The project for the digitization of RAI newsreel films (1952–1985) won the prestigious FIAT/IFTA International Recognition Excellence in Media Preservation Award 2025, awarded by the International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA): a prize reserved for the most innovative projects in the field of audiovisual heritage preservation and enhancement.
Carried out by Rai Teche and the Central Institute for the Digitization of Cultural Heritage – Digital Library of the Ministry of Culture, which operates within the Directorate General for Digitalization and Communication, the project is part of the initiatives funded by the Strategic Plan for Major Cultural Heritage Projects.
Preserving, digitizing, and making Rai’s audiovisual heritage accessible with the most advanced technologies represents one of the highest expressions of the Public Service mission.
The project aims to fully digitize the RAI news broadcasts aired between 1952 and 1985, currently preserved on 16mm film. This is a unique heritage — approximately 320,000 reels, equivalent to about 8,000 hours of broadcast — of extraordinary historical and journalistic value. Over thirty years of the country’s history, from the first post-war reconstruction reports to the 1980s: decades during which RAI was the only national broadcaster, and public television thus represented the sole witness to the chronicles of our history.
Thanks to the digitization project – says the Director of Rai Teche, Andrea Sassano – Rai’s audiovisual heritage, in one of its oldest and most valuable parts, is returned to the public, who, through digitization and the advanced system of automated content documentation using artificial intelligence, can once again reconstruct and relive fragments of memory otherwise destined for oblivion. This important international recognition confirms Rai Teche’s role as a reference point in the protection and enhancement of the national audiovisual heritage, and testifies to the shared commitment with the Ministry of Culture to preserve the country’s audiovisual memory for future generations. A successful partnership that has also served as a driving force for the complete digitization of the Rai archive: a massive operation that will bring about the definitive transition from a physical archive to a digital archive and, consequently, the full recovery of our history.
The films, threatened by the deterioration process known as vinegar syndrome, are at the center of an urgent, complex, and monumental digital preservation effort, carried out with cutting-edge technologies. The conversion to digital format is done to high-quality standards, with video at 12-bit color depth and resolution above 2K. The project, still ongoing and expected to conclude at the beginning of 2026, involves the collaboration of specialized laboratories coordinated by Rai Teche, which oversees all phases of quality control, logistical management, and organization of the material flow.
This is complemented by an activity of digital enhancement, which includes the creation of video clips synchronized with audio, as well as the innovative automatic generation of descriptive metadata through artificial intelligence: transcriptions, facial recognition, identification of places and people, and text summaries. A digitization project assisted by artificial intelligence systems that places the company in a leading position in the management and preservation of archives.
The entire digitized corpus then flows into the Rai audiovisual content catalog to facilitate consultation and editorial use. A low-resolution version, accompanied by metadata derived through AI, will also be made available, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture – Directorate General for Digitalization and Communication, through the platform of the Digital Library – Central Institute for the Digitization of Cultural Heritage, for research and educational purposes.
The Project – says the Director of the Digital Library, Giuliano Romalli – originates from a shared need between Rai and the Ministry of Culture: to protect and enhance an audiovisual heritage of extraordinary importance, recognized as a strategic asset for the cultural growth of the country. The initiative arises from the awareness that the thousands of Rai films represent unique testimonies of history, art, and national identity. Their safeguarding has therefore become essential to ensure the preservation and transmission to future generations of a heritage that represents a fundamental part of Italy’s collective memory.
Furthermore, starting today, Friday 31 October, the publication “Rivoluzione Teche: dalla pellicola al digitale” (raiplay.it/programmi/rivoluzionetechedallapellicolaaldigitale) is available on the RaiPlay multimedia platform and on the Rai Teche website. A film produced by Rai Teche that will provide just a glimpse of the incredible materials recovered thanks to this extraordinary operation. Among the great protagonists are Alberto Sordi, Sophia Loren, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Eduardo De Filippo, and many others.