New Delhi, Apr. 29: India and France are poised to raise the level of their efforts towards preservation in the fields of film and television.

The Embassy of France in India has decided to donate as many as 234 films from its library in New Delhi to the National Film Archives of India (NFAI), Pune, this month.

All these films are produced in France and are of high cinematic quality and excellence.

An agreement to this effect will be signed on April 30 at NFAI at 5.30 in the evening, which will be followed by a three-day film festival.

Philippe Martinet, Cultural Counsellor, Embassy of France and Vijay Jadhav, Director, NFAI will sign the agreement.

The donation of these 234 films, under the international archive regulations, marks the continuation of cooperation between the Embassy of France and the NFAI.

The Embassy of France in New Delhi is dedicated to promoting film and television preservation and heritage. In 2003, as many as 88 films were handed over to the NFAI. Earlier, in 1998, the Embassy of

Under the agreement, all these films will be preserved at the NFAI premises in standard conditions and will be permitted for use for non-commercial screenings, research and studies. From motion pictures to television, the mushrooming of visual communications counts among the most significant cultural evolutions of the 20th century.

Everywhere in the world people are seizing the possibilities opened up by the visual media to create a vast cultural and documentary heritage.

An embassy press release said that the Embassy of France in India is committed to strengthening the relations between cultural institutions of our two countries towards achieving this goal. (ANI)