Giovanna Fossati's dual role as Head Curator and professor is exceptional in the international film archive sector. She will serve as a bridge between the film restoration practice at EYE and the academic research conducted at the UvA. Fossati specialises in the digital techniques that have led to major changes in preservation, restoration and presentation of film heritage. Digital technology creates new possibilities for repurposing content, for instance by making film heritage available online or by making digital collections searchable on a large scale. Her research area also includes the role of policy and institutions, accessibility and distribution, and audience and public reception.

‘The transition from an analogue culture to a digital one offers new possibilities to preserve and provide access to our film heritage. It encourages us to reassess and reshape the role of heritage, film archives and museums’, Fossati explains. 

Giovanna Fossati has worked at the former Nederlands Filmmuseum since 1997. In 2009, she was appointed Head Curator at EYE, where she currently oversees the collection of 40,000 films, the extensive film-related collection, application of the collection in (digital) presentations and a range of scholarly activities. She obtained her doctorate in Media and Cultural Studies at Utrecht University and has lectured at the Preservation & Presentation of the Moving Image Master’s programme since 2003. In 2009, she published From Grain to Pixel. The Archival Life of Film in Transition (Amsterdam University Press, 2^nd edition).