Founded in 1963 by a group of impassioned filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts, the mission of Cinémathèque québécoise is to preserve and document film and television heritage in order to make it available to an ever-growing and diversified public.

Its expertise in Quebec and Canadian cinema and international animated film is universally recognized.

The priceless collections put together by the Cinémathèque are the result of almost 40 years of effort devoted to the preservation of film heritage and the energy more recently invested in the field of television archives.

Conserve
  The Cinémathèque's first mandate is to preserve film and television productions. However, collections of all natures have been assembled since its creation. They group together more than 35,000 films from all eras and countries, 25,000 television programmes, 28,000 posters, 600,000 photos, 2,000 pieces of historical equipment, 15,000 scripts and production documents, 45,000 books, 3,000 magazine titles and thousands of dossiers on a variety of subject, as well as objects, props and costumes.

An important part of those collections is preserved in Boucherville in specially built preservation vaults where humidity and temperature are strictly controlled. The quality of these installations and the richness of its collections have given the Cinémathèque québécoise an indisputable reputation throughout the Quebec and Canadian film industry and in international motion picture circles.

The complementary collections (posters, photos, scripts, production documents, etc) and the documentation (books, magazines, press clippings, etc) are preserved in Montreal.

Document
  To establish the value of this audio-visual heritage, the Cinémathèque has also collected just about everything ever published about the world of film, television and video. This collection of books, press clippings and various documents is essential to the daily work of the Cinémathèque's employees. It is also at the disposal of students and teachers, professionals and film enthusiasts, tourists and anyone with a passion for innovation who wish to stimulate their curiosity or complete their research projects.

This documentary heritage is itemized on databases. Information about the general content of the collection as well as details on a large portion of this mass of material can now be obtained on the information highway.

Promote
  All of these treasures now sparkle in an ultra-modern complex located in the very heart of Montreal. The entire country can be proud of the Cinémathèque québécoise whose mediatheque, screening rooms and exhibition galleries make it without doubt is the largest documentation and programming centre for film and television arts in Canada.