Filmmuseum - Filmmuseum LAB

Filmmuseum LAB

New Location for Conservation Center
and Digital Lab in Vienna

A new era is dawning for the Austrian Film Museum: In spring 2025, the Film Museum will relocate its collections from the current location to a new facility on the grounds of the historical "Arsenal" barracks. The Filmmuseum LAB will be a center of excellence for film preservation, digitization, research, and education.

Vergleich zweier Filmkopien (Foto: ÖFM © Eszter Kondor)

Filmsammlung (Foto: ÖFM © Eszter Kondor)

Arbeitsschritt der Digitalisierung des Films "Trigon 71" (1971, Gottfried Bechtold) (Foto: ÖFM © Florian Haag)

Schnellseher (Tachyskop) aus der Werkstatt des Erfinders Ottomar Anschütz (Foto: ÖFM © Eszter Kondor)

Mater zu "Eine Frau ist eine Frau" (Une femme est une femme, 1961, Jean-Luc Godard)

Étienne-Jules Marey, "Décomposition du vol d’un goëland", Bronzeguss, Kopie (1995) der Originalskulptur im Musée Marey, 1887 (Foto: ÖFM © Robert Newald)

Michael Haneke, Regiedrehbuch, 2011, zu seinem Film "Amour" (Foto: ÖFM © Robert Newald)

Located at Heiligenstädter Straße 175 (1190 Vienna) since 1982, the collections of the Austrian Film Museum encompass more than 500,000 objects (film, photography, documentation, and digital collections). The film collection includes a comprehensive selection of significant film works of all genres and periods, as well as thousands of historical filmic records. The film-related collection includes valuable materials contextualizing film history, from estates of film artists to promotional materials and press reviews. Since 2020, the Film Museum has carried out mandatory deposit of digital film works funded by the Federal Governments "Innovative Film Austria" program.

The new Filmmuseum LAB has been constructed in collaboration with the ART for ART Theaterservice GmbH, a subsidiary of the National Theatre Company (Bundestheater Holding). ART for ART owns the property where rehearsal spaces for the State Opera and Burgtheater are located alongside costume and props workshops, and a depot. As part of the development of the site, ART for ART plans to establish a "cultural hub" for the visual and performing arts, photography, and film in collaboration with a variety of actors and institutions.

An approx. 1,500 m² modern storage facility for film elements, film-related documents, and digital collections has been built at the current site of Arsenal's "Objekt 19" heritage building. A "living archive" and "artistic laboratory," the building will also serve artists and creators, researchers, curators, and other public and non-profit organizations as a center of expertise for studying, conserving, and digitizing film in Vienna. For the first time, the site will also provide the appropriate conditions for the many training and continuing education programs offered by the Film Museum in collaboration with many universities.

Arsenal / "Filmmuseum LAB", Juni 2022 vor dem Umbau (Foto: ÖFM © Christoph Fintl)

Rot markiert: Gebäude für die Unterbringung des Filmmuseum LAB

Planning for the Filmmuseum LAB began in summer 2022, construction work started in fall 2023 and was completed at the end of 2024 (topping out in April 2024). The parties involved alongside the Film Museum were ART for ART (contractor), Leyrer + Graf Baugesellschaft (construction company), Malek Herbst Architekten ZT GmbH (architectural firm), Haider Medek & Partner (civil engineers on behalf of the Film Museum) and our future neighbor, Foto Arsenal Wien. The additional funds required for its operation (€400,000 per annum) will be borne equally by the Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport and the City of Vienna (MA 7) in the form of an increased annual subsidy.

Michael Loebenstein am Standort des zukünftigen "Filmmuseum LAB", Juni 2022 (Foto: ÖFM © Eszter Kondor)

Michael Loebenstein (Director of the Austrian Film Museum)

"We are very pleased that the completion of this project will validate the importance of our work promoting film as an artform and cultural technology.
With Filmmuseum LAB, it will be possible to preserve, curate and research our unique collections of film and documentation sustainably and Vienna will gain a new hotspot for film culture. For the first time, artists, researchers, and our partners in the educational and cultural fields will have a central location in Vienna for working with film, carrying out digitization projects, and actively integrating analog and digital film into their own creative and educational activities. We see Filmmuseum LAB as a major step towards modernization and sustainability."

"In the first months of 2025, after several years of planning, we will finally set off: more than 100 tons of our collections – films, film-related materials, work equipment, furniture and more than a dozen employees – will leave the old archive building in Heiligenstadt and move to the newly built 'Filmmuseum LAB'."