Plans for a national film archive were first proposed in 1967 by the Cultural Bureau of the
Ministry of Education. Two years later, drafting of the Film Archive Establishment Act began. However, the Cultural Bureau was shut down in 1973, and the film archive project was placed on hold. Oversight of
Taiwanese cinema was delegated to the
Government Information Office (GIO). The , which had been established in 1975 with help from the GIO and the Taipei Film Business Association, announced in 1978 that a film library would be funded via the GIO. The Film Library of the Motion Picture Development Foundation opened on 19 January 1979. On 28 July 2014, the
Ministry of Culture replaced the Chinese Taipei Film Archive with the Taiwan Film Institute. The TFI was launched in a ceremony attended by culture minister
Lung Ying-tai and
New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu. In July 2017, it launched its film restoration laboratory. The
Legislative Yuan passed a bill in December 2019, upgrading the Taiwan Film Institute from an incorporated foundation to an administrative public body. The legislation took effect on 19 May 2020 and the organization was renamed to the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute. ==Film preservation==