Plans for a national film archive were first proposed in 1967 by the Cultural Bureau of the Ministry of Education. Two years later, drafting of the Film Archive Establishment Act began. However, the Cultural Bureau was shut down in 1973, and the film archive project was placed on hold. Oversight of Taiwanese cinema was delegated to the Government Information Office. The, which had been established in 1975 with help from the GIO and the Taipei Film Business Association, announced in 1978 that a film library would be funded via the GIO. The Film Library of the Motion Picture Development Foundation opened on 19 January 1979. The film library later became responsible for hosting the Golden Horse Awards ceremony. It was renamed the National Film Archive in 1989, shortly before its founding director Hsu Li-kong left his post. Hsu's successor Ray Jing ended the archive's involvement with the Golden Horse Awards. Additionally, the name change brought with it a new mission. Jing began compiling old Taiwanese Hokkien films and other artifacts of the Taiwanese film industry, choosing to set aside the cultural education of the public. In 1991, the National Film Archive split from the Motion Picture Development Foundation, and was placed under the purview of the National Film Archive Foundation shortly thereafter. The foundation itself answered to the Department of Motion Picture Affairs, a division of the Government Information Office. The National Film Archive sought membership in the International Federation of Film Archives in 1992. Membership was granted in 1995, after the archive became the Chinese Taipei Film Archive. On 28 July 2014, the Ministry of Culture replaced the Chinese Taipei Film Archive with the Taiwan Film Institute. The TFI was launched in a ceremony attended by culture ministerLung Ying-tai and New Taipei MayorEric Chu. On 26 December 2016, the institute launched an online box office, an attempt to increase the transparency of the Taiwanese film industry. In July 2017, it launched its film restoration laboratory. The Legislative Yuan passed a bill in December 2019, upgrading the Taiwan Film Institute from an incorporated foundation to an administrative public body. When the legislation takes effect by June 2020, the organization will be renamed the National Center for Film and Audiovisual Heritage.
Hokkien film preservation
Attempts to preserve Hokkien films began under Ray Jing's leadership of the National Film Archive. In 2013, the Chinese Taipei Film Archive began the Taiwan Cinema Digital Restoration Project. The Taiwan Film Institute holds within its collection all of the surviving Hokkien-language films produced between 1956 and 1961. Although over 1,000 Hokkien-language films were produced, roughly 160 survive, due to the political censorship of the White Terror period, which also heavily affected Hokkien pop.
The film institute also holds film preservation with other institute outside Taiwan. It regularly holds movie screenings and exhibitions on films, as well as film compilation. It also invites renowned move experts to teach at the institute. The institute has also been promoting movies to elementary and secondary schools in Taiwan.
