Anthology Film Archives

What Anthology Film Archives does

Anthology Film Archives is an international nonprofit center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a specialization in independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema. Founded in 1970 by Jonas Mekas, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, and Stan Brakhage, it operates as the first museum devoted to film as an art form and is headquartered in a single facility at 32 Second Avenue in New York City's East Village. The institution houses two screening venues — the 187-seat Courthouse Theater and the 72-seat Maya Deren Theater — supported by multi-format projection capabilities spanning 35mm, 16mm, Super-8mm, DCP, Blu-ray, DVD, and legacy video formats, plus a Dolby 5.1 sound system.

Its core offerings fall into four interconnected lines: (1) public film screenings across curated series such as Essential Cinema, NewFilmmakers, retrospectives, and AFA Preservations, running 900+ programs per year; (2) archival collections and preservation services, with 900 works preserved to date at an average rate of 25 films per year; (3) the Jerome Hill Research Library — the world's largest collection of books, periodicals, and paper materials on avant-garde cinema, containing nearly 10,000 books, 24,000 files, and 250 periodical runs, accessed by appointment; and (4) theater rentals, film print loans, stills licensing, publications, and a membership program. Revenue is generated through six distinct streams: ticket sales, hourly theater rentals ($600–$900/hr), annual memberships, film stills licensing (tiered non-profit/commercial fees), library access fees ($20/day), and grant-funded preservation services. Customers span general cinephiles, academic researchers, independent filmmakers, festivals, and other institutions — primarily served in person in New York, with global film loan distribution as the only cross-border channel.

Name

Anthology Film Archives

Legal name

Anthology Film Archives

Website

https://anthologyfilmarchives.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1970

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Film Archive and Cultural Services

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (519210), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (7121), Motion Picture and Video Exhibition (51213)

SIC

Services-Motion Picture Theaters (7830), Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Archival Preservation & Conservation (Handling, Storage, Environmental Controls) (MPADAMAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Libraries, Archives & Special Collections (BPAGAHAF), Archives, Special Collections & Preservation Operations (Rare Materials, Conservation) (EDAEAGAJ)

Keywords

• Film preservation
• Avant-garde cinema
• Film exhibition
• Research library
• Theater rentals

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Film Screenings (Ticket Sales): Revenue from public screenings of films in their two theaters (Courthouse Theater with 187 seats and Maya Deren Theater with 72 seats). Films include new releases, revivals, retrospectives, and special programs.
2. Theater Rentals: Hourly rental of theaters to individuals and organizations for premieres, private screenings, classes, guest lectures, benefits, and multi-day film festivals. Prices include projectionist, theater manager, and box office services.
3. Membership Program: Annual membership offering discounted tickets and other benefits, with a tax-deductible donation component.
4. Film Stills Licensing: Fees charged for reproduction of film still images from the collection, with different rates for non-profit and commercial use, and various publication types (North American vs. worldwide, book covers, video/TV).
5. Research Library Access: Fees for access to the Jerome Hill Research Library including $20/day registration fee, plus charges for Xerox copies ($1 first page, 25 cents subsequent pages for general; $1 first page, 50 cents for journals).
6. Film Preservation Services: Preservation services for films, supported by grants and foundations including the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and National Film Preservation Foundation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Anthology Film Archives is an international nonprofit center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema. It operates two theaters in New York City that screen more than 900 programs annually, maintains extensive archival collections (films, videos, paper materials, and stills), provides by-appointment research access to the Jerome Hill Research Library, preserves approximately 25 films per year, and rents its theaters for premieres, festivals, and private screenings.

