Films Restored By The Film Foundation May 2026

Considered one of the greatest Korean films ever made, only a few battered prints survived the Korean War. TFF worked with the Korean Film Archive to rebuild the claustrophobic tension of this noir thriller. The restoration introduced this masterpiece to global audiences, paving the way for the Korean New Wave.

Perhaps the most vital work of The Film Foundation is the World Cinema Project (WCP) . Scorsese realized that Hollywood films have corporate backing, but a singular masterpiece from Senegal or Turkey has no champion. The WCP focuses on films that are "orphaned"—no rights holder, no studio, no money.

The Film Foundation is aggressively non-Hollywood centric. Its "World Cinema Project" (launched in 2007) specifically targets films from countries lacking preservation infrastructure. films restored by the film foundation

Satyajit Ray’s masterpieces (Pather Panchali, Aparajito, Apur Sansar) were in catastrophic condition. The original camera negatives had been damaged in a fire, and surviving prints were scratched, spliced, and warped. Working with the Academy Film Archive and Criterion, TFF funded a four-year, $250,000 restoration. Restorers sourced elements from the British Film Institute, the Library of Congress, and even a positive print from Ray’s own collection. The 2015 restoration allowed modern audiences to experience Ray’s humanist masterpiece as it was always meant to be seen.

While the above films are famous, TFF also focuses on orphans—newsreels, avant-garde shorts, and forgotten B-movies. Notably, TFF funded the preservation of early experimental films by Maya Deren (Meshes of the Afternoon) and silent features by Oscar Micheaux, the first major African-American filmmaker. Considered one of the greatest Korean films ever

Scorsese often notes that nitrate film (used from 1889 to 1951) doesn't just fade; it turns to dust or spontaneously combusts. Every time TFF restores a title, they are racing against a chemical clock.

Film stock, particularly the highly flammable nitrate-based film used before 1952, is not a stable medium. It decomposes into a sticky, foul-smelling goo, turns to dust, or spontaneously combusts. Even "safety film" (acetate and polyester) can suffer from "vinegar syndrome," shrinking and becoming brittle. Perhaps the most vital work of The Film

The Film Foundation doesn’t restore films alone. Instead, it acts as a powerful catalyst, providing funding, technical expertise, and industry pressure. It partners with major archives—such as the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the George Eastman Museum, the Library of Congress, and international bodies like Cinémathèque Française—to identify at-risk films and bring them back from the brink.

The following list represents the "crown jewels" of TFF’s catalog, spanning silent epics to foreign-language landmarks.