FIAT/IFTA WORLD CONFERENCE

Media archives operate today in an environment shaped by constant transformation. Technological change, evolving media ecosystems, shifting institutional frameworks and growing social expectations challenge how audiovisual memory is preserved, managed, accessed and understood. In this context, archives are not only repositories of content, but active spaces where knowledge, practices and perspectives meet.

Under the theme Screen Memories in Dialogue: Learning from Diversity, the FIAT/IFTA World Conference invites professionals, researchers and practitioners to reflect on media archives as spaces of exchange, collaboration and mutual learning. Dialogue is understood here as a working principle: between institutions and communities, between regions, between professional cultures, and between past experiences and future challenges.

Learning from diversity means recognising that valuable knowledge emerges from different contexts, scales and traditions of practice. Across the FIAT/IFTA community, archives operate under highly diverse institutional, technological and cultural conditions. These differences are not obstacles to be overcome, but sources of insight that can enrich global archival thinking, inspire adaptation and foster more resilient and inclusive practices.

The conference seeks to create a shared space where experiences from broadcasters, film archives, sound archives, community initiatives, research environments and hybrid institutions can be discussed on equal terms. By bringing together perspectives from Ibero-America and beyond, the conference encourages contributions that highlight situated practices, regional innovations and collaborative approaches, while engaging with broader questions relevant to the international audiovisual archival field.