Chicago Film Archives

The 2023 CFA Media Mixer is June 22nd!

On June 22nd, join us for our annual Media Mixer event with the premiere of three new works at Constellation. This year's artist pairings are Paige Taul & olula negre, Jose Luis Benavides & Conjunto Primitivo, and Zachary Hutchinson & Haruhi Kobayashi.

CFA Receives NFPF Grant to Preserve Morrison-Shearer Dance Films

A grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation will fund photochemical preservation of eight solo dance films from CFA's Morrison-Shearer Collection.

THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON Selected for the National Film Registry

Chicago Film Archives is proud to announce that the National Film Preservation Board has selected THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON (1971) for the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.

CFA Receives NFPF Grant to Preserve Three 35mm Films

CFA is happy to to share that we have been awarded a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to photochemically preserve three 35mm nitrate films from our Charles E. Krosse Collection.

CFA Receives Grant to Preserve 2 Films by Maurice Bailen

CFA is happy to announce that we have received a Preservation Grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation for the photochemical preservation of two films from the Maurice Bailen Collection, The City (ca. 1961) and Confrontation (ca. 1968).

Chicago Film Archives Discovers Lost Silent Film in Collection

Chicago Film Archives is excited to announce that a complete 35mm print of lost silent feature film The First Degree (1923) has been rediscovered in our collection. There are no known surviving elements from the film held by other archives, and it is included on the Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films 1912-1929 list maintained by the Library of Congress.

Say hello to CFA’s new vault

Much of 2019 was spent preparing a much larger vault space with a dedicated enhanced cooling system and mobile compact shelving which will more than double our storage capacity for CFA's films and for future collections.

The Morrison-Shearer Foundation gifts dance media collection to CFA

This collection is comprised of unique films that reflect the artistry of photographer/filmmaker Helen Balfour Morrison and choreographer/dancer Sybil Shearer.

Over 2000 streaming videos!

Click on Explore Collections to search, browse and view our films.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Honors CFA

Chicago Film Archives is a recipient of the 2016 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions!

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Welcome

Chicago Film Archives is a regional film archive dedicated to identifying, collecting, preserving and providing access to films that represent the Midwest. Our purpose is to serve institutions and filmmakers of this region and elsewhere by establishing a repository for institutional and private film collections; serve a variety of cultural, academic and artistic communities by making the films available locally, nationally, and internationally for exhibition, research, and production; and serve our culture by restoring and preserving films that are rare or not in existence elsewhere.

Latest News

THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON Added to National Film Registry — Chicago Film Archives is extremely proud to announce that the National Film Preservation Board has selected The Murder of Fred Hampton as one of the films in the 2022 class of the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. Learn more.