The 40th edition of the festival is taking place this year. Today, Il Cinema Ritrovato is much more than a film festival. It is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading events dedicated to film preservation, restoration, and the study of cinema history.
Organized annually by the Cineteca di Bologna, it serves as a meeting point for archivists, scholars, filmmakers, and cinephiles from around the globe.
The festival functions as an important forum for academic exchange and professional development. Through lectures, workshops, panel discussions, and archival presentations, it connects scholarly research with public engagement. It has become a major gathering place for film historians, archivists, restoration specialists, and students.
As part of the festival, a program of technical meetings will also be held in the DAMSLab auditorium. This program highlights film-specific projects and processes, with film technology for digitization and restoration playing a major role.
On Thursday, June 25, 2026, at 10:20 a.m., Bernhard Wanko will speak about the history of MWA (Mechanische Werkstätten Albrecht). The centenary in 2026 honors not only an impressive corporate history but also a century of technical creativity, entrepreneurial perseverance, and significance in film history. A unique arc of German technological history spans from the first radio kits of the 1920s and the post-war magnetic film revolution to modern digital film scanners.
100 years of MWA means 100 years of innovation for film, sound, and media – developed in Berlin, used around the world.