The third day of the Audience Development and Innovation Lab opened up discussion around several thorny issues, helping exhibitors navigate conversations around screening political or otherwise potentially controversial content. Transparency, taking a stance, and understanding context are key, as well as having and communicating intention. In the afternoon, the discussions moved on to engaging with evolving or unknown media formats, finding ways to make the smaller films work better, and how to maximise return on investment amid the eventisation of cinema.

No Other Land – the film exhibitors didn’t dare show

When Mustafa El Mesaoudi saw No Other Land, he was sure the film would get immediate distribution in Germany. When it didn’t happen, El Mesaoudi took on the responsibility of distributing the film. Among German exhibitors there was fear and hesitation; of backlash, of being misunderstood, and even of potential protest and riots. For El Mesaoudi, it was a simple decision: not distributing it is censorship and doing nothing would be a form of repeating that censorship. “When we screen a film,” El Mesaoudi said, “we’re not just picking it and putting it in our schedule, we’re taking a stance. If we truly see cinemas as democratic spaces, then relevance must matter more than convenience.”

For El Mesaoudi, it raised a significant question about the fundamental role of film exhibition: to be safe or to be meaningful? “It tested our courage as curators in Germany,” El Mesaoudi continued, “and revealed a gap between our ideals and our actions.” Independent cinemas inherently, by the pure nature of their cultural remit, play a part in shaping public conversation through what they choose to platform and which films they choose to screen.

To Screen or not to screen…

For Madeleine Probst, working at Watershed means understanding and adhering to the purview of the Charity Commission which governs all organisations with charitable status in the UK. This doesn’t mean that the cinema cannot screen political films or host political events. What it does mean, is that Watershed must understand what they can and cannot do as a host organisation, especially when working in partnership with other organisations and groups who are not themselves subject to the Charity Commission.

Watershed has hosted Bristol Palestine Film Festival since 2011 and, in 2014, were reported to the Charity Commission. The process was long and expensive but, through making some mistakes, the organisation received a lot of advice from the Commission around how to approach their co-hosted events in the future, specifically around guest speaker introductions, panel discussions and hosting of audience Q&As. Watershed now have a clear internal policy for how to approach such events, including not reinforcing the views of the guests – the moderator for the event needs remain impartial; the cinema team and front of house staff are advised to speak about the events and not the issues; and red lines around not tolerating racial hatred or political campaigning must be clear. A breach of these guidelines would result in either the person to leave or stopping the event entirely. Watershed regularly undertake risk assessments for events and ensure their staff are full informed.

Programming during the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Romet Toomas Tiitsaar from Elektriteater in Estonia explained how, given their geo-political context, Elektriteater have a strong positionality, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when it comes to not screening anything where the money from ticket sales will go to Russia. For example, they even removed a film from their programme that was an Estonian co-production, with Estonian screenwriters, Compartment No.6. Distribution chains, however, can be complex. Showing Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron looked, on paper, like a safe option. However, after following the distribution chain, it became clear that the British distributor had links to a Russian company. Elektriteater then cancelled further screenings of the film. While a lot of films don’t receive distribution in Estonia, Tiitsaar says that their programming is not compromised as they are a single screen cinema, and unwavering in their positionality.

I would prefer not to… How to balance different political sensitivities

Nicola Callegaro from Cinema Giorgione, a city council owned cinema, must balance external political pressures with public opinion. They receive a high level of correspondence from their audience who either disagree with their decisions to screen – or not to screen – political films. One example is 20 Days in Mariupol, which was said by some to be “propaganda”, “one-sided”, “an instrument of media warfare” and even “fuelling hatred towards Russia and Russians in Italy”. There is, in Venice, a fairly even split between left and right wing politics, and this split is mirrored by the public. This means that the cinema will almost always displease some portion of their audience and that, ultimately, they have two options: a film that might ignite debate can be placed in their cinema programme, or the cinema can recommend venue hire for a closed group to screen the film.

Callegaro also spoke about Cinemoving, a mobile open-air cinema initiative that has been operating for seven years, showing 60 films over the summer months, from June to September. Admission is free, and as it is in collaboration with the city council, the films and evenings as a whole are not intended to be political.

Reflections from the workshop participants following the presentations veered towards the philosophical and go right to the core of the work of film exhibition: is the purpose of the cinema, one participant asked, to educate, promote, to facilitate or to be deeply involved?

