About the European Film Gateway

The EFG portal provides quick and easy access to hundreds of thousands of film history documents held in European film archives and cinematheques: photographs, posters, programs, periodicals, censorship documents, rare feature and documentary films, newsreels and other materials. Aimed at both scholars and the general public, the EFG offers a glimpse behind the scenes of European filmmaking from its beginnings to the present day. The EFG facilitates online access to historical documents and takes you directly to the archives that hold the originals.

EFG also features two special collections: The EFG1914 collection focuses on films from the period of the First World War and gives acccess to around 3,000 film titles. The VICTOR-E collection with about 600 titles focuses on films depicting reconstruction efforts in Europe after the Second World War.

Discover and immerse yourself in over a hundred years of European film history. Explore films and the various materials related to their production, distribution and reception. Use the information and content presented through the European Film Gateway for your work, study and leisure. Share your discoveries on social networks, in your community, among your friends and colleagues.

EFG and Europeana
The EFG is connected to Europeana.eu, the digital showcase for Europe's cultural and scientific heritage. Europeana provides access to millions of items from museums, archives, libraries and audiovisual institutions, opening up a space for participation, innovation and creativity. By contributing to Europeana, the EFG is opening up the richness of Europe's film archives to Europeana users and film lovers around the world.

Behind the portal: The EFG project (Sep 2008 - Aug 2011)

The EFG project was initiated by the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE) and the Europeana Foundation and ran from September 2008 through August 2011. The aim of the project, which was carried out jointly by 22 partner institutions (16 archives, 6 other partners), was to create a web portal providing access to selected archival material held in European film archives. The project addressed a number of key issues for access to digital content, namely, technical and semantic interoperability, metadata standards, and best practices for rights’ clearance and IPR management of cinematographic works. The DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum coordinated the project. Find more information and outcomes of the project on the EFG project website.

EFG was a Best Practice Network funded by the European Union under the eContentplus programme.

EFG1914 - Digitising Film from and about World War I (Feb 2012 - Feb 2014)

EFG1914 was the follow-up project to "EFG - The European Film Gateway". It started on 15 February 2012 and ran for two years. 25 official partners and 6 associated partners contributed to the project. As part of EFG1914, a total of 26 European film archives digitised and made available online more than 700 hours of film from and about World War I. Learn more about EFG1914 and watch WWI films here.

EFG1914 was supported by the European Union under the ICT-PSP.

Created by: Andrea Meneghelli, Cineteca di Bologna
Music by: Tempelhof

EFG1914 Trailer:

Created by Michael Kinzer, Deutsches Filminstitut
Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)