Europe, Now!
Film Industry Meetings
BFM - 41
BFM - 41
Europe, Now!
Europe, Now! Film Industry Meetings – 3rd edition
Audience design and audience development: best practices, best strategies
Sala della Fondazione Morzenti, via Maj 30
Admission for Industry Accredition only
Panels will be in English and Italian, as detailed in the program
Europe, Now! Film Industry Meetings is an all-European industry section dedicated to the internationalisation of professionals attending Bergamo Film Meeting.
Since 2021, Bergamo Film Festival has been organising two industry days as a platform for getting information and networking, in addition to the traditional, Europe-oriented continuing education initiatives, i.e. the masterclasses given by the directors of retrospectives and “Europe, Now!”.
International panels, relevant case histories, workshops, network opportunities and one-to-one meetings: these events aim at providing a knowledge guide on the existing tools. Also, they will shed light on some valuable best practices with a distinctly European impact.
The 3rd edition is scheduled for the 13th and 14th of March and will have the audience as primary focus, as a reflection on this topic has become more and more necessary. More specifically, the program will cover:
- Audience Design: we will get an introduction on the audience design method and on the idea of taking into account a film’s audience since its development through a series of panels and a workshop addressed to creative teams (director and producer) with a film in development;
- Audience Development: a panel discussion and the analysis of some best practices to find additional ways to create new audiences.
Thanks to the renewed collaboration with Creative Europe Desk Italy – MEDIA | Turin, the panel will start with a presentation of Creative Europe and the MEDIA Strand’ initiatives and funds which emphasise and support policies and strategies aimed at widening audiences, with a focus on issues of diversity and inclusion.
The first two editions of Europe Now! Film Industry Meetings were aimed at encouraging young Italian directors and producers to have a Europe-oriented approach to development and production, and to see the market as an opportunity to find the right distribution partners. Industry Days 2022 have shown that audience engagement strategies are of utmost importance and that we need to recognize their added value even before finishing a film. Europe, Now! Film Industry Meetings 2023 will draw inspiration from this experience.
The 3rd edition of Europe, Now! Film Industry Meetings is madewith the support of Lombardia Film Commission and in collaboration withCreative Europe Desk Italy MEDIA – Turin Office
Thanks to: AGICI – Associazione Generale Industrie Cine-Audiovisive Indipendenti, AIR3 – Italian Directors Guild – Associazione Italiana Registi, Lab 80 film, Milano Film Network, TorinoFilmLab, Artis-Project, Circolo del Cinema di Verona, Commissione Europea, dispàrte, Ergo research, FIPADOC – Festival International Documentaire, Fondazione Brescia Musei – Cinema Nuovo Eden, International Screen Institute, MovieReading, Nuova Cinematografica Gioiello, Nordic Factory, PUBLIKUM
The program
Monday, 13 March
Institutional Greetings and Thematic Introduction
9:30 – 10:00 am
in English
Cristina Loglio (Italia | European policies for Culture, Council Member, Europa Nostra)
Cinema has always been made to be seen. We could say that for the author and the producer, the film is a tool to say something about themself and about the world to someone who, by getting in tune, is encouraged to get involved. With the increase of productions and the competition to abtract the public’s time and attention, the relationship between creator and audience meets more and more closely marketing strategies, with opportunities and threats. Let’s talk about it at BFM!
Silvia Sandrone (Italia | Project Officer, Creative Europe Desk Italy MEDIA – Ufficio di Torino)
The importance of building new audiences for Creative Europe Program; different forms of audience development support in the MEDIA Strand and the need to identify target audiences from the early development stage of audiovisual works.
Focus 1: Audience Design
What Is Audience Design?
10:00 – 10:30 amin English
What is audience design? Case Study of Margini by Niccolò Falsetti (2022)
Greta Nordio (Italy | financing and audience design consultant) and Alessandro Amato (Italy | producer and CEO, dispàrte)
Audience Design is an approach to audiovisual development, production, distribution and marketing that uses storytelling to connect a project to its right audience. Through an analysis of the fruitful marketing and distribution campaign of the Italian first feature film Margini by Niccolò Farsetti, a dispàrte, Manetti Bros. with Rai Cinema production, we will look at the principles of Audience Design to understand how it can be used for creating unique, tailored strategies to make sure a project can successfully meet its audience and create a strong impact.
