Recent Developments in Digital Film Restoration

The animated documentation of a relevant amount of historical events, the totality of cinematographic production and most part of television production of the XXth century are stored on cellulose supports. Films are subject to damages during time and their restoration is fundamental for the conservation of historical, artistic and cultural heritage, for its transmission to future generations, and for the reuse of archival movies and videos. An answer to such problems is given by digital film restoration (DFR). Research achievements in this area, although very advanced, have not yet allowed the development of an automatic system enabling the solution of all problems related to DFR. In this work we present a brief survey of DFR; the description of some general methodologies and techniques will be given in the context of a specific class of defects.