[1] Under the chairmanship of Professor Paul Rivet, in 1955, UNESCO organised a series of consultations to further the work of the International Institute of Educational Cinema, which was previously affiliated to the League of Nations.

On the occasion of the General Conference of UNESCO, held in New Delhi in 1956, the project of establishing an International Institute of Cinema and Television was presented by Mario Verdone, head of the Italian delegation, and approved.

The study was entrusted to Jean Benoît-Lévy, filmmaker, honorary director of the United Nations Cinema, assisted by a group of twelve international experts.

In 1980, with the emergence of new technologies, Enrico Fulchignoni, director of artistic and literary creation at UNESCO and president of the ICFT, decided to add audiovisual communication to the missions of the council.

[4] Source:[5] The principal role of the IFTC is to be the channel to and from UNESCO for all matters relating to film television audiovisual communication and the new media.