Rome, Italy-based Mnemonica, a content hub for film/tv production and preservation of digital audiovisual heritage, in collaboration with the European Film Market/DocSalon & Archive Market at the Berlinale, held the panel Future Heritage: Securing the Future of Digital Cinema Archives on February 16, 2026, at the Documentation Center in Berlin.
With the transition of film production to digital, the long-term preservation of audiovisual works has begun to rely on fragile and dispersed infrastructures, with policies and practices still largely designed for the analog era.
At the Berlinale panel, Mnemonica presented the Manifesto for the Memory of Digital Cinema, a document to call upon institutions, stakeholders, producers and industry professionals to take responsibility for protecting audiovisual heritage in the post-film era. The Manifesto explores how national and EU regulatory frameworks can improve the protection of digital masters and related assets over time, identifying best practices, concrete policy options, and paths for cooperation.
“Digital cinema is not safe,” says Piero Costantini, CEO and founder of Mnemonica. “It’s a heritage that, as the years go by, is becoming increasingly hypothetical, abandoned here and there on precarious media under the illusion that digital is forever. It’s time to act at the European Community level; we must find common techniques and rules to preserve its value and continue to exploit it over time, combining public and private interests.”
Joining Piero Costantini on the panel were Thomas C. Christensen, director of Archives at the Danish Film Institute; Cecilia Pezzini, Festivals and Classics Acquisition manager at Co-production Office Germany; and Simone Appleby, director of the Digital Restoration Laboratory at the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée – CNC, who submitted a presentation illustrating France’s position on the topic. The panel was moderated by Julie-Jeanne Régnault, managing director of the European Producers Club.
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