On April 29, 1974, the Law on the establishment of the Cinematheque of Macedonia was published. Officially, the Cinematheque began its work in 1976, as an institution of special interest for the Republic, with the task of collecting, processing, keeping, protecting and presenting films and film materials of special artistic, cultural, scientific, historical and other social significance.
In order to realize the activity defined in this way, the Cinematheque of Macedonia is completely financed by the Ministry of Culture under the Government of the Republic of Macedonia.
In 2005, the Film Archive moved to new premises at 1 Nikola Rusinski Street. The archival materials, i.e. the entire Macedonian film production (from 1905 to the present), as well as the films shot by foreign authors in Macedonia in the period up to the Second World War, are kept in a special section, in depots with a controlled temperature of 4 to 6 C° and humidity of 50% Ph. The remaining film materials are located in the film archive depots in the vicinity of Skopje.
There are 2 sectors in the Cinematheque of Macedonia. Film archive or Department for collection, protection, storage and processing of films and film materials and accompanying film documentation, then Department for research, publishing, public and international activity, library activity and film program.
The Cinematheque of Macedonia has a fund of over 15,000 film copies, more than 72,000 pieces of propaganda material, photographs and posters, as well as more than 100,000 written documents. The Cinematheque includes a specialized library with over 4,500 books and magazines on the history and theory of film, as well as 32,500 press clippings. The movie theater also has a collection of old cinematographic equipment.
The Cinematheque is a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), the European Association of Cinematheques (ACE) and the “Europa Cinemas” association.
