The National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) in Canberra has marked its 30th birthday, using the occasion to reiterate that dwindling funds could jeopardise the preservation of Australia's film and audio history.

The NFSA was opened in 1984 with prime ministerial fanfare and a gala event to mark a new era of cultural reflection.

But today there was a more austere event with staff celebrations tempered by uncertainty over the institution's future.

"Definitely in terms of public funding, in terms of taxpayers' funding, I'd say the rich years are over," NFSA chief executive officer Michael Loebenstein said.

Earlier this year the national institution announced it would cut 28 jobs as part of a major restructure, which included an increased focus on online delivery.

Mr Loebenstein said it was becoming increasingly challenging to convert deteriorating film stock into digital before it was too late.

"It is going to take us, at the current pace, between 20 years and 96 years," he said.

"It's not good enough and governments know that archives always need more storage.

"It's about our national memory and it's about future generations."

The NFSA holds 2 million items which are digitised at the rate of 7,000 a year.

NFSA head of preservation Rod Butler with some of the equipment used to digitise films. ( ABC News: Alkira Reinfrank )

But Mr Loebenstein said that was barely keeping up with the new content being created.

"The pace of broadcast, the pace of the film industry, the pace of the music industry is changing dramatically," he said.

"How can we stand still? If you work in audio visual archiving you work for permanence, but at the same time, you know that you have to walk at a very brisk pace."

Mr Loebenstein said if funding continued to shrink, the institution would have to look increasingly to private sponsorship to protect its public assets.

To make the NFSA's milestone birthday a special viewing of Peter Weir's iconic film Gallipoli was on show.

The film is currently being digitally remastered for the Anzac centenary in 2015.