Cinémathèque Suisse

What Cinémathèque Suisse does

Cinémathèque Suisse is Switzerland's national film archive, operating as a non-profit cultural institution responsible for the preservation, restoration, and public presentation of Swiss and international cinema heritage. It maintains an extensive film collection — including prints, videotapes, and digital assets — that constitutes a public-good cultural resource under a national mandate. The organization operates cinema and exhibition venues across multiple Swiss locations, programs retrospectives, festivals, themed exhibitions, and educational/research activities, and provides online access channels to broaden audience reach.

Its core "products" are curatorial: archival preservation, film restoration, curated screenings and exhibitions, and reference/research services to scholars, filmmakers, and the general public. Underlying technical capability centers on film-preservation infrastructure (climate-controlled vaults, restoration laboratories, format-migration workflows) rather than a software platform. Distribution is delivered through owned cinema venues, traveling exhibitions, partnerships with film festivals, and online programming.

The business model is that of a publicly funded cultural institution. Revenue derives principally from Swiss federal and cantonal government grants and subsidies, supplemented by ticketing, membership/friends-of-the-cinemathèque contributions, restoration commissions, and ancillary commercial activity (venue hire, publications). There is no venture-style monetization; instead, the institution operates under a public-mandate cost-recovery framework where grant cycles, not unit economics, determine capacity. Customer segments are best understood as three constituencies: public funders (government), professional users (researchers, filmmakers, rights-holders), and the general attending public.

Name

Cinémathèque Suisse

Legal name

Cinémathèque suisse

Website

https://cinematheque.ch

Company type

Private

Founded year

1948

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Cinémathèque Suisse is Switzerland's national non-profit film archive. It preserves, restores, and exhibits Swiss and international cinema heritage through owned cinema venues, curated programming, and online channels, serving the general public, researchers, and filmmakers under public-funder mandate.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Film Archive and Cultural Heritage Services

NAICS

Museums (71211), Motion Picture and Video Exhibition (51213)

SIC

Services-Motion Picture Theaters (7830), Services-Motion Picture & Video Tape Distribution (7822)

akta.pro primary industry

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

akta.pro secondary industries

Screening Rooms & Cinematheques (Nonprofit/Institutional) (MPADAKAF), Access & Distribution for Archives (Restored Masters, DCP Creation, Screening Deliverables) (MPADAMAJ)

Keywords

• Film archive
• Film preservation
• Cinema exhibitions
• Film distribution
• Cultural heritage

Headquarters

HQ city

Lausanne

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Cinema Operations: Revenue from ticket sales and subscriptions for film screenings at the Capitole cinema in Lausanne, including two screening rooms (Salle Freddy Buache with 718 seats and Salle Lucienne Schnegg with 140 seats).
2. Subscription Packages: Multi-entry cards and annual subscriptions including 10-entry cards (CHF 120), 20-entry cards (CHF 200), 5-entry cards for seniors (CHF 50), and annual subscriptions (CHF 400).
3. Film Distribution Services: Licensing and distribution of films from the collection to cinemas, film clubs, festivals, and cultural organizations across Switzerland and internationally. The catalog includes 142 films available for distribution.
4. Retail Operations: The film boutique at Capitole sells DVD and Blu-ray collection boxes, books, posters, postcards, and other cinema-related merchandise. Also sells tickets for all screenings.
5. Image and Footage Licensing: Provides fixed images and film excerpts to professionals from media, museums, film production, and research sectors upon request for licensing fees.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Cinémathèque Suisse preserves, restores, and shares Swiss and international film heritage through its two-screen cinema at the Capitole in Lausanne, an archive of roughly 100,000 film titles and 210,000 km of film stock, a restoration laboratory, and a distribution catalog of 142 films. It also runs cultural outreach programs, a film boutique, school screenings, professional image licensing, and research services.

