Stills Collection
Our steadily growing collection of film stills is one of the cornerstones of the documentation department. With more than 350,000 items, it covers the history of film from its earliest beginnings right up to the present. Our earliest vintage stills date from
1910. As with the film collection, the emphasis is on items of international provenance. From auteur films to classical Hollywood cinema, our catalogue contains numerous icons of film still photography.
The collection includes thousands of stills from films that are presumed lost - elements which are often the
only remaining source for "re-imagining" the films in question (such as Josef von Sternberg's The Case of Lena Smith, the subject of a widely celebrated Film Museum publication. Among the many highlights in the collection are intriguing transparencies from Metropolis, lavishly designed photo albums from production companies such as Marischka-Film (Sissi), or the complete issues of the photo-oriented periodical Mein Film, which covers the years 1920 to 1939.
In dealing with the Stills Collection, we differentiate between:
Publicity stills. They aim to recreate a film scene through still photography on the set. A still photographer is hired for this
purpose.
Production stills. They are the photographic documents which originate before or during a shoot. They record the „making-of”, but
are often more staged than publicity stills. There are various subgroups: production announcements, documents of film sets
(costumes and props) and of post-production work, as well as photographs of film premieres and gala screenings.
Portrait photography. During the era of glamour photography in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, as well as at the time of the French New Wave, celebrity
photographers were often hired to portray the stars in the most flattering light. The Austrian Film Museum's stills collection
contains a number of vintage prints by George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Cecil Beaton, Sam Lévin, Raymond Voinquel,
Alain Corbeau, to name just a few, as well as original prints from well-known ateliers, such as those of Madame d'Ora (Dora Kallmus, Vienna), Harcourt (Paris), and many others.
Frame enlargements. The Stills Collection places considerable weight on avant-garde films. In this field, frame enlargements are often
the only way to photographically represent a film. Most of the items in this part of the collection have been specially created by Film Museum staff members.
The Film Museum's Stills Collection is accessible for research by professionals in the field, as well as for private use, both by prior appointment.
The Film Museum is a living archive. In order to supply present and future generations with all forms of audio-visual memory, the Film Museum depends on public
awareness and on the support of individuals. Cinephiles and film professionals play a vital role in helping to shape the collections
by contributing their own personal film-related materials (films, photos, posters, etc.). We are happy to undertake the professional
archiving of such items, both in the form of donations and long-term deposits.
