Preamble
Since 1964, the Austrian Film Museum has been dedicated to conserving, researching and presenting the art of film. This document outlines the principles, values and positions that underpin our work.
Our Values
The following values guide our actions in all areas of our work.
Responsibility
We accept responsibility for fulfilling our statutory duties, described in more detail in our Mission Statement. This applies to our audience, staff, stakeholders, collections, and our social mandate.
Attentiveness and Respect
Everyone who works at or with the Austrian Film Museum, or uses its services, deserves to be treated politely, respectfully and attentively. We consider the resources, skills and needs of the departments and individuals involved in our collective mission.
Professionalism
We maintain high standards of professionalism and expertise in all areas of our work. We achieve this through the careful education and training of our staff, encouraging them to be curious and to always learn more. Professional collaboration involves respecting the structures and responsibilities that facilitate decision-making and the achievement of our collective goals. We also prioritise the active transfer of knowledge and practices between departments to reduce isolated work practices and the loss of information with each generational change.
Transparency
The Film Museum strives for as much external and internal transparency as possible in all its activities. The Film Museum documents and communicates its decisions internally and understandably. Clearly communicating our work practices, as well as our guidelines and standards, strengthens the Film Museum's position as a trustworthy, diligently operated cultural institution.
Sustainability
We aspire to use all our resources sustainably, and place an emphasis on financial and social sustainability, sustainable systems and technologies. We are especially committed to environmental sustainability. The Austrian Film Museum is an Austrian Ecolabel-certified institution and therefore regularly evaluates its procedures.
Care
Preserving, disseminating, researching and presenting film requires an understanding of the material and care that goes beyond maintaining the objects entrusted to the Film Museum's collection. Our care also extends to working with data and documentation, as well as maintaining our work and presentation spaces.
Solidarity
We view the collective challenge facing institutions and museums to preserve cultural heritage as an invitation to collaborate. We value solidarity in our collaborations with all external and internal partners. We promote solidarity by creating spaces for discussion and diverse opinions, in which all staff members can participate.
Accessibility
The Film Museum conserves material and immaterial film heritage with the aim of making it accessible to the general public, within the legal, conservation and resource constraints.
Reflection
We aim to reflect on our own positions and actions through open dialogue with colleagues, external experts, and visitors. Our goal is to pay attention to, and handle, social developments in a discerning manner.
Diversity
We strive for diversity in our collection, program, staff, and audience. It is through a diversity of opinions, backgrounds, skills, and ways of life that new knowledge and perspectives can be attained.
Responsibility
We accept responsibility for fulfilling our statutory duties, described in more detail in our Mission Statement. This applies to our audience, staff, stakeholders, collections, and our social mandate.
Attentiveness and Respect
Everyone who works at or with the Austrian Film Museum, or uses its services, deserves to be treated politely, respectfully and attentively. We consider the resources, skills and needs of the departments and individuals involved in our collective mission.
Professionalism
We maintain high standards of professionalism and expertise in all areas of our work. We achieve this through the careful education and training of our staff, encouraging them to be curious and to always learn more. Professional collaboration involves respecting the structures and responsibilities that facilitate decision-making and the achievement of our collective goals. We also prioritise the active transfer of knowledge and practices between departments to reduce isolated work practices and the loss of information with each generational change.
Transparency
The Film Museum strives for as much external and internal transparency as possible in all its activities. The Film Museum documents and communicates its decisions internally and understandably. Clearly communicating our work practices, as well as our guidelines and standards, strengthens the Film Museum's position as a trustworthy, diligently operated cultural institution.
Sustainability
We aspire to use all our resources sustainably, and place an emphasis on financial and social sustainability, sustainable systems and technologies. We are especially committed to environmental sustainability. The Austrian Film Museum is an Austrian Ecolabel-certified institution and therefore regularly evaluates its procedures.
Care
Preserving, disseminating, researching and presenting film requires an understanding of the material and care that goes beyond maintaining the objects entrusted to the Film Museum's collection. Our care also extends to working with data and documentation, as well as maintaining our work and presentation spaces.
Solidarity
We view the collective challenge facing institutions and museums to preserve cultural heritage as an invitation to collaborate. We value solidarity in our collaborations with all external and internal partners. We promote solidarity by creating spaces for discussion and diverse opinions, in which all staff members can participate.
Accessibility
The Film Museum conserves material and immaterial film heritage with the aim of making it accessible to the general public, within the legal, conservation and resource constraints.
Reflection
We aim to reflect on our own positions and actions through open dialogue with colleagues, external experts, and visitors. Our goal is to pay attention to, and handle, social developments in a discerning manner.
