Henri Langlois (1914–1977)

Henri Langlois was a film buff as a teenager, and co-founded the Cinémathèque Française, one of the largest archives of films and film-related documents and objects in the world, in 1936 with Georges Franju and Jean Mitry. He also co-founded the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) in 1938. He was dedicated to preserving and restoring films and film history, and was personally responsible for saving many lost masterpieces and popularizing them. Langlois's work influenced the post-World War II generation of young cinephiles, directors, and critics who would become the French New Wave, such as Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, and François Truffaut, who called themselves "children of the Cinémathèque." In 1974, he received an honorary Academy Award for "his devotion to the art of film, his massive contributions in preserving its past and his unswerving faith in its future."