10:30 – 10:45 am – coffee break
10:45 – 11:45 am
in English
Audience Design, beyond paying audiences
Síle Culley (Irlanda | Audience Design consultant)
Audience Design is an adaptable, fluid and agile process. In fact, we can think of Audience Design before we reach our paying customers. In this short session, we’ll look at where Audience Design can be implemented: with film funders, and with industry executives. Consider them your first audience.
A Possible Audience Typology and How to Talk to Each Type
Petar Mitric (Denmark, Serbia | Associate Professor of film studies and Audience Design consultant)
Having explored audiences of numerous arthouse films – both as an AD consultant and a curious researcher – I developed a universal typology of four spectators that can facilitate fulfilment of a film’s goal. Each type has their own taste, media diet, values and prejudices, as well as personal issues to resolve. In order to lure them into a conversation with and about a film, the filmmakers must make sure that the film offers enough touchpoints with the targeted audience type(s). Identifying the genuine sensual, emotional and cognitive touchpoints as well as capitalizing on them during the development and distribution of the film is where all audience research begins and ends. Once we are aware of that, things become at least a little bit less complicated.
AI and anthropology for creative purposes and audience building
Rikke Flodin (Denmark | Anthropologist – Partner, PUBLIKUM)
Using a unique combination of anthropology and AI, Danish-based PUBLIKUM.io has specialized in audience building and awareness in the European film industry from early stage of script development to launch. Through different case stories, it will be demonstrated how creatives across Europe have used PUBLIKUM to add insights directly from the audience in their work processes from early idea to launch.
11:45 – 12:00 am – Q&A session
Resources for authors and producers
12:00 – 1:00 pm
in English
Catching up with Audiences
Valeria Richter, (Denmark | Head of Studies Audience Design Fund, TorinoFilmLab)
No matter which audiences we target and hope to engage, it is clear with today’s endless choice at our fingertips that the sooner we – as film teams – start considering who we are telling a story to and how we can cross paths with them, the better chances we may have for reaching them. By engaging ideas about audiences earlier, we can build connections and sharpen later dialogues with publicists, social media- and marketing managers, sales agents and distributors, as well as adding opportunities to manage promotion materials and resources more efficiently, as part of a green production approach. We need to catch up with the audience, if we want to remain being an attractive choice for their free time.
ISI – Audience Design Lab
Nikolaj Nikitin (Austria | Head of Studies, International Screen Institute)
Michael Frenschkowski (Austria, Germany | Board Member, International Screen Institute – Head of Features & Special Projects and Producer, Terra Mater Studio – Managing Director, Terra Mater Studios Germany)
International Screen Institute’s Audience Design Lab is designed to encourage filmmakers to find and build early audience engagement for their project/s. Learning to develop an audience design strategy at the earlier stages of the filmmaking process will allow participants to have a greater understanding of how to engage that audience with the correct messaging for grassroots marketing across the various social platforms, find and build communities and look at alternative and education opportunities.
FIPADOC Impact Lab
Christine Camdessus (France | Managing and Artistic director, FIPADOC)
Bastien Gauclère (France | Head of Industry Days, FIPADOC)
Documentaries as driving forces for change! FIPADOC supports artistic excellence, IMPACT ambitions and quality in distribution and financing strategies through its initiatives. FIPADOC IMPACT Lab, designed to support film teams aiming to amplify the influence of their documentaries to change minds, shift the rules of the game, and foster positive changes within society. The selected projects benefit from tailor-made training by leading IMPACT producers to acquire the methodology and tools to design and boost their impact strategies. The Grand Prix Impact Documentary, which crowns an inspiring film in the fields of social justice, human rights, defence of the environment.
1:00 – 1:30 pm – Q&A session
Focus on Audience Development
New European audiences: how to frame and look for them, even across barriers
3:00 – 4:00 pm
in English
Looking forward to the Media Outlook 2023: some results of a European audience research
Erika Jakab (Hungary | Policy Officer, European Commission
The European Commission will make a presentation providing, for the first time in an Italian film festival after the Berlinale 2023, a preview of some results of a multi-country consumer/audience research, carried out over the past year for the preparation of the “Media Outlook”, a comprehensive media market report which the Commission plans to publish in spring 2023.
