# World Cinema Project

The World Cinema Project (WCP), formerly World Cinema Foundation, is a non-profit organization devoted to the preservation and restoration of neglected world cinema, founded by Martin Scorsese.

## History

Founded in 2007 as the World Cinema Foundation by American filmmaker Martin Scorsese, it was inspired by the work of The Film Foundation in the United States, a similar venture which Scorsese founded with George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood in 1990.
Trances, a music documentary about Nass El Ghiwane an influential Moroccan music group, was picked by Martin Scorsese as the inaugural release for the foundation; it was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and at Djemaa el-Fna square in Morocco.

## Description and governance

The World Cinema Foundation is backed by an advisory board "Filmmaker Council" which includes Martin Scorsese, Fatih Akin, Souleymane Cissé, Guillermo del Toro, Stephen Frears, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Wong Kar-Wai, Abbas Kiarostami, Deepa Mehta, Ermanno Olmi, Raoul Peck, Cristi Puiu, Walter Salles, Abderrahmane Sissako, Elia Suleiman, Bertrand Tavernier, Wim Wenders, and Tian Zhuangzhuang.
After leaving his position at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Kent Jones became the foundation's executive director.

## Restored films

| English title | Year | Director | Country of origin |
| After the Curfew | 1954 | Usmar Ismail | Indonesia |
| Alyam, Alyam | 1978 | Ahmed El Maanouni | Morocco |
| Badou Boy | 1970 | Djibril Diop Mambéty | Senegal |
| Black Girl | 1966 | Ousmane Sembène | Senegal & France |
| Borom Sarret | 1963 | Ousmane Sembène | Senegal |
| The Boys from Fengkuei | 1983 | Hou Hsiao-hsien | Taiwan |
| A Brighter Summer Day | 1991 | Edward Yang | Taiwan |
| Chess of the Wind | 1976 | Mohammad Reza Aslani | Iran |
| Chronicle of the Years of Fire | 1975 | Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina | Algeria |
| The Cloud-Capped Star | 1960 | Ritwik Ghatak | India |
| The Color of Pomegranates | 1969 | Sergei Parajanov | Soviet Union |
| Contras'city | 1969 | Djibril Diop Mambéty | Senegal |
| Downpour | 1972 | Bahram Bayzai | Iran |
| Dry Summer | 1964 | Metin Erksan | Turkey |
| The Dupes | 1973 | Tewfik Saleh | Syria |
| Eight Deadly Shots | 1972 | Mikko Niskanen | Finland |
| Él | 1953 | Luis Buñuel | Mexico |
| El fantasma del convento | 1934 | Fernando de Fuentes | Mexico |
| The Eloquent Peasant | 1969 | Shadi Abdel Salam | Egypt |
| Enamorada | 1946 | Emilio Fernández | Mexico |
| The Housemaid | 1960 | Kim Ki-young | South Korea |
| Insiang | 1976 | Lino Brocka | Philippines |
| Kalpana | 1948 | Uday Shankar | India |
| Kummatty | 1979 | Govindan Aravindan | India |
| Law of the Border | 1966 | Lüfti Ö. Akad | Turkey |
| Limite | 1931 | Mário Peixoto | Brazil |
| Los Olvidados | 1950 | Luis Buñuel | Mexico |
| Lucía | 1968 | Humberto Solás | Cuba |
| Lumumba: Death of a Prophet | 1990 | Raoul Peck | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Macario | 1960 | Roberto Gavaldón | Mexico |
| Manila in the Claws of Light | 1975 | Lino Brocka | Philippines |
| Memories of Underdevelopment | 1968 | Tomás Gutiérrez Alea | Cuba |
| Muna Moto | 1975 | Jean-Pierre Dikongué Pipa | Cameroon |
| Mysterious Object at Noon | 2000 | Apichatpong Weerasethakul | Thailand |
| The Night of Counting the Years | 1969 | Shadi Abdel Salam | Egypt |
| Pixote | 1980 | Héctor Babenco | Brazil |
| Prisioneros de la tierra | 1939 | Mario Soffici | Argentina |
| Raid into Tibet | 1966 | Adrian Cowell | United Kingdom |
| Redes | 1936 | Emilio Gómez Muriel & Fred Zinnemann | Mexico |
| Revenge | 1989 | Ermek Shinarbaev | Soviet Union |
| A River Called Titas | 1973 | Ritwik Ghatak | India & Bangladesh |
| Sambizanga | 1972 | Sarah Maldoror | Angola |
| Soleil Ô | 1970 | Med Hondo | Mauritania |
| The Stranger and the Fog | 1974 | Bahram Beyzai | Iran |
| Taipei Story | 1985 | Edward Yang | Taiwan |
| Thampu | 1978 | Govindan Aravindan | India |
| Touki Bouki | 1973 | Djibril Diop Mambéty | Senegal |
| Trances | 1981 | Ahmed El Maanouni | Morocco |
| The Treasure | 1970 | Lester James Peries | Sri Lanka |
| Two Girls on the Street | 1939 | André de Toth | Hungary |
| Two Monks | 1934 | Juan Bustillo Oro | Mexico |
| The Woman with the Knife | 1969 | Timité Bassori | Côte d'Ivoire |
| Xiao Wu | 1997 | Jia Zhangke | China |
| Yam Daabo | 1986 | Idrissa Ouédraogo | Burkina Faso & France |

## Upcoming restorations

| English title | Year | Director | Country of origin |
| The Winds of the Aures | 1967 | Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina | Algeria |
| Faces of Women | 1985 | Desiré Ecaré | Côte d'Ivoire |