[Commlist] cfp: "Original Copies: Digital Tools for Preservation in Cinema and the Other Arts"

Original Copies: Digital Tools for Preservation in Cinema and the Other Arts
Call for Papers
International Conference: October 13-14, 2025

Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Torino, in 
partnership withthe Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale”


As a comparatively young discipline, film preservation has looked upon 
other practices as a template for its philosophical foundations and 
ethical guidelines: generally speaking, fine arts restoration and 
textual criticism have been taken as the two main polarities between 
which the preservation of cinema could shift. While film preservation’s 
indebtedness to these disciplines is most apparent, though, other 
archival and museological practices and methodologies are sometimes 
overlooked and yet should be considered as allies for addressing the 
challenges that the discipline is facing in the digital age.
This conference aims at going back to the roots of film preservation’s 
affinities and differences with other fields to open up different 
possibilities for collaboration and explore what is there to be learned 
from their best practices, including how the comparison between film 
preservation and other kinds of restoration or archival practices can 
affect our view of the medium’s nature itself.
Reflecting on these issues is more urgent than ever, given the 
revolution operated by the introduction of digital technology in film 
restoration and preservation practices. While different disciplines have 
reflected upon the consequences of the introduction of digital 
technology in their respective fields, they have mostly done so in 
isolation from one another. Even within cinema studies, discourses 
surrounding digital technology take different shapes depending on 
whether they are carried out in academia, film archives, or restoration 
laboratories. And yet, bringing all these discourses together is 
essential for having a more balanced view on digital tools for 
preservation, which are alternatively saluted as a lifesaver or treated 
as a curse.
We therefore invite scholars and practitioners in film preservation, 
arts restoration, and other related disciplines to come together and 
share each field’s best practices and hardest challenges, especially in 
light of the advent of digital technology, as well as reflections on the 
effects that preservation issues have on each field’s theory and 
historiography.
We encourage submissions dealing with different technical, 
organizational and intellectual/conceptual tools and endeavors for 
digital restoration, preservation, and documentation, with the goal of 
learning from one another and enriching our view of each other’s, as 
well as our own, form of art.
The main issues that we would like to address include, but are by no 
means limited to:

The relationship between film preservation and other kinds of 
restoration or editorial practices.

The relationship between original and copy in cinema and the other arts.

The fate of archival film material that has been rendered supposedly 
obsolete by the introduction of digital technology.

Ways in which digital tools can help saving the memory of the 
technological uniqueness of analog artifacts for future generations.

The lack of a standard protocol for documenting film preservation workflows.

The absence of a shared platform to make documentation accessible for 
practitioners, scholars, and researchers.

Strategies for promoting analog film collections and their history.

Cinema’s place within the broader cultural heritage framework, also as 
regards national and international laws and policies regulating 
restoration and preservation.

Object biographies of films and film collections.

Best practices for digitizing film and ensure the long-term survival of 
the preservation files.



This conference is organized in partnership with the Centro 
Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale” and will include a visit to 
its conservation center and restoration labs.

Keynote speakers:
Paolo Cherchi Usai: Senior Curator-at-large, George Eastman Museum, 
Rochester, New York.
Simona Monizza: Experimental Film Restoration and Conservation 
Specialist, Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam.

Submission guidelines:
The conference will be held in English. Please send a 300 to 500-word 
abstract and a 100-word bio (both in English) to (sabrina.negri /at/ unito.it) 
<mailto:(sabrina.negri /at/ unito.it)>, (giuliafrancesca.muggeo /at/ unito.it) 
<mailto:(giuliafrancesca.muggeo /at/ unito.it)>, and (mariaida.bernabei /at/ unito.it) 
<mailto:(mariaida.bernabei /at/ unito.it)> by June 1st, 2025. Acceptance 
notices will be sent out in mid-June.


Conference organizer:
Sabrina Negri, Università degli Studi di Torino, P.I. of the Rita Levi 
Montalcini project “Original Copies: Preservation and Promotion 
Strategies for Archival Film Materials in the Digital Age.”


Conference program committee:
Giaime Alonge (Università degli Studi di Torino), Silvio Alovisio, 
(Università degli Studi di Torino), Luca Antoniazzi (Università di 
Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenzo), Snowden Becker (Stanford 
University), Maria Ida Bernabei, (Università degli Studi di Torino), 
Stefano Boni (Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino), Sonia Campanini 
(Goethe-Universität Frankfurt), Michele Canosa (Università degli Studi 
di Bologna), Giulia Carluccio, (Università degli Studi di Torino), 
Rossella Catanese (Università degli Studi della Tuscia), Daniela Currò 
(University of South Carolina), Ambra D’Aleo (Centro Conservazione e 
Restauro “La Venaria Reale”), Stella Dagna (Università degli Studi di 
Milano), Miriam De Rosa (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia), Giovanna 
Fossati (Utrecht University), James Layton (FIAF), Giulia Muggeo 
(Università degli Studi di Torino), Christian Olesen (University of 
Amsterdam), Alessandro Rizzi (Università degli Studi di Milano), Elena 
Testa (CSC - Archivio Nazionale Cinema d’Impresa, Ivrea), Simone 
Venturini (Università degli Studi di Udine), Elżbieta Wysocka (National 
Film Archive, Varsaw), Joshua Yumibe (Michigan State University).

This event is funded thanks to a Rita Levi Montalcini fellowship as part 
of the project “Original Copies: Preservation and Promotion Strategies 
for Archival Film Materials in the Digital Age.”

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