Korean Film Archive

This article is about the film archive. For other uses, see Kofa (disambiguation).
Korean Film Archive
TypeGovernmental, nonprofit
PurposePreservation of Korean cinema
Headquarters400 WorldCupbuk-ro, Mapo District, Seoul, South Korea
Parent organization
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
Websiteeng.koreafilm.or.kr/main (in English)
Korean name
Hangul
한국영상자료원
Hanja
韓國映像資料院
Revised RomanizationHanguk yeongsang jaryowon
McCune–ReischauerHan'guk yŏngsang charyowŏn

The Korean Film Archive (KOFA; Korean: 한국영상자료원), or the Korean Federation of Film Archives, is the sole film archive in South Korea with nationwide coverage. It was founded in Seoul in 1974 as a non-profit organization. In 1976 KOFA joined the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) as an observer, and gained its full membership of FIAF in 1985.[1][2]

KOFA's main duties are to collect, preserve and categorize films and film-related materials, as well as to foster accessibility to its collections. Most of remaining originals and copies of Korean films are preserved in KOFA. Its main center is in Sangam-dong, Seoul, with two local branch centers in Busan and Bucheon, and a secondary preservation center in Seongnam. Its main center has several public facilities, including Cinematheque KOFA,[3] Korean Film Museum,[4] and a reference library.[5] Recently KOFA has concentrated on digitization of Korean films, and has published several features of the Classic Korean Cinema DVD Collections.[6] It also operates the most reliable online database of Korean films,[7] as well as an online film streaming service.[7]

  1. ^ "한국영상자료원 Korean Federation of Film Archives 韓國映像資料院" (in Korean). Doosan Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2010-03-06. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
  2. ^ "Korean Film Archive". Koreafilm.org. Archived from the original on 2010-03-01. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-02-03. Retrieved 2010-02-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ "Korean Film Archive". Koreafilm.org. Archived from the original on 2010-01-15. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
  5. ^ "Korean Film Archive". Koreafilm.org. Archived from the original on 2010-02-04. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
  6. ^ "Korean Film Archive". Koreafilm.org. Archived from the original on 2010-01-13. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
  7. ^ a b "한국영화 데이터베이스 KMDB". Korean Movie Database. Retrieved 2010-02-06.