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| Bunuel Film Foundation | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bunuel Film Foundation |
| Formation | 1990s |
| Type | Film preservation foundation |
| Headquarters | Mexico City |
| Region served | International |
| Leader title | Director |
Bunuel Film Foundation The Bunuel Film Foundation is a cultural organization dedicated to the preservation, study, and dissemination of the cinematic legacy associated with Luis Buñuel and related figures in 20th-century film. The foundation engages with archives, museums, universities, film festivals, and distributors to restore films, curate programs, and support scholarship on surrealist cinema, transnational filmmaking, and auteur studies.
The foundation emerged from collaborations among estates, collectors, and institutions influenced by Luis Buñuel's network, including interactions with Salvador Dalí, Federico García Lorca, André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, Max Ernst, René Clair, Luis Buñuel's collaborators such as Luis Alcoriza, Gabriel Figueroa, Emilio Fernández, Bunuel family members, and conservators at institutions like the Filmoteca Española, Cineteca Nacional (Mexico), Cinémathèque Française, British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art (New York), Library of Congress, Academy Film Archive, and the Cineteca di Bologna. Early milestones included joint restoration projects with the Cineteca Nacional and loans to the Venice Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and retrospectives organized by the Tate Modern, Institut Lumière, and the Paley Center for Media. Donors, estates, and filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel's contemporaries—Jean Renoir, Luis García Berlanga, Pere Portabella, Carlos Saura, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Andréi Tarkovsky, and Ingmar Bergman—contributed materials, while conservators from the National Film Archive (Czech Republic), Deutsche Kinemathek, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures advised on preservation strategies.
The foundation's mission aligns with priorities championed by entities like the Smithsonian Institution, UNESCO, Getty Conservation Institute, International Federation of Film Archives, World Cinema Project, Film Foundation (Shawn Levy), Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, and academic departments at National Autonomous University of Mexico, University of Oxford, Harvard University, UCLA Film & Television Archive, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and New York University. Activities include film restoration in partnership with the Loving Vincent Studio, technical collaborations with laboratories such as L'Immagine Ritrovata, legal coordination with rights holders including the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, and scholarly publishing with presses like Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, University of California Press, and Ediciones Cátedra.
The archival holdings encompass negatives, interpositives, production stills, scripts, correspondence, set designs, posters, and music cues linked to figures and works like Un Chien Andalou, L'Age d'Or, Los Olvidados, Viridiana, The Exterminating Angel, Belle de Jour, Simon of the Desert, Tristana, and collaborators such as Luis Alcoriza, Jean-Claude Carrière, Julio Alejandro, Maurice Ronet, Catherine Deneuve, Silvia Pinal, Fernando Rey, Claudia Cardinale, Luis de Tavira, and technicians like Alex Phillips and Gonzalo Gavira. Holdings are cataloged using standards promoted by the International Council on Archives, Dublin Core, MARC, ICA-AtoM, and linked to collections at the Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico), Bibliothèque nationale de France, British Library, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Smithsonian Institution Archives, and the Getty Research Institute.
Programs target students, scholars, and film professionals through fellowships, residencies, and partnerships with universities and festivals including New York University, University of Southern California, Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, Universidad Iberoamericana, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Sorbonne University, University of Cambridge, Universidad de Barcelona, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and initiatives with cultural centers like Casa de América, Instituto Cervantes, Alliance Française, Goethe-Institut, and British Council. The foundation sponsors seminars and symposia featuring speakers from institutions such as King's College London, University of Chicago, Princeton University, Yale University, Stanford University, and The New School, and collaborates with online platforms like Coursera, edX, and university presses for open educational resources.
The foundation curates touring exhibitions and film programs presented at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Tate Modern, Cinémathèque Française, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Cineteca Nacional, Museo Reina Sofía, Museo de Arte Moderno (Mexico City), Palais de Tokyo, La Cinémathèque québécoise, National Film and Sound Archive (Australia), and international festivals including Cannes Classics, Venice Classics, BFI London Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, San Sebastián International Film Festival, Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, and retrospective programs at the Paley Center for Media and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Restorations often premiere alongside new scholarship from contributors linked to journals like Sight & Sound, Film Quarterly, Cahiers du cinéma, Positif, Journal of Film Preservation, and Screen.
Governance draws on advisory boards featuring scholars, archivists, filmmakers, and cultural administrators from the University of Oxford, Harvard University, Princeton University, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, British Film Institute, Cinémathèque Française, Filmoteca Española, and the Museum of Modern Art (New York). Funding sources include philanthropic foundations such as the Guggenheim Foundation, Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, corporate partnerships with distributors and studios like Criterion Collection, StudioCanal, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Classics, and public grants from ministries such as Secretaría de Cultura (Mexico), Ministry of Culture (France), Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (UK), and cultural agencies like National Endowment for the Arts, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, and the European Commission's cultural programs.
The foundation's restorations and programs have influenced scholarship, curatorial practice, and popular reception, contributing to renewed critical attention in outlets and institutions including The New York Times, Le Monde, El País, The Guardian, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Artforum, Frieze, The New Yorker, and academic citations in journals like Film History, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Cahiers du cinéma, Screen, and publications from Cambridge University Press and University of California Press. The foundation's work has been recognized by awards and honors from the Goya Awards, BAFTA, Academy Awards, Venice Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, and preservation accolades from the International Federation of Film Archives and the Association of Moving Image Archivists.
Category:Film archives Category:Cultural foundations