Kino Games

In the afternoon, attention turned to gamification as another form of audience development. Thierry Baujard from Spielfabrique presented their three-year Creative Europe funded programme Kino Games. Since 2023, they’ve hosted more than 100 events in cinemas in Europe and hope to build on this for the next 18 months. Spielfabrique clear the rights for the games, and offer a catalogue of pre-cleared programming for newcomers. Included in their brochure are full details on available languages for the games, genre, anticipated play duration, and whether or not it is geared towards tournaments, or if it would be more suitable as an add-on to a film screening. As it is still a pilot programme, there are various questions that remain open ranging from how the distribution of video games will be integrated into the value chain of both cinema exhibition and video game studios; the revenue share between Spielfabrique and the cinema operators, and if it is a combined film screening and gaming event, what the ticket price should be set at.

Gamifying European short films

Tom Gastinel from RIVRS and MyMetaStories appeared virtually in the room and, in a very meta presentation, outlined how they set about creating a short film festival inside the video game, Minecraft. With a majority of Minecraft gamers in their 20s, the creation of a screening room inside the game offers a portal to film education in an immersive and actively engaged way. As the functionality for showing films was not an existing layer in the base game, it had to be developed as an additional functionality. It was created as a social experiment, for multi-player gamers to watch and react to a short film, together. Attention to detail is key, with very film having its own screening room, with the virtual screening room aesthetic mirroring the film that it will screen. Following the ‘screening’, RIVRS created a mini-game that highlights and engages with either the narrative, aesthetic or wider world of the preceding film.

Additionally, RIVRS created a unique “quest through the history of cinema”: through visual ‘islands’ that represent specific periods of cinema history, gamers can learn about silent cinema, the advent of sound and other cinematic eras and events, complete with Georges Méliès as a guide. Arrival into this cine-haven is even via La Ciotat’s train station, and one of the key challenges is to help Méliès find the moon (and then to travel there in a camera-shaped rocket). To promote the game, they engaged influencers to livestream their experiences of playing the game with their followers and then to hold discussions around the themes and eras in the game.

Making Smaller Films Work

In a global context where the Hollywood blockbusters and other tentpole releases are dominating the market – and especially marketing space – working on promoting smaller films is becoming increasingly challenging and important for independent film exhibitors. Finding new ways to make these films work starts with collaboration between exhibition and distribution. Leslie Vuchot working with The Festival Agency in France gave the example of the bespoke materials they commissioned for City of God, including skateboards, t-shirts and beer as prizes for a giveaway contest in 15 countries, their efforts encouraged the distributor to re-release the film in France, widening its reach and release.

Kim Foss from Denmark, who set out as a film exhibitor, now also operates a TVOD platform, a distribution company and two cinemas – Grand Teatret and Gloria Biograf. If it weren’t for their efforts in also releasing films, there are many that, in Denmark, simply would not have been released, including Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grass (2023), Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (2023), and Mahdi Fleifel’s To a Land Unknown (2024). To make things more appealing for other cinemas to also screen the film, Foss says they remove as many barriers as possible including lab costs, ensuring DCPs have English subtitles (or Danish subs where possible), marketing assets, a press screening and promotional work, and a social media campaign. They regularly reach arthouse cinemas in three other major cities.

Maddy Probst from Watershed then presented on the UK’s joined-up initiatives to promote independent films across the country in a more visible way. A nation-wide intention of the British Film Institute, their Film Audience Network set up a programme called “New Release Strategy” which put additional finance into specific titles identified by FAN members as worthy and in need of additional support to maximise release. The support saw exhibitors and distributors work together on marketing materials, promotional events and also working with freelance marketeers in regional areas to promote the films locally as well as nationally. On average, 70% of the gross taken from the FAN NRS titles was through FAN network cinemas. The initiative has since been dropped, with budget going directly into distribution but, after seeing the successful results of such collaborative working, some FAN network members are now working together as a group direct with distributors to amplify specific smaller release titles.

Eventising – with return on investment

Eventising is not new but there are always new and more diverse communities we can reach through targeted event cinema. Manon Koerhuis from MIMIK Deventer in the Netherlands presented their successful Knit Cinema – “a complete night out for knitters” – that offers attendees a yarn swap before the screening, a drink and a snack included in the ticket price, and low lighting so the knitters can create while they watch.

In Sofia, the Odeon Cinema focused on what Hristo Hristorov calls “regenerative eventisation” – the bringing together of young audience development and event cinema. One such example was their Nosferatu double bill. Screening the 1922 silent classic with live musical accompaniment followed by David Eggers’ contemporary reimagining, Odeon gave life to an intergenerational perspective that created a new form of cultural dialogue among their audiences.

Giulia Zucchetti from Cinema Beltrade in Italy presented their movie marathons, midnight movies and eventised programming that turns curation into marketing, and offers audiences an inherent discount in exchange for their cinephila, proclaiming: “The more they watch, the less they pay.”