The Library, restored in 2024 to house more than 280 items drawn from the full expanse of the National Film and Sound Archive collection, the Mediatheque, a lounge screening highlights from the audiovisual archive, and the Theatrette, which shows free documentaries on rotation[23].
Partnerships
The NFSA is a foundation partner of Sustainable Screens Australia[24] and a founding member of the Australian Media Literacy Alliance[25].
2023 Budget Funding / Revive
In April 2023, the Australian Government announced an investment of $535 million over four years into eight National Collecting Institutions, including $31 million over the same period for NFSA[26]. The CEO of the NFSA Patrick McIntyre said “The new funds will turbocharge our ability to increase discoverability and access to the national collection for all Australians.”[27]
Fantastic Futures
In October 2024, the NFSA curated and hosted the Fantastic Futures 24 Conference, the first in-depth Australasian examination of the challenges and opportunities of AI for the galleries, libraries, archives and museums sector.[28]
Learning and Media Literacy
The NFSA runs a student media literacy program, Media and Me onsite at its Acton headquarters, which examines storytelling through animation, advertising, gaming, social media, film and music and explores how media has evolved over time in its methods of influencing and persuading viewers.[29]
Special collections
The Film Australia Collection contains a diverse range of more than 3,000 titles of Australian documentary and educational programs, spanning a century of Commonwealth documentary and docu-drama titles (1913–2008).
Sounds of Australia (formerly the National Registry of Recorded Sound) is the NFSA's selection of sound recordings with cultural, historical and aesthetic significance and relevance, which inform or reflect life in Australia. It was established in 2007. Each year, the Australian public nominates new sounds to be added with final selections determined by a panel of industry experts.[30][31]
NFSA Restores is the NFSA's program to digitise, restore and preserve, at the highest archival standards, classic and cult Australian films so they can be seen on the big screen in today's digital cinemas.
The Non-Theatrical Lending Collection includes non-theatrical screenings, which take place on a non-commercial basis and are held by educational, cultural, social and religious institutions; community groups; churches; film societies; government bodies; hospitals; libraries; museums and galleries.[citation needed]
The Australian Jazz Archive, established in 1997,[33] was developed in partnership with state-based volunteer jazz archives. It includes published and unpublished recordings of Australian jazz bands and musicians, as well as personal collections, and covers Australian jazz since 1920.[32]
Preservation
Films are digitised as part of their preservation strategy, so that the original does not need to be seen as often. The oldest films in the collection, some over 100 years old and those made up until the 1950s, were made on nitrate cellulose film, of which NFSA holds around 10,000 cans. This type of film has a distinctive visual impact, being "very bright and colourful, dazzling..."; however, it also carries a high fire risk, and, if not properly stored, can deteriorate and become brittle. It needs to be kept cold and dry, but not too dry. Curator Jeff Wray believes that it is important to keep the original despite digitisation — "it has a great amount of information, a colour story, a technology story". Among other films made on nitrate cellulose, there is film of the Bodyline cricket series in the 1930s, and the first feature film ever made, The Story of the Kelly Gang, released in 1906. In May 2024, the federal government's budget allocated A$9.3 million towards the preservation of these films.[34]
Australian Screen Online
Australian Screen Online (ASO), also known as Australian Screen or australianscreen, is an online database operated by the NFSA. It has both a promotional and educational function, providing free worldwide online access to information about Australian cinema and the television industry in Australia.[35]
Since the initial launch of the website on 18 July 2007, with more than 1500 Australian film and TV clips,[37] it has won numerous awards as an educational resource and for its website design.[35] The website was revamped and re-launched in 2009, including new features such as exclusive interviews with filmmakers, a news section, forums, games, detailed profiles of producers, directors, screenwriters, film score composers and actors. At the time, it reported about 90,000 visitors per month to the website, with 25 per cent coming from outside Australia.[38]
Awards
Ken G Hall Film Preservation Award
The Ken G Hall Film Preservation Award was established in 1995 as a tribute to producer/director Ken G Hall. It is presented in recognition of an individual, group, or organisation, for their outstanding contribution to the art of moving image and its preservation. It is presented to candidates where there is a significant link between their work and its impact or relationship to the Australian film industry. Examples of this contribution include technical innovation, scholarship in the field, involvement with the survival of film as an art form and as a cultural experience, advocacy, sponsorship and fundraising.
The NFSA National Folk Recording Award was established in 2001 to encourage and reward excellence in Australian folk music recording. Award entrants are selected from recordings submitted each year to the National Folk Festival in Canberra. The judging panel comprises representatives from the National Folk Festival, ABC Radio and the Archive.[39]
2013 Not a Note Wasted by Luke R Davies and the Recycled String Band
The Cochrane-Smith Award for Sound Heritage[41] recognises the achievements of a person who has made a substantial contribution to the preservation, survival and recognition of sound heritage. It is named for Fanny Cochrane Smith, who features on the only known recording of Tasmanian Aboriginal songs and language.
2012 Ros Bandt
2011 Bill Armstrong
2010 Karl Neuenfeldt
Orlando Short Film Award
The Orlando Short Film Award is an annual celebration of Australia's best lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex short films. It recognises the nation's cultural diversity and the role screen culture plays within the broader community.
2012 Craig Boreham Writer and director of Drowning
First presented in 2010, the NFSA Australian Cinematographers Society John Leake OAM Award for an Emerging Cinematographer is designed to enable emerging cinematographers to develop their craft, and is presented annually at the Australian Cinematographers Society Awards. The Award is named in honour of Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) co-founder and industry icon John Leake OAM (1927–2009). The judging panel comprises the Federal President of the Australian Cinematographers Society, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Film and Sound Archive, and two other executive members of the ACS.
