Guidelines

The Asian Film Archive (AFA) develops, cares for, and interprets a collection that reflects the history, society, and the art of film amongst Asian countries and about Asians. Held in trust for the public’s use and for the purposes of AFA in pursuit of its objectives, the guiding questions below provide depositors with an idea on the scope of the AFA’s collecting policy.

Scope

  1. Is the film shot in Asia or an Asian production?
  2. Is the film about Asian societies, subject matters, or characters?
  3. Does the film impact or show a relationship to any Asian peoples?
  4. Does the film demonstrate a distinct style thought to be associated with Asian films?
  5. Can the film be regarded as part of an Asian ‘national cinema’?

Urgency

  1. What is the physical condition of the film?
  2. How many copies are there of the film?
  3. Is the film on an obsolete format?
  4. How old is the primary filmmaker?
  5. Are other archival institutions preserving the film?
  6. Is the ownership of copyrights known?
  7. Can the film be made available for public reference and research?

Quality and Significance

  1. Is the film critically acclaimed, well-received, reviewed or award winning?
  2. Does the film, or the filmmaker’s body of works, exemplify the art, history, and use of filmmaking?
  3. Does the film have historical, political, social, cultural, or aesthetic significance to Asia?
  4. Is the film unique in its form and use?

Medium and Genre

  1. What are the film’s original and screening formats (film gauge, digital or analogue video, media files)?
  2. Is this a feature film, medium-length film or a short film?
  3. What genre does the film belong to (action/adventure, avant-garde, comedy, experimental, docu-drama, drama, educational, environmental, erotic, film noir, horror, human rights, independent, mockumentary, romance, satire, sci-fi, silent film, spoof, thriller, war/peace)?
  4. What is the form of the film (animation, documentary, feature, music video, TV commercial, video art)?
  5. Does the film come with materials related to the creative process, promotion, distribution of the film from its distributed countries (scripts, posters, stills, storyboards, reviews)?

The selection committee will only consider submissions related to Asia. Material that are unrelated to Asia but might otherwise be at risk of loss may be referred to relevant archiving institutions. AFA will work with other institutions to care for material on Asia that do not fall within AFA’s collecting ambit or to minimise duplication.