Cinematheques as a cultural institution

The cinematheques, which are not for profit institutions, have become a more significant position in the cultural and artistic lives of the countries. A cinematheque aims to conserve, preserve mainly the film material and also audiovisual heritage and to make them available for access today and in the future and develop the film culture with different key activities. This dissertation primarily considers the formation of the cinematheque institutions and their development, structure, aim and the engagement areas. In this case, three important cinematheques of the world such as British Film Institute (United Kingdom), ScreenSound Australia (Australia) and Pacific Cinematheque (Canada) were taken as an example and their structures, operations, financial positions were considered. The development of the cinema and cinematheque activities in Turkey was also considered. It has made available to compare the condition between Turkey and foreign countries.Cinematheques, which were started only for archiving and exhibition purposes at the beginning, has started to include education, publication and research activities in a modem way. Today, in addition to films, cinematheques works on a larger media that includes the video and televisions. Cinematheque establishment and operation activities have been developed by the individual efforts and interrupted time by the time. There is a need for the cinematheques that are at the same level with those at the developed countries. Such a structure shall have the key role to reconstruct and relive the film culture, scientific works and movie sector.