INTRODUCTION

Abstract

At the core of the special issue of the journal Culture Crossroads are the papers presented at the IX Baltic Sea Region Film History Conference Exploring the Past and Future of Audiovisual Media in the Baltic Sea Region: Archives, Digital Platforms, Researchers and Spectators that took place in Riga on 6–8 June 2024. The conference was organized by the Latvian Academy of Culture, Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council, and LAC Riga Film Museum in cooperation with the Film Archive of the Estonian National Archives, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, as well as media education and research centre Meno avilys. The conference had a dual, interrelated focus: thehistories of audiovisual collections withintheregion, andthebur- geoning impact of digital technologies on facilitating access to these collections. Inthewakeofdigitaltechnologies, filmsfromdiversehistoricalperiodsandregions, as well as contemporary cinema have become globally accessible to an unprecedented extent. This digital turn has significantly influenced the operations of archives, museums, and libraries – traditionally the custodians of (national) audiovisual collections. From the perspective of access, it has transformed these repositories from entities with specific physical and administrative boundaries into increasingly open digital platforms, serving researchers, filmmakers, the media industry, and general audiences alike. While heritage institutions’ access strategies often exhibit similarities shaped, for example, by online commercial film distribution, they also vary due to the distinct historical structure and content of different collections. Moreover, custodians of audiovisual collections in the Baltic Sea Region countries have historically worked within diverse cultural, institutional, and legislative frameworks determined by shifting political and socio-economic factors, which has had a major impact on what is collected, preserved, and hence – available for accessing on the emerging digital platforms. Finally, the questions of copyright significantly affect what can be distributed online, and under what conditions (e.g., free of charge or for a fee), making the relationships between the preservation and production industries even more crucial.