Elias Savada has been involved with film research since attended Cornell University in the 1960s. He spent 14 years with The American Film Institute, mostly on its AFI Catalog project, and was the sole compiler of the Film Beginnings, 1893-1910 2-volume set. Since 1977 he has run the Motion Picture Information Service, originally formed to help with logistical film shipments to various overseas film archives and festivals. In the mid-1980s he began providing customized copyright reports to a client base that has grown to over 2,000 entities. He has also helped finance numerous features and shorts (Scrap, Skywatch, Nuts!, The Pain of Others, German Angst, Our Nixon, and others). He co-authored Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of the Macabre (1995, revised version due in 2023). He writes reviews for Film International and is a contributor to the Mid-Atlantic Brew News. When he's not researching copyrights, he's usually downing a craft beer, watching a movie, or expanding his 35,000-person family tree.