Product overview

Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema. Founded in 1970, it operates as a single unified institution offering multiple interconnected services: film screenings across curated series (Essential Cinema, New Filmmakers, Retrospectives, Special Screenings, Series, and AFA Preservations); extensive archival collections including films/videos, the Jerome Hill Research Library (books, periodicals, documents), stills, and audio; theater rentals at two venues (Courthouse Theater with 187 seats and Maya Deren Theater with 72 seats); film preservation services (averaging 25 films per year, 900 works preserved to date); research access by appointment; and membership programs. The institution screens more than 900 programs annually and publishes books and DVDs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Public Film Screenings Ticketed public screenings of curated film programs in the 187-seat Courthouse Theater and the 72-seat Maya Deren Theater, featuring new releases, revivals, retrospectives, and special series for individual cinephiles and the general public.
• Theater Rentals Hourly rental of the Courthouse Theater (187 seats, 2nd floor) and Maya Deren Theater (72 seats, street-level with Dolby 5.1 sound) to individuals, organizations, and festivals for premieres, private screenings, classes, guest lectures, benefits, and multi-day film festivals, including projectionist, theater manager, and box office services.
• Jerome Hill Research Library Access By-appointment access to the closed-stack Jerome Hill Research Library for researchers, scholars, and students, with nearly 10,000 books, 24,000 files organized by individual, institution, and subject, 250 sets of periodicals, and thousands of stills; $20/day registration fee and per-page Xerox fees apply.
• Film Stills Licensing Reproduction and licensing of film stills and photographs from Anthology's collection for editorial, non-profit, and commercial use, with tiered per-image fees for North American vs. worldwide publication, video/DVD/TV, and book/DVD covers, plus special fees for new still creation.
• Film Preservation Services Preservation of avant-garde and experimental films, averaging 25 films per year (900 works preserved to date), supported by grants including from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Film Preservation Foundation.
• Membership Program Annual membership offering discounted tickets and other benefits to supporters, with a tax-deductible donation component to fund the nonprofit's preservation and exhibition mission.
• Film Print Loans and Distribution Loans and distribution of Anthology's collection films to other institutions and festivals globally for exhibition purposes, with a $150/hour film print inspection fee.
• Publications and DVDs Publishing of books and DVDs related to avant-garde cinema and filmmaker studies, distributed as part of Anthology's scholarly and curatorial mission.
• NewFilmmakers Series Long-running screening platform for independent filmmakers, selecting and exhibiting works often overlooked by traditional film festivals; over 600 features and 2,000 short films have been screened since 1998.

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves3 records

Direct peers

• Museum of the Moving Image: New York City-based nonprofit museum dedicated to film, television, and digital media, with active exhibition programming, an archive, and educational programming — the closest US analog to Anthology's preservation-plus-exhibition model.
• BAMPFA (Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive): University-affiliated film archive and active movie theater at UC Berkeley; combines a major film collection, repertory screenings, and gallery-based film programming, mirroring Anthology's integrated archive-cinema structure.
• Cinémathèque française: Paris-based nonprofit film archive, museum, and active movie theater founded in 1936; combines world-class film preservation, a research library, and continuous repertory exhibition — a European structural parallel to Anthology.
• Eye Filmmuseum: Amsterdam-based museum and archive dedicated to cinema, combining a major film collection, permanent and temporary exhibitions, and active screening theaters — operating model closely matches Anthology's preservation-and-exhibition mandate.
• BFI Southbank (British Film Institute): London-based repertory cinema operated by the BFI alongside the UK's national film archive; runs continuous curated film programming with adjacent archival and educational activities comparable to Anthology's scope.
• George Eastman Museum: Rochester, NY-based museum combining film and photography collections, a working archive, and active in-house screening theater — operates a similar hybrid museum-archive-cinema model with comparable institutional age.
• Deutsche Kinemathek: Berlin's national film museum and archive; preserves German film history and operates exhibition programming and a research collection, structurally analogous to Anthology's preservation-meets-exhibition focus.
• Film at Lincoln Center: NYC nonprofit operating repertory screenings and major festivals (NYFF); comparable on the exhibition/community side though without Anthology's preservation-and-library depth, making it a parallel rather than full substitute.
• UCLA Film & Television Archive: University-affiliated film archive and one of the largest moving-image collections in the world; preservation-heavy mission without Anthology's in-house public screening theaters, but the closest US archival peer by collection depth.

Broad incumbents

• Museum of Modern Art — Department of Film: MoMA's film department runs screenings and holds one of the most significant film collections in the U.S.; broader institutional mandate with a much larger endowment, comparable in collection prestige but operating at vastly larger scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/anthology-film-archives

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Anthology Film Archives