Motion Picture and Photography Institute

(Ail-Union Scientific Research Institute of Motion Pictures and Photography, NIKFI), a scientific institution working on the development and improvement of professional cinematographic technique and technology.

The All-Union Scientific, Research Institute of Motion Pictures and Photography, under the authority of the State Committee on Cinematography of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, was organized in Moscow in 1929. The institute has developed and is continuously improving various black-and-white and color films, motion-picture projection and printing equipment, sound recording and reproduction techniques and equipment, substandard-size cinematographic and stereocinematographic equipment, a hydrotype method of printing color films, and equipment for new types of cinematography, such as wide screen, wide gauge, cinerama, zoom lens, and cyclorama.

A number of the institute’s projects have been awarded the State Prize of the USSR. In 1962 a group of the staff of the institute was awarded the Lenin Prize for developing the integrated acoustics and sound system for the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. In 1966 a section of the institute became the independent State Scientific Research and Design Institute for the Photographic Chemical Industry.

The Motion Picture and Photography Institute publishes Trudy NIKFI (Works; 73 issues between 1932 and 1973), a review of achievements in the various areas of movie technology, an informational bulletin. It also issues Express-informatsiia (since 1964). The institute conducts full-time and correspondence graduate courses.