Care and maintenance of the national film heritage is the most important task of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation.
Thus, the foundation has been pursuing the restoration and reconstruction of important works in German film history for many years, among them, as current examples, Ernst Lubitsch’s DIE BERGKATZE, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s TARTÜFF or Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS, which was added to UNESCO’s “Memory of the World Register” in June, 2001.
As shown in the case of METROPOLIS, digital technology is playing an increasingly important role in restoring films. It is not only possible to effectively “touch up” running scratches on the images or soiled joins, it is also possible to rectify unsteady images.

The distribution of the foundation’s films using new media is one important objective of the Murnau Foundation.
Besides a series of popular film titles that was successfully introduced and will be distributed via Eureka (Great Britain), Kino International (USA), MK2 (France) and Divisa (Spain) on DVD, also 1 - 2 own DVD editions are to be released in co-operation with well-known institutions and experts. They will include an extensive amount of additional material and will satisfy even the most demanding specialist demands. This edition will be released under the label Transit Classics.

One of the important tasks of the Murnau Foundation is the development and use of the stocks of historical advertising films and other short documentary films. For this purpose, the material is recopied onto digital media and restored if necessary. The co-operation with the Haus des Dokumentarfilms (House of Documentary Films) in Stuttgart is being extended and new concepts to improve these films are being developed.

Another project is adding soundtracks to silent films for which the music has been lost or no longer exists.