The Taiwan Film Institute, an expansion from the previous Film Data Library, has been officially launched.

It will bring together the resources and the various budgets allocated for preserving and restoring valuable old films. It also aims to educate the general public about cinematic art.

Culture Minister Lung Yingtai and New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu were both at hand to celebrate the birth of the institute, still located at its old address of #7  Qing-dao East Road, 4th floor, Taipei city.

But after the establishment of the  National Cinema Center, which is expected to be completed three years later, the Institute will move in and become the centerpiece of the Cinema Center.

Eric Chu says he has high hopes for the upcoming Cinema Center, located at a 2.5-hectare piece of land right next to the Culture Ministry in New Taipei’s Xin-zhuang District. There will be a multiplex of theaters, stores and the Film Institute. But don’t expect to see Ang Lee there shooting the sequel of Life of Pi because no movie production studios will be there.