NEW YORK — Deluxe is currently is working to identify and locate the owners of thousands of film elements left unclaimed in its now-closed Hollywood film vault. The situation arose during the shutdown of Deluxe’s historic film lab last May. The accumulation of materials has been decades in the making, but the company is reporting rapid progress in placing the materials in the appropriate hands.
Of approximately 150,000 orphan elements in Deluxe’s possession at the time of the lab closure, roughly 40,000 elements remain unclaimed. Deluxe continues to collaborate with major and independent studios, and is also working closely in partnership with the Academy Film Archive and other organizations to ensure all assets are properly stored and safely conserved.
Orphaned film elements are films that have do not have a current owner or copyright holder. At Deluxe, these orphaned film elements run the gamut from original color negatives and digital originals to production elements called internegatives, interpositives and optical soundtrack negatives. They were placed into film vaults during the post production and distribution phases of work on various motion pictures dating back to the early 1960s.
Many of the pre-1999 materials are from independent productions mounted by companies that may have ceased operations or otherwise lost track of the materials. The Academy Film Archive has been assisting Deluxe in completing the necessary research and documentation to inventory these older titles. They have selected nearly 800 titles so far, which amounts to more than 7,500 individual film elements to conserve in the Academy Film Archive vaults.