Audience profiling insights from DigitalTRENDS | Sala e Salotto, Movie Clinic and CinExpert
Michele Casula (Italy | Partner and co-Founder, Ergo research)
From scenario surveys (DigitalTRENDS | Sala e Salotto) to continuous monitoring for audience profiling (CinExpert Italia), via product testing (Movie Clinic). The importance of listening to audiences in the audiovisual players’ decision-making process.
Audience development: empowering audiences with disability through accessibility. The MovieReading experience
Vera Arma (Italy | CEO, Artis-Project – President, CulturAbile Onlus – Accessibility Manager, MovieReading)
Audience development and empowerment: how to make cinema accessible to people with sensory impairments? State of art and future perspectives on over 15 years of subtitling and audio description with an insight into MovieReading.
4:00 – 4:15 pm – coffee break
Italian case studies: experiences and tools
4:15-5:15 pm
in Italian
Circolo del Cinema, a circulating cinema
Francesco Lughezzani (Italy | Head of Programming and Managing director, Circolo del Cinema – Co-founder, Ezme Film)
Luca Mantovani (Italy | Head of Programming and Managing director, Circolo del Cinema – Co-founder, Ezme Film)
In 2017, at its 70th anniversary, two professionals were hired for the first time by Circolo del Cinema in Verona to manage its organization and artistic direction. These 5 years are an opportunity to reflect on the history of an association with a strong identity, and to think about what film culture represents today, especially when young people do it. A workshop in constant search for new tools and new outputs, an “endless festival”.
Cinema Nuovo Eden: a cinema or maybe more
Chiara Boffelli (Italy | Programmer and Coordinator, Cinema Nuovo Eden)
Audience Development strategies: from increasing the network of partnerships to creating specific programs, from strengthening communication to broadening and focusing targets. Case history: “Connecting the Heritage Cinemas of Europe!” realized with Collaborate to Innovate – Europa Cinemas.
Free of constraints, ethics and labels
Lucio Basadonne (Italy | Artistic Director, Nuova Cinematografica Gioiello) Matteo Mori (Italy | Film Programmer, Nuova Cinematografica Gioiello)
Chasing niches: how movies that apparently no one wants to see can save cinema.
5:15 – 5:30 pm – Q&A session
Meet the decision makers!
5:30 – 6:30 pm
One-on-one meeting with panelists
To book a meeting, please email [email protected].
Tuesday, 14 March
Workshop di Audience Design
Workshop for creative teams with an audiovisual project in development Open call until March 6
10 am – 1 pm
1.00 – 2:30 pm – break
2:30 – 5 pm
Info and contacts
13-14 March 2023 – Bergamo – Sala della Fondazione Morzenti, via Maj 30
Admission free for industry accreditation, upon request before March the 11th, 2 pm at: [email protected]. For additional information, please email [email protected]
Alice Arecco
Industry Coordinator – Bergamo Film Meeting
Valeria Polidoro
Head of Operations – Bergamo Film Meeting
[email protected]
Audience Design Workshop
About the workshop
A full-day workshop to introduce producers and filmmakers to Audience Design. International audience design consultants Sìle Culley and Greta Nordio will help film teams identify their audiences and understand how they can meaningfully connect with them throughout their projects’ development, production and distribution. The workshop is built on experimentation, collaboration, and, hopefully, a lot of fun. We will openly brainstorm and explore different ideas, focusing on the projects’ stories, positioning, unique selling points and paths to their target audiences to give participants the tools to develop their projects to have a bigger impact.
Tutors
Síle Culley
Audience Design Consultant
With a decade of experience working in Sales and Distribution, Síle now runs an Audience Design consultancy helping independent producers and established production companies identify potential audiences for their films and the positioning of their projects in the ever-competitive marketplace. Síle is an industry expert for Eurimages’ Co-Production Fund, as well the Director of The Audience Design Lab for the ISI. She is a member of the European Film Academy and the founder of The Breakfast Club, a peer-to-peer network for women working in the Business of Film in Ireland. Síle is an alumni of Berlinale Talents, Torino Film Lab, LIM Less Is More and the NFTS.
