Founded in 1942 by Maria Adriana Prolo, the Film library of the National Museum of Cinema counts more than seven thousand films that belong to different periods of cinema, representing the history of cinema from its origins to the present. The Museum features one of the most valuable collections of silent features, mainly Itala Film and Ambrosio productions, and an important collection of sound features.
The collection of a significant number of documents and films from the Italian Silent cinema was made possible also thanks to the participation of Giovanni Pastrone to the founding of the National Museum of Cinema whose archives include today various genres from historic films to melodramas, from comedies to documentaries.
Sound films are represented by a collection of funds and donation that document both Italian and foreign cinematography: the avant-garde and the American cinema of the Fifties, the works of French directors of the likes of Jean Renoir, Alain Resnais, Claude Chabrol and a significant collection of films from the Dziga Vertov fund.