On the 7th day at the Cannes film festival, Hollywood director Martin Scorsese announced that he would head a foundation to find and restore neglected world films.

The Academy Award winning director stated that the project aimed at finding and reconstructing world cinema films that have been long neglected.

He said celebrated international directors would help him as advisors in the project.

He named the internationally acclaimed Iranian director, Abbas Kiarostami as one his counselors in the World Cinema Foundation.

Also Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu from Mexico, Stephen Fraser from Britain, Guillermo delToro from Spain, Fatih Akin from Germany and other great directors that will help Scorsese in the project.

The World Cinema Foundation was inspired by the work of the Film Foundation in the United States, a similar venture which Scorsese founded with George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Clint Eastwood in 1990.

At this year's edition of Cannes festival, the foundation is presenting three restored films from Morocco, Brazil and Romania dating as far back as 1931.

These are the first films represented by the foundation.

Author’s notes:

Official Website of the World Cinema Foundation

Recommended Readings:

BBC article on Scorsese’s Cannes Announcement

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