2013 Dale Bremner
2012 Jimmy Ennett
2011 Edward Goldner
2010 Kirsty Stark
Preservation Award
The South East Asia Pacific Audiovisual Archives Association (SEAPAVAA) NFSA Preservation Award recognises the extraordinary efforts of individuals or organisations within the South East Asia and Pacific region in preserving or promoting audiovisual archiving in the region. It is presented at the annual SEAPAVAA conference.
2012 Kae Ishihara
Exhibitions
The following exhibitions have been developed by the NFSA:
Mervyn Bishop: The Exhibition, about Aboriginal Australian Australian news and documentary photographer Mervyn Bishop, from 5 March to 1 August 2021. This exhibition is drawn from the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) collection, the artist's private archive, and enriched by sound and moving image from the NFSA.[43]
In 2023, to mark the centenary of radio in Australia, the NFSA published a digital exhibition, Radio 100.[44]
Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the widest sense, preservation assures that a movie will continue to exist in as close to its original form as possible.
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, publishing, and research institute and is considered to be Australia's premier resource for information about the cultures and societies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
ACMI, formerly the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, is Australia's national museum of screen culture including film, television, videogames, digital culture and art. ACMI was established in 2002 and is based at Federation Square in Melbourne, Victoria.
Mervyn Bishop is an Australian news and documentary photographer. Joining The Sydney Morning Herald as a cadet in 1962, he was the first Aboriginal Australian to work on a metropolitan daily newspaper and one of the first to become a professional photographer. In 1971, four years after completing his cadetship, he was named Australian Press Photographer of the Year. He has continued to work as a photographer and lecturer.
The Australian Film Commission (AFC) was an Australian government agency was founded in 1975 with a mandate to promote the creation and distribution of films in Australia as well as to preserve the country's film history. It also had a production arm responsible for production and commissioning of films for the government. It was superseded by Screen Australia from 1 July 2008.
Film Australia was a company established by the Government of Australia to produce films about Australia in 1973. Its predecessors were the Cinema and Photographic Branch (1913–38), the Australian National Film Board, and the Commonwealth Film Unit (1956–72). Film Australia became Film Australia Limited in 1988 and was consolidated into Screen Australia in 2008.
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings. Established in 1966, members include record collectors, discographers, and audio engineers, together with librarians, curators, archivists, and researchers.
The Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada. originally the Alliance for the Preservation of Canada's Audio-Visual Heritage, was a charitable non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of Canada's audiovisual heritage, and to facilitating access to regional and national collections through partnerships with members of Canada's audiovisual community.
The Australian Institute of Anatomy was a natural history museum and medical research institute that was founded in 1931 and disbanded in 1985. The institute's heritage-listed building, located in Acton, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia, has been occupied by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) since October 1984. The building was added to the Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.
Voss is an opera by Australian composer Richard Meale with libretto by David Malouf. It is an adaptation of Patrick White's novel of the same name. The opera was commissioned by The Australian Opera, and premiered at the Adelaide Festival in 1986. It was reprised in Adelaide in 2022, in a co-production by State Opera South Australia and Victorian Opera.
The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) was established in 1969 to serve as a forum for international co-operation between archives, libraries, and individuals interested in the preservation of recorded sound and audiovisual documents.
The Sounds of Australia, formerly the National Registry of Recorded Sound, is the National Film and Sound Archive's selection of sound recordings which are deemed to have cultural, historical and aesthetic significance and relevance for Australia. It was founded in 2007.
Martha Ansara is a documentary filmmaker whose films on social issues have won international prizes and been screened in Australia, the UK, Europe and North America. Ansara was one of the first women in Australia to work as a cinematographer, is a full member of the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) and was inducted into the ACS Hall of Fame in 2015. Martha is a Life Member of the Australian Directors Guild and a founding member of Ozdox, the Australian Documentary Forum. She has also worked as a film lecturer and film writer and has been active in the trade union, women's and peace movements.
The Art of Sound is an exhibition which was developed in 2013 by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) in collaboration with regional art galleries in Australia, and the University of Sydney to explore the use of sound in the visual arts.
Fractured Heart is an interactive sound and light sculpture designed and built by illuminart in collaboration with Gotye. It was first presented as the backdrop to his live performance of Somebody That I Used to Know with Kimbra at the 2011 ARIA Awards. The sculpture used mapped animated projections based on the music video that changed in time with Gotye's performance.
Michelle Anne Potter is an Australian dance writer, critic, archivist, and curator of historical materials. Her research and writing have focused on but have not been restricted to Australian dance history. She was honoured for her achievements with the award of Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2023 Australia Day Honours list.
Milton R. Shefter is a Los Angeles-based film and media-asset archivist and preservationist. He is best known for the creation, design, and management of the extensive Paramount Pictures Asset Protection Program, and for co-authoring the 2007 report from the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Digital Dilemma, as well as its 2012 followup, The Digital Dilemma 2.
Raymond Charles Argall is best known as a cinematographer and director for both film and television. He has also worked as an editor. His multi-award-winning feature film Return Home (1990) is regarded by many critics as an Australian cinema classic. Argall served on the board of the Australian Directors Guild (ADG) for sixteen years, holding the position of president from 2006 to 2015 and secretary from 2015 to 2017. In 2016, Argall launched a business restoring archival films through his production company Piccolo Films. In 2018 the ADG presented him with its prestigious Cecil Holmes Award.
Bert Ive (1875–1939) was a British-born Australian cinematographer, who was the first long-term cinematographer and still photographer in Australia. During his career as a film photographer for the federal government from 1913 to 1939, he frequently travelled across Australia to photograph the country's landscapes, industries, people and famous events. His motion pictures and still photos were used to promote Australia to the rest of the world.
↑ "The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)". Memory of the World. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2 October 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
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