Greta Nordio
financing and audience design consultant
Greta Nordio is a financing, production and audience design consultant for independent films. She was born and raised in Venice and has worked in Italy and USA. She has worked as audience designer since 2016, in collaboration with TorinoFilmLab, International Screen Institute, BrLab and other international institutions and films, including the award-winning The Wound and A Land Imagined. She was the head of financing, business and legal affairs of Vivo film for 6 years and currently is the Production and TFL Fund Advisor of TorinoFilmLab. She also offers consultancies in European and Italian financing.
Practical info
The workshop will be part of Europe, Now! Film Industry Meetings, the industry days of Bergamo Film Meeting and it will be held in person on Tuesday March 14th from 10am to 5pm at Sala della Fondazione Morzenti in via Maj 30, Bergamo. Participants are warmly encouraged to attend the panel on audience design and audience development on Monday March 13th.
The fee is 100€ per project. Travel to Bergamo will be at the participants’ expense. Selected applicants will have free access to the panel on audience design and audience development on Monday March 13th.
The workshop will be held in English.
Who can apply?
The workshop is open to Italian producers and filmmakers with an audiovisual project currently in development. Fiction films, documentaries, series and shorts are all accepted. First time directors are encouraged to apply. Two people maximum per project can attend the workshop.
How to apply
Applicants must apply by completing the following application form by March 6th: https://forms.gle/ANsuoCoqEFF7vj6a6
In the form you will be asked to the following information:
- project title, genre, duration
- logline (max 250 characters)
- short synopsis (max 600 characters)
- long synopsis (max 3000 characters)
- director’s and producer’s bio and filmography (max 2000 characters)
All materials must be in English.
Selection
We will select up to 12 projects. Selected applicants will be notified by email on March 8th and will have to pay the fee by March 10th.
For additional information, please email [email protected]
Panelist
Silvia Sandrone Project Officer, Creative Europe Desk Italy MEDIA – Turin Office
Graduated in Foreign Languages and Literatures, after a brief experience at the Paravia publishing house, she started working in the audiovisual industry which she has been dealing with exclusively for about twenty years, working for the EU MEDIA Program, first as head of Antenna MEDIA Torino then, since 2014 as Project Officer of Creative Europe Desk Italy MEDIA Office Turin, hosted by Cinecittà SPA. CED Media is the information and promotion Office assisting Italian companies and professionals.
Strand MEDIA and Creative Europe Media Desk Italy
Creative Europe is the European Commission’s programme to support the culture and audiovisual sectors. Creative Europe has a budget of € 2.44 billion and it is divided in three strands: Culture, MEDIA and a crossectoral strand. MEDIA is supporting and promoting Europe’s film and audiovisual sector and its information office in Italy is the Creative Europe Desk Italy MEDIA, hosted by Cinecittà SPA and including three offices based in Rome, Turin and Bari. The CED offers companies and professionals working in the national audiovisual sector a complete information and consultancy service concerning financial and networking opportunities provided by the European Union.
Greta Nordio
consulente finanziamenti e audience design
Greta Nordio è una consulente di produzione cinematografica e audience design. Nata e cresciuta a Venezia, ha studiato e lavorato in Italia e Stati Uniti. Dal 2016 lavora come consulente di Audience Design in collaborazione con TorinoFilmLab, International Screen Institute, BrLab e altre organizzazioni e film internazionali, tra cui gli acclamati The Wound e A Land Imagined. Ha curato i finanziamenti e gli affari legali di Vivo film per sei anni; attualmente è la Production and TFL Fund Advisor del TorinoFilmLab e offre consulenze su finanziamenti europei ed italiani.
Alessandro Amato Producer and CEO, dispàrte
Alessandro Amato graduated in Production at the National Film School after his Master’s Degree in Law. From 2008 he developed his profile through professional experiences in theatre, cinema and the organisation of cultural events. In 2015 he founded dispàrte. In 2022 he was selected for the Producers On The Move program at Cannes Film Festival. He’s an EFA, EPC and AGICI member, and part of ACE, EAVE and Berlinale Talents networks. He teaches Production at Sapienza University and IED Visual Art Academy.
dispàrte
dispàrte is an independent production company founded in Rome in 2015 by Alessandro Amato and Luigi Chimienti. We develop projects by both emerging and established authors through a careful editorial process, exploring different ways to create inspiring characters and stories with an international appeal and imagined for a wide audience.
