A fundamental oversight has persisted in the art world for over a century. While painting, sculpture, and even ephemeral forms such as performance and conceptual art have been enshrined within museums, cinema—perhaps the defining artistic medium of the 20th and 21st centuries—remains excluded from the sanctum of fine art.

The Louvre, the Tate, MoMA, the Met—institutions that dictate the canon of high art—have yet to acknowledge the towering cinematic achievements of Tarkovsky, Bergman, Antonioni, Ozu, and other masters as works worthy of preservation alongside the great paintings of da Vinci and Rembrandt. Why? What artificial barrier has been imposed that prevents cinema from being recognized as fine art?

Cinema, in its highest form, is not mere entertainment. It is a composition of light and movement, a layering of time and consciousness, a medium that—when wielded by the hands of true artists—offers no less profundity than a Caravaggio or a Rothko.

Yet, while a Warhol film reel may sit in a gallery as a conceptual artifact, the poetic frames of Tarkovsky’s 'Mirror' or Bergman’s 'Persona' are left to deteriorate in archives, neglected as artistic objects.The signatures of Fellini or Bresson carry no less weight than those of Picasso or Giacometti. Their works—films, handwritten notes, sketches, annotated scripts—deserve to be collected, exhibited, and valued as museum-worthy masterpieces.

We call upon the world’s leading museums to rectify this omission.

• Establish permanent collections of cinema’s artistic masters.
• Exhibit original film prints, storyboards, scripts, and director’s notes as part of humanity’s artistic heritage.
• Treat the great films of the past century as collectible art, ensuring their conservation and prestige.
• Elevate cinema’s position in the art market, bringing it into the realm of high-value collectible works, like paintings and sculptures.

Cinema must not remain an orphaned art form, relegated to commercial transactions in multiplexes or fragmented across streaming platforms. Its greatest works deserve to be enshrined, studied, and revered—as all true art is.

We urge museums and curators to lead this paradigm shift. The time has come to recognize cinema as an equal among the arts—to grant it the place it has long been denied.

Who among you will take the first step?

We invite museum directors, collectors, and art patrons to engage in this dialogue. If you believe in this vision, reach out to us by clicking the button below or share this letter with those who can make a difference.

With highest regards,
Satish Babusenan
Founder, The Cinema Sanctum