Diversity
We strive for diversity in our collection, program, staff, and audience. It is through a diversity of opinions, backgrounds, skills, and ways of life that new knowledge and perspectives can be attained.
Our Actions
We derive the following core tasks for the Film Museum from the above-mentioned values.
Collecting
Our goal is to create a living collection and make it as accessible as possible to interested members of the public, while taking a conservation-focused approach. We strive to make our collecting strategies and usability options transparent, communicating them openly externally.
When acquiring collection objects, we aim to achieve these goals, while also maintaining a realistic perspective in terms of preservation, cataloguing and accessibility. These goals are both enabled and limited by the available spatial, technical and personnel resources. The Film Museum recognises that collecting involves both inclusion and exclusion. In order to identify blind spots in our collection strategy, we routinely question and further develop our acquisition and collecting policies.
The Film Museum sees itself as part of an international community of institutions whose task is to preserve, research and make cultural heritage available. We are therefore committed to expanding and maintaining our collections in collaboration with other institutions. We recognise that preserving our collections has an environmental impact, and we strive to act sustainably and use resources efficiently in all aspects of our work.
Preserving and Cataloguing
The Film Museum considers itself to be the steward of the objects entrusted to it. Our care encompasses professional conservation, curatorial support, and making our holdings accessible to both contemporary and future generations. This also includes devising strategies to preserve intangible heritage, such as knowledge and practices.
Systematic and comprehensible cataloguing, processing, and documentation, based on internationally recognised standards, forms the foundation for publishing, researching, and making our collections accessible. When cataloguing our holdings, we are mindful of the potential for labels to marginalise certain groups. To catalogue collection items within an inclusive context, we collaborate with donors and depositors wherever possible. Through collaboration with international experts and participation in professional committees, we actively contribute to the creation of professional standards and recommendations, sharing our insights with the scholarly and archival community.
Research
Our research is guided by curiosity and an open attitude towards the topic of film as an art form, historical source, and cultural artefact. We initiate and support national and international research projects, and we value the responsible and transparent use of the resources entrusted to us, as well as our interactions with project partners.
We promote a diversity of perspectives on research topics and strive to enable people in different situations to study film works and primary and secondary historical film sources. Consequently, we remain open to developments in scholarly and social discourses.
We adopt long-term perspectives in research projects carried out by or in collaboration with us. The resulting knowledge and methods are documented and inform our archival, educational, and programming work. We actively share insights gained in professional committees and communities and make them available to the public.
Exhibition and Presentation
Wherever we exhibit film history, we strive to do so under the best possible conditions. For film screenings, this includes carefully inspecting and handling the prints, as well as decisions regarding the composition of the programs, and ensuring appropriate screening conditions. We believe it is important to be transparent about the screening format and the source of the prints and exhibition objects, and to provide additional context through supplementary materials.
Access to our offerings should not be impeded by family background, income level, education, or physical limitations. We aim to make our film programs and other presentations as inclusive as possible, enabling active access to the diverse facets of film heritage and its historical context for as many people as possible.
We view cinema as a social space that we care for and preserve. Here, we exhibit the full diversity of film history: from film as an art form, to film as a document, to film as entertainment. Therefore, we actively research and shed light on marginalised perspectives. A regular review of our own viewpoints, which inform our programme, is essential for this, since an ever-changing world requires contextualisation to be updated constantly.
We show respect for all works and participants (artists, audience, staff, and partners). Friendliness, a pleasant atmosphere and appreciation should go hand in hand with technical excellence and care. This is based on the solid training and continuing education of our staff. We learn as much from our successes as from our mistakes and are open to dialogue with everyone involved, including audience members, users, and partners. We actively collaborate with other institutions, striving for reciprocity. We lend and borrow works and exchange information. As an Austrian Ecolabel-certified institution, we use resources efficiently in our programming and exhibition work.
Education
We view our teaching and educational events as an intersection between the Film Museum and the public, facilitating dialogue about our work and our interpretation of film and cinema.
In educational situations, we value feedback as much as the content we present. In terms of pedagogical sustainability, we are interested in presenting and practising specific methods of thinking about film, and engaging in conversation with one another. Different points of view can coexist and provide the basis for debate. We show respect and appreciation for individual viewpoints.
Diversity (in terms of gender, sexual identity, cultural background, knowledge of languages, migration history, age, social background, and visible or invisible disabilities) does not happen by itself. By routinely questioning our educational strategies and methods, we aim to proactively promote diversity.
Careful and professional examination of subject areas involving film and one's own viewpoint is essential in order to approach the ideal of diverse, emancipatory and supportive education.
These guiding principles were compiled by a work group of Film Museum staff members – Janneke van Dalen, Christoph Etzlsdorfer, Anna Högner, Stefan Hubr, Andrea Pollach, and Marcus Weber-Eberhardt – in the course of 2024 and finalised in January 2025.
