On 31 May the NFSA releases a DVD compilation, From Malo’s Law to Native Title: 1898 to 1998, commemorating the 20th anniversary of Mabo Day.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard gives Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao a photographic still from a rare and iconic film in the NFSA collection.

The NFSA Deluxe/Kodak project restores a further 25 notable Australian feature films.

In December the NFSA launches the Heath Ledger Young Artists Oral History Project.

The NFSA honours the life and work of pioneer filmmaker Marius Sestier, who shot Australia’s earliest surviving films.

The NFSA-restored Wake in Fright screens at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and is re-released in Australian cinemas.

On 18 September the NFSA, in collaboration with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, opens the Australian Mediatheque in Melbourne.

The NFSA becomes an independent statutory authority on 1 July.

The NFSA’s state-of-the-art screening venue, Arc cinema, opens in August.

The NFSA launches Sounds of Australia to promote and celebrate the nation’s sound heritage.

The NFSA receives a major television donation from Crawford Productions.

The NFSA Kodak/Atlab project restores 50 Australian colour feature films over five years.

The NFSA acquires the first consignment of a major sound recording collection of INXS material.

A new Indigenous unit is created to oversee development of the NFSA’s Indigenous audiovisual collection.

The federal government merges the NFSA with the Australian Film Commission from 1 July. An estimated 800 people attend two ‘Save ScreenSound’ rallies in Canberra, which attract wide media attention, and stakeholder groups lobby for NFSA statutory autonomy. The following year, the ScreenSound brand is dropped and the name returns to National Film and Sound Archive.

The NFSA’s still image preservation services switch from analogue preservation processing to digital formats.

The NFSA collection now numbers over one million items.