MUMBAI: Merchant Ivory Prods. is donating its archives - which encompasses - to the

The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film in Rochester, New York will house 2,600 items including more than 40 films of Merchant Ivory Productions including titles like A Room With a View and Howard‘s End.

At the opening of the 360|365 George Eastman House Film Festival on 5 May, director James Ivory will be honored with the title of George Eastman Honorary Scholar. The festival will also present Ivory’s latest film, The City of Your Final Destination that stars Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney. 

It may be recalled that Ismail Merchant, who died in 2005, had met representatives of Eastman House personally to plan the gift that includes original negatives, interpositives and 35mm archive prints made from the original negatives of some of Merchant Ivory’s films.

According to Ivory, it was Merchant’s dream to back this original material up with his own collection of his relevant contracts, correspondence, and other business papers that give an idea of how their production company operated successfully for more than four decades in four continents.