FIAF has existed since 1938. Over the course of the nearly eighty years of its history several generations of film curators and restorers have succeeded one another, each of which has been in the front line of the daily battle to safeguard our heritage. It is a task that was never easy, because the men and women who made up the history of film archives had to construct an entire field of knowledge and develop new activities: how to preserve, how to restore, how to programme. In short, they had to give meaning to the term ‘film archive’. Moreover, the challenges were new and different in each national context. And yet, with the exception of a few stars – or perhaps only one, Henri Langlois, whom the nouvelle vague brought into the limelight – these figures, each equally worthy and extraordinary, have almost all been forgotten. For this reason, and so that our memories are not lost, we decided this year to begin remembering the most significant outstanding personalities during the Cinema Ritrovato festival. We chose to begin with key personalities who played a significant role both within their own archives and within film archiving worldwide.