Lisbon, Dec. 19, 2025 (Lusa) - The Portuguese Film Archive has already exceeded its goal of digitising 1,000 Portuguese films under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) and is expected to reach 1,300 in the next quarter, director Rui Machado told Lusa on Thursday.
The Portuguese Film Archive in Lisbon symbolically marked the achievement of the goal set in the RRP with the screening of an excerpt from the thousandth digitised film, "Três Dias sem Deus" (Three Days Without God, 1946) by Bárbara Virgínia, and with the announcement of an online page where data on all digitised films will be available.
"We wanted to show that we have fulfilled the measure within the established deadline, but this does not mean that the project is over, because we will have the possibility of digitising more films until at least March. (...) We can easily reach 1,200, 1,300 digitised films," explained Rui Machado.
According to the Cinemateca, between 2022 and 2025, 333 feature films and 697 short films were digitised and, in some cases, digitally restored in terms of sound and image, for a total of 1,030 films, or 43,645 digitised minutes, from more than 283 authors.
The RRP measure had a budget of €10.8 million, with a deadline for completion of 31 December 2025 - according to information on the Transparency Portal - and involved the participation of 30 to 40 external professionals.
According to Rui Machado, this RRP measure "was essential" to safeguard the heritage of Portuguese cinema, "although it did not structurally solve the problem of the Cinemateca laboratory," namely the lack of human resources and bureaucratic management constraints.
The director of the Cinemateca pointed out that "without digitisation, most films would quickly cease to be seen. Apart from the Cinemateca and very few cinemas, no cinema can screen a 35mm copy."
The RRP measure covers more than a century of cinematographic works and, consequently, the history of Portuguese cinema, from silent films to the present day, of different genres and eras.
Information on the digitised films is available at https://digital.cinemateca.pt/, serving as a "reference tool" for those who wish to programme them, such as "festivals, film clubs, distributors, museums, universities or other entities, both national and international".
Rui Machado pointed out that, from now on, there will be a catalogue of Portuguese films with the potential to reach wider audiences in cinemas, on television channels and via streaming.
The Cinematheque grants the use of new digital media for the films through a contract with the holders of rights to the cinematographic works, which includes payment of a fee based on the length of the films.
"We have more than 200 films with signed contracts, and we don't have any more because, for this type of work, we didn't have support from RRP. We have one person dealing with this," said Rui Machado, clarifying that there are still cases where cinematographic works are under the tutelage of the state or in the public domain.
The director acknowledged that some producers disagree with the agreement's terms and that, in most cases, the disagreement centres on the amounts requested for the transfer.
According to the draft agreements, which are available for consultation online, the rights' holder of a digitised film undertakes to pay the Cinematheque between €200 (for a work less than 10 minutes long) and €1,000 (for a film longer than one hour) "for the definitive transfer of the digital copy".
"This is an economic asset. We are asking for a single amount for all time. The [digital] master copy of each film will be responsible for the exploitation of the film in cinemas, on television, and on platforms for as many years as possible. (...) There are details that we can negotiate in the clauses, but others we cannot," he stressed.
For Rui Machado, this RRP measure to digitise Portuguese cinema will facilitate its circulation, "but it is not enough to have a theatre with a digital projector".
"We have always believed that digitisation could help to fill the programmes of cinemas in Portugal a little, not to mention the rest of the world, but it all depends on who is on the other side," he said.
The presentation of the thousandth film was attended by the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, for whom the digitisation of Portuguese cinema "is a first big step", but it is necessary to "consolidate public access to this collective heritage and say its sustained circulation".
SS/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
