Museum

EYE Film Museum

Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Across the IJ from Amsterdam Centraal, EYE Film Museum brings Dutch film heritage into public view through exhibitions, screenings and a living archive. Its faceted white building, designed by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, frames the river as part of the experience and anchors a cultural destination in Amsterdam-Noord.

Quick facts

  • The Nederlands Historisch Film Archief, Eye’s predecessor, was founded in 1946.

  • In 1957, the Filmmuseum acquired Jean Desmet’s collection of about 900 films from 1907–1916.

  • Eye’s purpose-built museum on the north bank of the IJ opened in 2012.

Get directions to EYE Film Museum. Confirm the visitor entrance and current access with the venue before travelling.

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Guide

EYE Film Museum is more than a striking building opposite Amsterdam Centraal. It is the public face of a long effort to keep moving images from disappearing. Before film preservation became standard, films were often treated as disposable entertainment. In 1946, Piet Meerburg, Paul Kijzer and David van Staveren founded the Nederlands Historisch Film Archief to collect films of artistic and historical value. The archive began in a rented room and then a cramped space at student cinema Kriterion.

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