A very wide field of memorabilia with a big European tradition can be seen in the genre movie programs.

As long as cinema exists, clever publishers have printed nice little souvenirs for moviegoers.

Before real movie programs came out related to feature films, smaller programs with a simple design informed spectators about a special event. In those days of the early silent aera, so called house programs or souvenir programs had a promotional purpose. They were paid by the movie theater proprietors or by the film publishers. Those programs also contained informations about several upcoming events or news or technical development in the new media.

The birth of the real movie programs which have been collected since many decades by real passionate film fans can be scheduled in Germany 1919. The "ILLUSTRIERTER FILM-KURIER" (BFK = Berliner Film-Kurier) became a very successfull series. The publishing company created a big format with several pages, containing nice stills and pictures, a synopsis and the complete crew of the movie. From now on every German film got its own Kurier. And lateron the most movies from abroad which were shown in Germany as well. It was a clever idea to sell those programms directly at the cinema box office or later by mailorder. The BFK's have been sold till 1944.

Another German publishing company realised the big market and founded another huge series called "DAS PROGRAMM VON HEUTE" (The program of today). A clever idea was to print star pictures on the front page which were replaced by real thin starpostcards lateron sticked into the programs which had a smaller format than the BFK's.

The other German speaking country which broke into the market was Austria. Long before the talkies came out, Austrian "KIVUR" programs were available for the silent aera. The programs contained more text and less pictures but they were wonderful sources of interesting informations. Nowadays real Kivur programs are very hard to get and very precious.

Seeing the success of the German BFK's, Austria created a similar series with the same design. And- how cool- they called it "ILLUSTRIERTER FILM-KURIER" as well. So there were German Kuriers from Berlin available and Austrian Kuriers from Vienna. And to prove the Austrian coolness again, "DAS PROGRAMM VON HEUTE" became an Austrian trademark as well. In 1956 both companies made a joint venture and produced together under a new name: "NEUES FILM-PROGRAMM" (NFP).

It's the only movie program series which is still active today from that aera. Another Austrian publishing company is "FILMINDEX-PROGRAMM". So Austria can be considered as the most active country regarding movie programs today.

After the War a lot of other publishing companies produced further movie programs editions.

A very famous one was "ILLUSTRIERTE FILM-BÜHNE" (IFB) between 1948 and 1969, publishing more than 8000 different issues, all numbered.

Till 1960 "DAS NEUE FILMPROGRAMM" (DNF) distributed about 5000 different issues. "FILMPOST" was another company with regular productions.

Some publishing companies gave special attention to very successful movies (Karl May films- Germans do know why) and produced bigger issues with more pages. And it was also common that the film distributors made their own programs as well, for example "ATLAS FILMHEFTE" in Germany, "TOP FILMPROGRAMM" in Austria or "RIALTO-FILMHEFT" in Switzerland.

The former DDR was also produsing movie programs. During the Russian occupation in 1945 an "ILLUSTRIERTER FILM-KURIER" appeared and lateron, starting in 1950, "PROGRESS FILMILUSTRIERTE" which became "PROGRESS FILMPROGRAMM" and finally "FILM FÜR SIE" (Film for you). They produced there till 1979. After the wall fell down, "CINEGRAPH-FILMPROGRAMM" was published by the Filmmuseum in Potsdam.

In the last decades some modern movie program series came out in Germany, such as "FILMPROGRAMM" from Stuttgart, "RETRO FILMPROGRAMM" or "PROJEKT FILMPROGRAMM". The last bigger productions were the German editions "PEGASUS FILMPROGRAMM", "FILMPROGRAMM DER KINO SZENE", "PHANTOPIA FILMPROGRAMM" oder "KINOEXCLUSIV."

Even the German television (ZDF) published a kind of movie programs which could be ordered or the big film magazine "CINEMA" tried to increase their run by attaching movie programs.

Not only Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the former DDR have been a market for movie programs. A lot of other countries participated in that genre. "PICTUREGOER" in England issued very nice "FILM SUPPLEMENTS", a mixture between movie program and magazine. Italy was active and France. "FILM COMPLET" was a very successful production and almost a combination between movie program and story book.

Movie programs. For almost 90 years collecting items in the world of cinema. In those days you just paid 10 German pennies for an issue. Nowadays real catalogues exist for dealers and customers mentioning programs which are so rare and exclusive that they will be sold for hundreds of Euros.

The times have changed. But there are still a lot of enthusiasts who love to collect old movie programs which are nostalgic remainings of the big time of cinema.