While many national film archives are coming under financial pressure, Serbia and Montenegro's Yugoslav Film Archive is to be upgraded to become one of the most sophisticated in the world.

The French ambassador in Belgrade Gabriel Keller and the Serbian Minister of Culture Branislav Lecic have jointly announced that the Yugoslav Film Archive is to be reconstructed with funds from the French Government (Euros 291,000) and Serbian Ministry of Culture (Euros 138,500).

At a press conference in Belgrade, Lecic (pictured) declared that Serbia and France are two of the rare countries in the world that value local films above American fare.

Keller added that the collaboration between the two countries in the audiovisual field means a lot to France which is dedicated to promoting cultural diversity. "Uniformity is particularly harmful in the cultural field. We are trying to preserve the variety of national values through collaboration with close nations", said Keller adding that the relationship between Serbia and France is particularly developed in the film sector.

The President of the Archive Radoslav Zelenovic and the Archive CEO Dinko Tucakovic underlined that the new facility will be one of the most sophisticated in the world. With approximately 700 square meters on four levels, it will have adequate equipment for preservation of fragile and flammable film footage.

Yugoslav Film Archive holdings comprise one of the most prominent and comprehensive film collections in Europe. It holds more than 85,000 prints and the foreign film collection comprises more than 80% of the total library holdings.