Síle Culley Audience Design consultant
With a decade of experience working in Sales and Distribution, Síle now runs an Audience Design consultancy helping independent producers and established production companies identify potential audiences for their films and the positioning of their projects in the ever-competitive marketplace. Síle is an industry expert for Eurimages’ Co-Production Fund, as well the Director of The Audience Design Lab for the ISI. She is a member of the European Film Academy and the founder of The Breakfast Club, a peer-to-peer network for women working in the Business of Film in Ireland. Síle is an alumni of Berlinale Talents, Torino Film Lab, LIM Less Is More and the NFTS.
Petar Mitric Associate Professor of film studies and Audience Design consultant
Petar Mitric is an assistant professor in film studies and creative media industries at the University of Copenhagen. His research interests span audiovisual policy, co-production and audience-design practices. He has published extensively on European cinema and co-authored the book European Film and Television Co-production: Policy and Practice. He continuously collaborates as a consultant with numerous European organisations, including Film i Väst, TorinoFilmLab, FOCAL and EU’s Creative Europe Programme.
Rikke Flodin Anthropologist – Partner, PUBLIKUM
Rikke Flodin is an anthropologist working with audience insights and awareness at PUBLIKUM.io. She has worked with more than 40 film projects across Europe, helping provide filmmakers with audience awareness in the shape of deep, human insights. Rikke holds a MSc in Anthropology from the University of Copenhagen.
PUBLIKUM
PUBLIKUM is a Danish-based service that helps film projects create a deeper connection to a broader audience in both home and export markets by researching audience reaction to a treatment or early stage script. We combine human insights with big data to provide filmmakers with audience awareness in the shape of deep, human insights developed with precision.
Valeria Richter Head of Studies Audience Design Fund, TorinoFilmLab
Scriptwriter Valeria Richter works internationally since 2006; she writes and consults on feature films/TV series, develops lab concepts, and specialises in pitch coaching. She has headed 60+ workshops since she in 2008 co-created the renowned training outfit, TorinoFilmLab, where she developed the strategic approach Audience Design in 2011, writing a free e-book in 2018. She premiered an 8-part TV drama series Next of Kin as head writer/creator in Finland 2022. She runs a sustainability, inclusion, audience impact, and leadership focused project- and network concept, New Nordic Narratives.
TorinoFilmLab
Since 2008, TorinoFilmLab is the place to go if you have a story for the screen in mind.TFL accompanies international auteurs and professionals in the realisation of their projects through several activities and forms of support in the fields of audiovisual training and development, plus it provides funding and networking opportunities. So far, over 160 stories developed with TFL kicked off at the most prestigious film festivals and reached the audience. TorinoFilmLab is organised by the National Museum of Cinema and supported by Creative Europe – MEDIA sub-programme of the European Union, Ministero della Cultura, Regione Piemonte and Città di Torino.
Nikolaj Nikitin Head of Studies, International Screen Institute
Nikolaj Nikitin was the Head of Studies at SOFA – School of Film Advancement, Artistic Director of the Palic European FF and Critics’ Pic(k)s Curator at Tallinn’s PÖFF. Nikitin, who lives in Berlin, was a delegate to the Berlinale for 18 years and has 25+ years of experience as a film curator for international film festivals, the Goethe-Institut and Institut français. As a critic, Nikolaj was running for 15 years the independent film quarterly magazine “Schnitt”;. He is a member of many coproduction juries, advises European funding bodies, and lectures at film schools around the world. Nikitin is a member of FIPRESCI, General Assembly member of Cineuropa, and European Film Academy. Nikitin is an expert in building or creating business structures, eg. publishing houses, web platforms, festivals, cinema networks, film schools and trainings. Nikolaj is very active in training and strengthening regional film industries across Europe with a focus on Eastern partnership countries.
