Founded in 1958, China Film Archive (aka CFA) has joined International Federation of Film Archives (aka FIAF) as membership since 1980. Over 30,000 titles of Chinese and foreign films in all time are preserved in two CFA vaults located in Beijing and Xi’an. China Film Art Research Center has been co-located with CFA since 1984. China Film Archive is the only national organization of film heritage preservation playing a typical role in the field of film preservation, film research and cultural exchanges. She also involves multiple functions including post graduate education, periodical publication, art theater, archiving and cataloguing etc..

The Beijing Film Vault is one of the two vaults of China Film Archive, located at No. 2 Baiziwan South Second Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing. It contains two bespoke repositories for positive print, a film processing workshop, several film inspection rooms and the Baiziwan Art Theater, etc. The vault provides a standard preservation environment with constant temperature and humidity to ensure the safety of the films and extend their life. It is the infrastructure for China Film Archive to carry out various activities. At present, there are more than 200,000 reels of black-and-white and color features, art films, science and education films from China and abroad, as well as videotapes, DCDMs, posters and other film elements kept in the Beijing Film Vault.

The Xi’an Film Vault is one of the two repositories of China Film Archive, its establishment was officially approved by former Premier Zhou Enlai on June 28th,1969. It is the only national film vault for negative preservation in China. At present, the repository includes more than 28,000 titles, over 250,000 reels. Among them, there are more than 200,000 reels of safety films and 50,000 reels of nitrate. The vault is located at the foot of Lishan Mountain, covering an area of more than 70 acres where contains four film warehouses, one film preservation lab and five air-conditioner rooms. The constant temperature and the humidity of the film vault remain as 5℃(±1℃) and 40%(±5%). The Xi’an Film Vault is engaged in acquisition, duplication and permanent conservation and preservation of all kinds of negatives to keep them in a good technical condition and serve creation, production, and research of the film industry.