The NFAI encourages and promotes research and academic activities on every aspect of cinema especially in the area of Indian film history. Researchers and students from India and abroad have access to the film and video collection, documentation section and the library.

The archive also actively promotes research by assigning monographs on eminent Indian filmmakers and pioneering film personalities; research fellowships  on themes related to Indian cinema; and Audio-Visual History Project recordings of senior artists and technicians. So far NFAI has published 12 projects. 

One of the special features of the NFAI is that it is actively engaged in disseminating film culture throughout India. To this end, we have acquired a large number of foreign films --- by purchase or exchange from other archives --- for study purposes. These are regularly shown in the NFAI's own premises to researchers, filmmakers and others, and are also loaned to the Film & TV Institute for its academic programmes. The NFAI also frequently loans viewing copies from its collection - both Indian and foreign - for Joint screening programmes to film societies and educational and cultural organizations all over the country. 16 mm distribution libraries located in Pune and the NFAI's regional offices in Kolkata, Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram provide similar services to scores of organizations interested in screening films as a part of their regular programmes.For the last three decades the NFAI has been conducting an annual Film Appreciation Course of four weeks duration in collaboration with FTII. Participants from different professions from all over India are exposed to the best of Indian and world cinema. Among the major topics taught are the basics of the film medium, cinema as an art, film history, film theory and the relationship of cinema to other arts. The Archive conducts short courses on similar lines at various other centres in the country. These have evoked a tremendous popular response and contributed to the development of a healthier film viewing culture.