FOCAL International

Federation of Commercial Audio Visual Libraries

Abbreviation	FOCAL International
Formation	1985
Legal status	Non-profit company
Purpose	Trade association for the film archive, filmmaking and stock footage industry
Location	79 College Road, Harrow, HA1 1BD
Region served	Worldwide
Membership	Stock footage archives, industry skills and services companies
Chair	Sue Malden
Chair of Patrons	David Puttnam
Patron	Greg Dyke
Website	FOCAL International

FOCAL International is the trade association representing stock footage companies, post-production facilities and individuals involved in the use of footage, still images and audio in all forms of media production. It represents more than 300 companies and individuals involved in media production, asset management, preservation of historical archives, film restoration and post-production.

History

FOCAL International was founded in 1985 by a group of library representatives, who had met at trade events and felt that the commercial wing of television archives would benefit from representation. The founders included Jeremy Cantwell and Jill Hawkins from BBC Enterprises (now BBC Worldwide), Sten Frykholm from the Swedish broadcaster SVT, George Marshall of British Pathe, Jacque Blanchard, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Pam Turner of Visnews, David Warner of ITN and Patricia Gang of National Geographic. Its first patron was David (now Lord) Puttnam, who became Chair of Patrons in 2005.

Structure

FOCAL International is run by a small administration team in the UK, reporting to an international Executive Council, comprising a Chair, and a number of representatives of member bodies.

FOCAL International seeks to implement its objectives through its committees, which are made up of industry experts and representatives. These committees include: the Editorial Committee, responsible for the quarterly magazine "Archive Zones"; the Events & Exhibitions Committee, responsible for organising the FOCAL International Awards, and FOCAL International’s presence at relevant trade and industry events; the Training Committee, responsible for providing and promoting training in the archive industry, and raising awareness of the need for preservation of archives; and the Funding & Lobbying Committee, which lobbies governmental and institutional bodies on behalf of its members.

FOCAL International Awards

The FOCAL International Awards were established in 2004 to support and honour the researchers, technicians and producers who uncover, preserve and utilise archive footage in their work. The award ceremony is held annually in the spring in London, UK.

The Awards cover categories for the best use of footage in factual productions, entertainment or drama, arts, music, sports, natural history and cinema, and also include categories for the best restoration or preservation project, best footage library, best footage researcher of the year, and a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Notable winners have included:

• Rick Prelinger: Lifetime Achievement Award, 2012
• Pathe News: Footage Library of the Year, 2012
• Britain At War:, by the Imperial War Museum Film Archives: Best Use of Footage in a Home Entertainment Release, in 2012
• Senna: Best Use of Sports Footage and Best Use of Footage in a Cinema Release, 2012
• Fire in Babylon: Best Use of Footage in a Cinema Release, 2011
• Martin Scorsese: Best Restoration or Preservation Project, 2010 (for the restoration of The Red Shoes)
• JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America: Best Use of Footage in Factual Productions, 2010
• Focus on Film, run by The National Archives: Best Use of Footage on Non-television Platforms, 2008.
• Stewart Binns: Archive Award, 2004 & 2005

Members

Companies and organisations that are members of FOCAL International include:

• AP Archive
• BAFTA (Industry Partner)
• BAPLA (Industry Partner)
• BBC Motion Gallery
• Bridgeman Art Library
• British Pathe
• Channel 4
• Corbis
• Film Archive Forum (Industry Partner)
• Fremantlemedia Archive
• Getty Images
• Imperial War Museum Film and Video Archive
• ITN Source
• The NHK Visual & Audio Archives (Japan)
• The National Archives of Singapore
• The National Film and Sound Archive (Australia)
• The National Film Board of Canada
• The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales
• Natural History New Zealand Moving Images
• The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation
• The Pinewood Studios Group
• The Press Association
• S4C (Wales)
• Science Photo Library
• Seven Network (Australia)
• SVT (Sweden)
• The Scottish Screen Archive at the National Library of Scotland
• T3Media
• Wellcome Library Moving Images & Sound Collection
• Yle (Finland)

External links

• FOCAL International