Product overview

Cinémathèque Suisse operates as a film archive and cinema institution with two core departments: the Film Department managing over 85,000 film titles and 210 million meters of film, and the Non-Film Department preserving diverse collections including archives, photographs, posters, books, scripts, and cinematographic objects. The institution offers multiple services including film distribution (142 films in catalog), school screenings, cultural outreach programs (Passculture, Ciné-familles, Cinémadeleine), room rentals at Cinema Capitole, image ordering for professionals, donations/deposits management, and consultation services at research centers in Penthaz and Zurich. Online platforms provide access to restored films (Vimeo, Play Suisse, filmo.ch), Swiss Film Weekly archive (Memobase), virtual exhibitions (Home), and the Repérages academic journal. The recently reopened Capitole cinema houses two screening rooms and a film boutique.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Le Passculture fait son cinéma: Youth program in collaboration with Passculture offering preferential rates for young people in education at the Capitole cinema
• Ciné-familles
• Cinémadeleine
• Repérages
• Home
• Filmboutique

Products and services

• Cinema Screenings at Capitole
• Cinema Subscription Packages
• Film Distribution Catalog
• Filmboutique (Film Boutique)
• School Screenings
• Image Ordering Service (Commande d'images)
• Room/Space Rental
• Cultural Outreach Programs
• Consultation and Visits
• Swiss Film Weekly (Ciné-Journal suisse) Archive

Quantifiable outcome

• 40 short films and 6-7 feature films restored annually
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

AI capability2 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• University of Lausanne (UNIL)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2010Official partnership since 2010 with three focus areas: research and development of Cinémathèque collections, seminars and film screenings, and cultural mediation. Led to over a dozen SNF research projects and the publication 'Histoire du cinéma suisse 1966–2000'.
• Cinema CH NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2006Cooperation project for education at Master's and Doctorate levels between universities, established in 2006 with UNIL as a key partner.
• FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Cinémathèque Suisse is a member of FIAF, the International Federation of Film Archives, which recognizes it as one of the ten most important film archives in the world.
• University of Zurich (UZH)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-standing research partnership with UZH's Film Studies seminar, providing funding for research projects and publications, student internships, and archival training.
• MemoriavcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAssociation supporting the preservation of Swiss audiovisual heritage. Collaborates with external laboratories for film restoration, supporting approximately 40 short films and 6-7 feature films restored annually.
• DGEP (Direction générale de l'enseignement postobligatoire) - Canton VaudcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on the Passculture program providing CHF 5 access to cinema for young people in education throughout the 2025-2026 season.
• CEC (Centre d'Enseignement et de Consultation)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in the Passculture program, providing pedagogical materials and educational support for the youth cinema initiative.
• Festival Cinéma Jeune PublicminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on the Ciné-familles program providing monthly family-friendly film screenings.
• Pro Senectute VaudminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on the Cinémadeleine program providing monthly film screenings for seniors and intergenerational audiences.
• MemobasecoreTechnology or IntegrationDigital platform hosting the complete Swiss Film Journal collection (1940-1975) with nearly 200 hours of content and 6,000+ topics.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Direct peers

• Cinémathèque de Toulouse: French regional cinematheque operating conservation, restoration, and public screening programs, and one of the larger provincial French film archives. Directly comparable as a smaller-scale cinematheque with active restoration output and educational programming.
• BFI National Archive: The UK national film archive under the British Film Institute, one of the largest film archives globally. Direct peer on archive scale, restoration operations, public screenings (BFI Southbank), and educational/research programming, with analogous public-funding reliance.
• EYE Filmmuseum: The Dutch national museum and archive for film in Amsterdam, consolidating collections from earlier Dutch archives. Comparable scope across conservation, public screenings, exhibitions, and educational programming, with a strong FIAF affiliation.
• Deutsche Kinemathek: Germany's federal film museum and archive in Berlin, combining a major film collection, public exhibition (Filmmuseum Potsdam), and educational programming. Comparable nonprofit operating model and collection scope within the German-speaking cinema ecosystem.
• Cinemateca Portuguesa: Portugal's national film archive in Lisbon, combining a major moving-image collection, restoration work, public screenings, and cultural mediation under a single public institution. Closely aligned mission and revenue model to Cinémathèque Suisse.
• Cinémathèque française: The French national film archive and cinematheque in Paris, founded in 1936. Closest functional peer to Cinémathèque Suisse: combines film conservation, restoration laboratory, public screenings, educational programming, and distribution under a single nonprofit umbrella with comparable FIAF standing.
• Austrian Film Museum:

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cinemathequech
• Facebookfacebook.com/Cinemathequesuisse
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cinemathequesuisse

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cinémathèque Suisse