Michael Frenschkowski Board Member, International Screen Institute – Head of Features & Special Projects and Producer, Terra Mater Studio – Managing Director, Terra Mater Studios Germany
With Terra Mater, he produced/exec produced the feature films Brothers Of The Wind (starring Jean Reno) and Mindgamers (starring Sam Neill, Tom Payne) and the 2017 Oscars© shortlisted feature documentary The Ivory Game and 2019 The feature documentary Sea Of Shadows, which won the Sundance Audience Award of the World Cinema Documentary section. Michael benefits from more than 20 years of experience, shooting in more than 15 countries around the world, producing & line producing numerous German and International Feature Films/TV-Productions. His credits include films such as, Suspiria, Merry Christmas, The Hamburg Cell, Modigliani, Eichmann and many others.
International Screen Institute
The International Screen Institute is a non-profit organisation providing innovative top-level training for film and media creatives and executives with a strong focus on the business aspect of the audiovisual industry. The Institute aims to develop sustainable careers and businesses. Our mission is to connect and empower international industry professionals working both in fictional and factual content as well as all players within the audiovisual ecosystem. Our training programmes will gather international Film and TV experts and selected participants to Austria and online. Apart from its emphasis on sustainability, the Screen Institute promotes equality across all its training programmes with a focus on inclusivity across gender, abilities, ethnicity and socio- economic status.
Christine Camdessus Managing and Artistic director, FIPADOC
Formerly lawyer-in-firm and film finance banker, Christine launched ALEGRIA PRODUCTIONS in 2001: more than 60 creative documentaries, distributed around the world: Five Broken Cameras, Emad Burnat&Guy Davidi (Sundance director’s price 2012, Oscar Nomination 2013, International Emmy Award 2013) and Forman vs. Forman (Cannes Classics 2019). She was nominated FIPADOC’s Managing Artistic director in 2018.
Bastien Gauclère Head of Industry Days, FIPADOC
Since 2021, I’m in charge of the FIPADOC Industry Days, the international documentary film festival held annually in Biarritz. In 2023, we gathered more than 2.300 professionals from 50+ countries and proposed around 50 different sessions (pitching, masterclasses, keynotes, matchmaking, etc.) both in French and English.
FIPADOC
FIPADOC, the international documentary film festival of Biarritz, brings members of the public and professionals together for screenings of a selection of outstanding documentary films. Held in January, FIPADOC is the first event on the circuit of major international documentary festivals each year. Over eight days, it highlights, in different locations in Biarritz, documentary in all its forms through screenings, masterclasses, debates and conferences. In 2023, it gathered 32.000 spectators and more than 2.300 professionals through its Industry Days.
Michele Casula Partner and co-Founder, Ergo research
He has designed and manages scenario research and audience profiling tools such as “DigitalTRENDS”, “Sala e salotto”, “MOVIEclinic,” “BE series | siamo le serie TV che guardiamo”. In charge of “CinExpert Italia,” he coordinates many surveys with an integrated approach, in the fields of entertainment, media, communication, ICT, sports and events. He is among the professors of the main Italian Master’s degrees focused on the audiovisual and media industry for the education of professionals.
Ergo research
Ergo research was founded in 2012 by 3 partners with more than 20 years of experience in research and supported by a multidisciplinary team and a network of professionals and partner companies who share its integrated and innovative approach. Research products are original, both multiclient and taylor-made and approach to research is declined on quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Among the clients followed for research activities and consulting: Rai, Mediaset, Sky, Timvision, ANICA, Cinetel, Cattleya, Lux Vide, Lotus Production, Colorado Film, Lucky Red, IIF, BIM, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Medusa, o1 Distribution, Vision Distribution.
Vera Arma CEO, Artis-Project – President, CulturAbile Onlus – Accessibility Manager, MovieReading
Vera holds a BA in European Languages, a MA in Conference Interpreting and a PhD in English for Special Purposes, with a thesis on audio description for the blind as a special language and its peculiar features. Founder of Artis-Project, accessibility manager of MovieReading, president of CulturAbile, a nonprofit organisation. She has collaborated with the Universities of Turin, Parma, Bologna, Viterbo, Milan, with public and private bodies, both as a trainer and accessibility expert. With hundreds of accessibility projects managed yearly, she is strongly committed to empowering audiences through access.
