Day three of the Bologna Lab started with a presentations on curatorship and
discovery: the role of films of the past in the future of cinema. The first
presentation was by director of Carlotta France, Vincent Paul-Boncour. He
shared marketing and promotional activities on the re-release of Sofia Coppola’s
The Virgin Suicides; the idea is to bring it to a new audience, but also bring
people who’ve seen it in 1999, back to the cinema again. He presented a brand
new poster and merchandise they’ve launched.

Vejune Dudeniene (Skalvijos Kino Centras) presented different inspiring
activities they host to get their audience to come watch classics. They organise
classics with introductions, serve fitting drinks at some of the screenings, host
parties, ask other parties to serve food to make it a whole event, and also ask
graphic designers to make posters for the specials.

Valentina Masper (Lo schermo bianco) tells about their cinema which closed in
1978 reopened again in 2021. They are a home for classics and even have 35mm
screenings. The film Kings of the Road by Wim Wenders which was the film
closing film back in 1978 was the film they screened in 2021. In their promotion
they want back to the past, by using an old video which was filmed in the 70’s.

These presentations were followed by a mini workshop in which the participants
were asked to organize an event around the film Spellbound, which they saw
two days ago. A lot of the groups suggested to host an event around mental
health awareness, in which this film was a part of. Another group choose a
program on women’s day and have introductions with a female perspective,
followed by discussions. A few other groups choose to host events from a
Freudian perspective and team up with professionals and universities to reach a
wider audience. One group even went as far to organize art exhibitions around
this subject inside the cinema and outside.

The second round of presentations were on finding a balance between regular
and niche programming and also, event based programming. Franco Savelli
(Cinemaincentro) kicks off and tells about how they were struggling to get the
audience back after covid. Every event seemed to be a one night stand, people
came to one screening, but not come back and they had to start all over again. A
few things thet did was serialize events for a whole season, create a brand with
one graphic design.

Zlatko Vidackovic (Metroplis, Croatia) tells about their summer event in which
they sell one ticket to attract an audience for all the different types of events they
host in the one building. People can go to a concert, film, theatre and the cinema
with one ticket. So, sort of a gesammtkünstwerk and this way you bring art to a
wider audience.

Eva van Hessche (Cinema Storck) is the third speaker this afternoon and tells
about how they try and create added value to experiencing a filmscreening
together. They organize Flemish premieres in order to create buzz around a
title, an Open Cinema Day and an event called Meet the Masters in which they
invite film professionals to discuss one director and his/her films

Baris Azman (screenwiter & director) showcases his trailers he makes for KINO
Rotterdam and other cinemas & festivals. He tells about his creative process, and
the different types of trailers. Some of them are based around a theme, others on
directors/actors. For KINO he also created a documentary on photos they
discovered at the Ducth Photography Museum on the set of Apocalypse Now,
which premiered at Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2019.

After lunch it was time for a few Collaborate to Innovate projects backed by
Europa Cinemas. Martin Kitzberger (Kinoabo) tells about how they introduced
monthly subscription with which cardholders can go to 18 cinemas in Austria.
This is based on the Cineville pass which has already proved to be a success in
The Netherlands and recently in Belgium.

Oskar Kobar (Taru Elektrikteater) has another inspiring story about how they
created a management and ticketing software from scratch(!) and implementing
it at 7 cinemas in Lithuania. A few challenges were that all cinemas have similar
problems, but have different ways of dealing with these. But his advice is to keep
it simple.

Silvia Ortolani (Cinema Solaris) presents their “Move the Movie” project with 4
cinemas in which they bring children to the cinema. Two of these cinemas hadn’t
worked with children before. These were screenings with a guide explaning the
film. After the screening the kids made drawings and there were winners picked
by a jury. The 15 winners were lucky enough to see their drawings be made into
an animation.

During the mini workshop, participants were asked to organize a collaborative
project together. Interesting projects were mentioned; cinemas unite to screen
films from first time directors, a platform that unites cinemas films that don’t
have a distributor can sceen in different territories. But also, collaboration in
sustainability was mentioned; cinemas can work together in buying equipment
together so that you can share the costs. “Movies and music” was also a project,
4/5 cinemas in different coutnries can team up and choose a silent film and ask
an artist to create a soundtrack for it, so that it can tour different countries. All in
all, another inspirational day with lots of ideas.