The background and origins of the Society for the Preservation of the Satyajit Ray Films, popularly known as Satyajit Ray Society or just Ray Society, go back to December 1992 when the Grants Committee of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which had conferred the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement on Satyajit Ray, gave a modest grant which enabled David Shepard, a pioneer in film preservation, to come to India to examine the original Ray film negatives and file a technical report. Shepard examined eighteen of Ray's 36 films and ruefully commented in his report, “The work of no other world-class filmmaker hangs on such a thin thread as Satyajit Ray's.” (See Shepard’s report on this website).