Bologna is home to a world-renowned institution devoted to the promotion, study and preservation of film, the Cineteca di Bologna. Its Cinema Lumière screens a huge selection of movies throughout the year, with a rich program that features independent movies, rarities, classics, animated and silent films (sometimes with live music). Next to the theatre is the Renzo Renzi library which boasts a collection of 38,000 books, 1,100 international and Italian film journals from the Silent Era to the present, 18,000 audiovisual materials, 200,000 movie posters and more than 1,500,000 photographs. [The catalogue of its books and journals is available online, along with that of the audiovisual materials.] The library also holds the Charlie Chaplin archive project, which contains the personal and professional archive of the great director. Taking full advantage of the Cineteca’s unmatched resources, E.C.Co. offers an exciting film course, The Cities of Emilia-Romagna on film, which centers on the depiction of Emilia-Romagna landscapes in the films of great Italian directors, such as Visconti, Rossellini, Pasolini, Antonioni, and Bertolucci.
Organized by the Cineteca, the Cinema Ritrovato Festival – with films screened throughout the city including Piazza Maggiore – is one of the most important European events on rediscovered and restored films. Every summer, this festival brings together over five hundred representatives of important film collections, historians of film, and international critics, as well as numerous film lovers from around the world. Specialized film festivals dot the calendar in Bologna: Future Film Festival focuses on animation and new technologies; Terra di Tutti Film Festival features documentaries on migration and social issues in developing countries, Some Prefer Cake celebrates lesbian film; YoungaBout is dedicated to cinema for children and young adults, just to name a few. Students can gain direct experience by volunteering at these festivals throughout the academic year and in the summer.
At the University of Bologna, the groundbreaking DAMS school (Discipline delle Arti, della Musica e dello Spettacolo), offers courses on Italian cinema, History of Italian Cinema, Cinema and Literature, Cinema and Cultural Studies and many others.