Collecting
Our goal is to create a living collection and make it as accessible as possible to interested members of the public, while taking a conservation-focused approach. We strive to make our collecting strategies and usability options transparent, communicating them openly externally.
When acquiring collection objects, we aim to achieve these goals, while also maintaining a realistic perspective in terms of preservation, cataloguing and accessibility. These goals are both enabled and limited by the available spatial, technical and personnel resources. The Film Museum recognises that collecting involves both inclusion and exclusion. In order to identify blind spots in our collection strategy, we routinely question and further develop our acquisition and collecting policies.
The Film Museum sees itself as part of an international community of institutions whose task is to preserve, research and make cultural heritage available. We are therefore committed to expanding and maintaining our collections in collaboration with other institutions. We recognise that preserving our collections has an environmental impact, and we strive to act sustainably and use resources efficiently in all aspects of our work.
Preserving and Cataloguing
The Film Museum considers itself to be the steward of the objects entrusted to it. Our care encompasses professional conservation, curatorial support, and making our holdings accessible to both contemporary and future generations. This also includes devising strategies to preserve intangible heritage, such as knowledge and practices.
Systematic and comprehensible cataloguing, processing, and documentation, based on internationally recognised standards, forms the foundation for publishing, researching, and making our collections accessible. When cataloguing our holdings, we are mindful of the potential for labels to marginalise certain groups. To catalogue collection items within an inclusive context, we collaborate with donors and depositors wherever possible. Through collaboration with international experts and participation in professional committees, we actively contribute to the creation of professional standards and recommendations, sharing our insights with the scholarly and archival community.
Research
Our research is guided by curiosity and an open attitude towards the topic of film as an art form, historical source, and cultural artefact. We initiate and support national and international research projects, and we value the responsible and transparent use of the resources entrusted to us, as well as our interactions with project partners.
We promote a diversity of perspectives on research topics and strive to enable people in different situations to study film works and primary and secondary historical film sources. Consequently, we remain open to developments in scholarly and social discourses.
We adopt long-term perspectives in research projects carried out by or in collaboration with us. The resulting knowledge and methods are documented and inform our archival, educational, and programming work. We actively share insights gained in professional committees and communities and make them available to the public.
Exhibition and Presentation
Wherever we exhibit film history, we strive to do so under the best possible conditions. For film screenings, this includes carefully inspecting and handling the prints, as well as decisions regarding the composition of the programs, and ensuring appropriate screening conditions. We believe it is important to be transparent about the screening format and the source of the prints and exhibition objects, and to provide additional context through supplementary materials.
Access to our offerings should not be impeded by family background, income level, education, or physical limitations. We aim to make our film programs and other presentations as inclusive as possible, enabling active access to the diverse facets of film heritage and its historical context for as many people as possible.
We view cinema as a social space that we care for and preserve. Here, we exhibit the full diversity of film history: from film as an art form, to film as a document, to film as entertainment. Therefore, we actively research and shed light on marginalised perspectives. A regular review of our own viewpoints, which inform our programme, is essential for this, since an ever-changing world requires contextualisation to be updated constantly.
We show respect for all works and participants (artists, audience, staff, and partners). Friendliness, a pleasant atmosphere and appreciation should go hand in hand with technical excellence and care. This is based on the solid training and continuing education of our staff. We learn as much from our successes as from our mistakes and are open to dialogue with everyone involved, including audience members, users, and partners. We actively collaborate with other institutions, striving for reciprocity. We lend and borrow works and exchange information. As an Austrian Ecolabel-certified institution, we use resources efficiently in our programming and exhibition work.
Education
We view our teaching and educational events as an intersection between the Film Museum and the public, facilitating dialogue about our work and our interpretation of film and cinema.
In educational situations, we value feedback as much as the content we present. In terms of pedagogical sustainability, we are interested in presenting and practising specific methods of thinking about film, and engaging in conversation with one another. Different points of view can coexist and provide the basis for debate. We show respect and appreciation for individual viewpoints.
Diversity (in terms of gender, sexual identity, cultural background, knowledge of languages, migration history, age, social background, and visible or invisible disabilities) does not happen by itself. By routinely questioning our educational strategies and methods, we aim to proactively promote diversity.
Careful and professional examination of subject areas involving film and one's own viewpoint is essential in order to approach the ideal of diverse, emancipatory and supportive education.
These guiding principles were compiled by a work group of Film Museum staff members – Janneke van Dalen, Christoph Etzlsdorfer, Anna Högner, Stefan Hubr, Andrea Pollach, and Marcus Weber-Eberhardt – in the course of 2024 and finalised in January 2025.
January 2025