On Tuesday, April 29, 2025, as part of the annual congress of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), the final edition of the Encyclopédie raisonnée des techniques du cinéma (Reasoned Encyclopedia of Cinema Techniques) by the TECHNÈS partnership was launched at the Cinémathèque québécoise. This event marked the culmination of more than a decade of work led by André Gaudreault (Canada Research Chair in Film and Media Studies and Honorary Doctor of Université Rennes 2), Laurent Le Forestier (Université de Lausanne), and Gilles Mouëllic (Rennes 2 University).
"The Encyclopedia is the result of an international research collaboration that, for over fifteen years, has brought together researchers, institutions, and professionals around a shared goal: to document the techniques that have shaped cinema since its beginnings."
André Gaudreault, Professor of Film and Media Studies at Université de Montréal
The Encyclopedia, written by over 80 researchers from various countries, includes nearly 40 thematic sections covering a wide range of topics, such as the evolution of filming equipment, the transformation of cinema professions, and discourses on technique.
TECHNÈS is an international research partnership (funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada – SSHRC), established in 2013. It brings together around fifty researchers and 18 institutions, including film archives and universities. Its French component, based at Rennes 2, was funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) through the BEAUVIATECH project between 2018 and 2022. The mission of this partnership is to rethink the history of cinema and its methodologies by exploring the techniques and technologies that have accompanied the medium’s transformations since the 19th century. The French side of the project was notably led by Gilles Mouëllic, who was honored during the concluding study day of the program, held on April 30, 2025, at the Université de Montréal.
