As the FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2025 concluded in Rome, Italy, the organization revealed that the 2026 edition will take place in São Paulo, Brazil, hosted by Cinemateca Brasileira. The 2026 conference will take place from October 6-9, 2026, bringing together the global community of audiovisual archive professionals for another year of knowledge exchange, collaboration, and innovation.

Every four years, the FIAT/IFTA World Conference takes place outside of Europe, reinforcing the federation’s commitment to its international character and to the diverse realities of the global archival community.

Virginia Bazán Gil, President of FIAT/IFTA, commented:

“We are thrilled to announce Cinemateca Brasileira as the host of the FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2026 in São Paulo. After three consecutive years of holding the conference in European cities, bringing it to Brazil marks an exciting opportunity to engage with and hear directly from the archival and broadcasting community across Latin America. This edition will not only strengthen FIAT/IFTA’s global network but also highlight the diversity, innovation, and resilience that define the region’s approach to audiovisual preservation.” 

Gabriela Sousa de Queiroz, Technical Director of Cinemateca Brasileira, added:

“It is a great joy for Cinemateca Brasileira to host the FIAT/IFTA World Conference in 2026, an event of such international importance organized by a group that we are very proud to be affiliated with. Hosting this event also highlights the importance of television archives held by public and private institutions. These archives are fundamental to the memory and history of our country. It will be an opportunity to strengthen technical and institutional ties with the Federation.”

The FIAT/IFTA World Conference is recognized as the premier annual gathering for media archive professionals, from archivists and managers to researchers, technologists, and policy-makers. More than a business event, it is a dynamic forum where ideas meet action, and where the international community comes together to address the most pressing challenges in media preservation and access in an atmosphere of collaboration and openness.

The Cinemateca Brasileira, a member of FIAT/IFTA, preserves the country’s audiovisual heritage. Its collection, the largest in South America, includes 40,000 film titles and vast documentation. The institution also holds historical television archives, such as the complete holdings of the pioneering TV Tupi, which includes news programs and its outstanding soap operas and audience shows.

About Cinemateca Brasileira

The Cinemateca Brasileira, the largest film archive in South America and a pioneering member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), was inaugurated in 1949 as the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo. It became the Cinemateca Brasileira in 1956, under the leadership of its creator, chief curator, and director, Paulo Emílio Sales Gomes. The core of its mission is the preservation of Brazilian audiovisual works and the dissemination of cinematographic culture. Since 2022, the institution has been managed by the Sociedade Amigos da Cinemateca, an entity created in 1962, which was recently qualified as a Social Organization.

The Cinemateca Brasileira’s collection comprises over 40,000 titles and a vast documentary archive (textual, photographic, and iconographic) related to film production, distribution, exhibition, criticism, and preservation, in addition to an online informational heritage covering 120 years of national production. Selections from its collections, such as Vera Cruz, Atlântida, works from the silent era, as well as the journalistic and telenovela archives from TV Tupi of São Paulo, are available in the Cultural Content Bank (Banco de Conteúdos Culturais) for public access.