Cinémathèque suisse (Switzerland’s film archive) can be viewed as Switzerland’s museum of film. But it’s not solely concerned with Swiss films, instead everything concerning the art of filming and audio-visual media in Switzerland.

The Cinémathèque suisse collection is made up of 70,000 film copies, 2.8 million photos and 300,000 posters – and ranks sixth according to the international association of film archives (FIAF) where the world’s most important photo archives are concerned. Besides entertaining and documentary films, the Cinémathèque Suisse collection includes archived documents from Swiss film weeks, advertising and job films, as well as amateur films. In fact, you could well say that Cinémathèque is Switzerland’s audio-visual memory bank.

As with all other comparable institutions worldwide, Cinémathèque Suisse collects everything associated with film development in Switzerland. The collection is therefore not limited solely to productions shot within home borders, instead includes films of all origins and formats.

Cinémathèque suisse generally organizes three film presentations in a day. These take place in the Cinématographe and Paderewski hall of the Casino de Montbenon. Special events, premiers and gala evenings are mostly held in the Capitole; Switzerland’s largest cinema hall, which the town of Lausanne makes available to Cinémathèque suisse since 2010.

Certain presentations in connection with Cinémathèque suisse are also viewed in the cinema halls of other towns, namely Filmpodium in Zurich and the Cinéma du Grütli in Geneva.