World Cinema Project
non-profit organisation
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", originally including 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.
The public source identifies “World Cinema Project” as non-profit organisation. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around World, Cinema and Project.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “World Cinema Project”, the useful work is to connect “non-profit organisation” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3364276. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2007 and 1990.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “World Cinema Project”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow World Cinema Project primary sources, World Cinema Project archive and World research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “World Cinema Project”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “World Cinema Project” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.