pune apart from lack of funds for preservation projects a major concern for film archives across the world today is the lack of trained professionals with the technical knowhow on preserving digital prints of films said andy maltz director of the hollywoodbased academy science and technology council on monday in a presentation at the national film archives of india nfai here the members of the council are visiting india for the first time as part of the academy of motion picture arts and sciences international outreach initiative teamed with the celebrations of 100 years of cinema the members showcased their publications digital dilemma and digital dilemma 2 to create better awareness about the risks and challenges that film preservation faces in an increasingly digital world the academys film archive is the third largest in the us with 70000 individual titles along with written material think of the time when your hard disk crashed and you lost all important data preserving digital copies of films runs the same risk since longterm access cannot be guaranteed the supply of celluloid reels is also short we are working on some guidelines to deal with the problem but there is no possible solution yet maltz said he added that there is a dearth of efficient film curators as the subject is not part of any film schools curriculum pointing out the role of a filmmaker in film preservation council member milton shefter said the need of the hour is to work in collaborations and sharing resources in order to chalk out a model as per the law in the us major hollywood studios have to scan digital prints to develop celluloid reels for archival purposes but independent filmmakers generally do not bother about preserving their films and there are more independent films than the studioproduced films in the us i urge filmmakers and student filmmakers to take the initiative as films are a part of a nations cultural heritage shefter said though analogue films are not the perfect medium but their longevity has been proven to cross 100 years when stored in proper conditions according to our research digital material may not last for more than five to seven years such has been the digital revolution in the us that major hollywood studios are earning revenues of less than 20 on theatrical exhibitions the film schools too have resorted to the digital medium but the concern is about training the trainers for the future shefter said the academys publications have been translated into marathi and the online version of the book will be launched on tuesday at the yb chavan centre in mumbai