The End of Authenticity, or A Sea Change in Film Restoration? Considering the Risks and Opportunities of AI Tools in Film Heritage

is professor of media studies at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. After receiving a doctorate from the Ruhr University Bochum in 2009, she taught at the University of Zurich where she gained a postdoctoral qualification (‘habilitation’) in 2018. Heller has worked on various research projects investigating the digitization of archival films and published numerous articles on moving images and digital cultures as well as three monographs, most recently ‘Update! Film and Media History in the Age of Digital Reproducibility’ in 2020.

had a career focusing on analytical chemistry before attending the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation in Rochester, USA, from 2004 to 2005. Since then, he has worked in the town’s George Eastman Museum, as well as for the Dutch production company Haghefilm and the British Film Institute (BFI). The holder of a doctorate in chemistry, Ruedel was a member of the technical commission of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) technical commission and is currently teaching and researching in film preservation at HTW Berlin – University of Applied Sciences.

is an independent archival researcher with expertise and research interests in a number of technical fields within film preservation, including VistaVision, the history of aspect ratios, frame rates and color spaces and, most recently, the potential and risks of AI algorithms in digital restoration. Currently the archivist at Aardman Animations in Bristol, UK, Vincent graduated from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, with a master’s degree in film archiving and previously worked at the British Film Institute (BFI).