Saturday 25th March 2023 Marijana Bosniak kicks off session 7 on the last day of the Sofia Lab and focusses on how to keep track of multiple projects and events organized by a small team. An interesting topic, because one of the biggest struggles for most exhibitors seems to be working in small teams and multitasking. She and her co-workers have created different marketing materials for events throughout the years, such as posters. However, it is important to get help with cross-promotion when you host events. They do this by working together with local NGO’s and other institutions, this way ..read more

Friday 24th March 2023 What better way to start the day than visiting a cinema? Europa Cinemas’ Alexandre and Lisa took the group of exhibitors to check out the Sofia Cinema House in the morning. Most of the attendees had already been there the night before to have drinks, not knowing there was a great cinema upstairs. Hristo Hristozov told the story of how he started working here many years ago after spending so much time at this cinema as a visitor and went on to tell about the events they host, from screenings for young parents with baby’s to hosting screenings for refugees. Everyone shoul ..read more

Wednesday 22nd March 2023 Another edition of the The Sofia Lab kicked off today! 31 cinema exhibitors from 15 countries have gathered in this charming city during the Sofia Film Festival. Network members and European exhibitors have came to the G8 Cinema to discuss issues and share ideas around the topic “Moving forward – Reviewing old habits and exploring new models”. All participants were welcomed by workshop leaders Javi Pachón (CineCiutat, Spain) and Marijana Bosniak (Kino Urania, Croatia). Marijana states that the audience and programming are constantly changing and so if we want to surv ..read more

In an introduction from Europa Cinemas board members Metka Dariš & Mathias Holtz, two new Europa Cinemas charters, outlining principles to be adopted by network members, were presented, which will be available after the conference on the Europa Cinemas website. The charters represent a coherent technical, moral, and social position and were devised by a working group of network members for the wider membership.  The core objective behind the creation of these charters is to turn words into actions across the network. The two charters – on gender balance and inclusion and environmental ..read more

Collaborate to Innovate is Europa Cinema’s new funding initiative set up to support collaborative work across the network and bring innovation to cinemas and communities all across Europe. The first speaker was Frédéric Cornet from Cinéma Galeries, who brought the Cineville project from the Netherlands to Belgium. Cineville is a monthly unlimited pass (starting from 18 euros) and Cornet’s task was to adapt the idea for a new geographical area.  In March 2021, many cinemas were asking “how can we survive?” The goal for Cinéma Galeries was to increase admissions for art house film ..read more

After two full days of insightful panels and presentations, the 22nd Europa Cinemas network conference drew to a close. Summarising the key takeaways from the preceding days’ workshops and sessions, Michael Gubbins talked about the “fight for the future”. Much of what was presented in the workshop sessions had been many months in the making with focus groups and workshops already serving as the ideation and testing grounds for some of the bigger ideas we are now ready to adopt as a network. From Collaborate to Innovate, which explores how we can work together in new ways across the network, sh ..read more

In today’s busy attention economy, standing out from the crowd is important. Frank Groot, from Kino Rotterdam, opened the fourth workshop panel concerned with recovery and renewal, saying, “It could be about standing out in the ways in which people spend their time and money, or standing out from your own history – finding a new way to prove to younger or older audiences why they should come or come back.” Looking at why our places, stories, and events are critical, six inspiring examples set the tone for another positive journey into cinema recovery. Nathanaël Karmitz, CEO for mk2 Group, talk ..read more

Day 2 of the conference began with two simultaneous workshops. Moderated by Frank Groot from Kino Rotterdam, the network’s roadmap to recovery and renewal included a workshop focused on winning back the audience. Valerio Carocci from Cinema Troisi in Italy talked about reopening the historical movie theater in Trastevere which, in September 2021, was given its new lease of life through shared private funds and support from the ministry for culture. It’s a single screen theatre that attracts a mostly young audience – 60% of their attendees are under 35, of which 70% are under 27 – thanks to its ..read more

Beyond the films it shows, a cinema is a place, and it offers a sense of community to both its visitors and its collaborative partners – as Michael Gubbins says, both “in difficult times and in a period of renewal.” Christian Landais, ADRC Chief Executive for the French National Agency for Cinema Development talked about the 1,400 cinema strong organisation’s structure, which is not a state entity but was created by the ministry of culture in 1983 and is supported by the CNC. In the 1990s admissions came down to 113 million in Franceand today we are looking at 150 or 160 million to be achieved ..read more

Michael Gubbins opened the session on a positive note, “One of the benefits of the pandemic is the resilience and the rejuvenation of younger people.” With this in mind, he was ever optimistic about the pathway ahead, “The programmes, charters and ideas we’re going to hear about are fresh approaches. It’s not just recovery, but rejuvenation and then renaissance, I hope.” Laurent Creton, Professor from the University Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle, gave the keynote address, highlighting the importance of an historical perspective, including movie-going evolutions. In the 1950s, the public flooded ..read more