Artis-Project
Artis-Project is a leading company in the field of subtitling, audio description and respeaking. It provides subtitling and audio description services for cinema, television, theatre, VOD platforms, opera, home video and web contents, with a department specialising in live access.
MovieReading
MovieReading is a worldwide patented application for reading subtitles and listening to audio descriptions via smartphone and tablet. The same technology is also applied to real-time subtitling, with individual reading solutions on devices, even remotely.
Francesco Lughezzani Head of Programming and Managing director, Circolo del Cinema – Co-founder, Ezme Film
Francesco is a film critic, member of the National Union of Italian Film Critics, and a journalist. He has been working as editor and programme manager at Circolo del Cinema, the cultural association that promotes alternative cinema in Verona, since 2017. Since the same year he has been collaborating with the Film Festival della Lessinia in the film selection committee. He conducted research on the Venice Film Festival as part of the Biennale College programme and has worked in the archives of the Cineteca di Bologna, dealing with the Blasetti and Calendoli Fund. Francesco also teaches film studies at schools and associations. In 2020 he became a founder member of the production company Ezme Film.
Luca Mantovani Head of Programming and Managing director, Circolo del Cinema – Co-founder, Ezme Film
Luca Mantovani (1984) graduated in Publishing and Journalism in Verona, with a thesis in History of Cinema. He works as a programmer and organiser for Circolo del Cinema in Verona and, since 2018, he has also been a programmer for Film Festival della Lessinia and Bridge Film Festival. In 2020 he co-founded Ezme Film.
Circolo del Cinema
Verona’s Circolo del Cinema is the oldest Italian film club, active since 1947. It was founded alongside the enthusiastic times that followed the Liberation. For the past 75 years the Circolo has been proposing an approach to cinema as a social moment to enrich the cultural baggage, always keeping a particular attention to the independent panorama. The cinema experience and the active attendance of the members is key, and therefore we put into place, among the other activities, an annual exhibition composed of 30 titles, meetings with the authors, conferences, festivals, events, publications on a journal, a blog, a podcast and a library/archive/video library.
Chiara Boffelli Programmer and Coordinator, Cinema Nuovo Eden
For more than 20 years Chiara has been involved in film promotion and the organisation of festivals and exhibitions, from design and development to communication planning. She currently works at Fondazione Brescia Musei in the area of management, application and innovation, dealing with cinematographic projects in the development phase, programming and coordinating the arthouse cinema Nuovo Eden. She is a member of the Board of Directors of FIC-Federazione Italiana Cineforum and collaborates with Filmfestival del Garda and Avisco – Audiovisivo scolastico. She was general coordinator of the Bergamo Film Meeting festival and collaborated with the magazine Cineforum and the production and distribution company Lab 80 film.
Cinema Nuovo Eden
The arthouse cinema Nuovo Eden, active since 2007, is located in the Carmine district, one of the most beautiful and lively areas of the city’s historic centre. Nuovo Eden is managed by the Fondazione Brescia Musei and has been developed thanks to the support of the Municipal Administration. The Nuovo Eden qualifies as an arthouse cinema and is part of the Europa Cinemas European network.
Lucio Basadonne Artistic Director, Nuova Cinematografica Gioiello
Lucio Basadonne, a marketing and counterculture enthusiast, is the artistic director of the Gioiello. Alongside his experience as a director and producer, he has been working in distribution for years, taking care of independent cinema for the “Movieday” platform.
Matteo Mori Film Programmer, Nuova Cinematografica Gioiello
Matteo Mori is a Film Programmer born in Genoa, where he is currently studying New Technologies of Art at the Ligustica Academy. In 2019, he joined the Molesti association to support peer-to-peer creative initiatives for teenagers. Since 2022, he has been in charge of programming at Nuova Cinematografica Gioiello.
Nuova Cinematografica Gioiello
I am the Nuova Cinematografica Gioiello, but I used to be a porno theatre. I was shut down, lost at auction, and now turned into a “cultural club” where you’ll find events dedicated to cinema you’ve never seen. I do underground stuff ranging from social documentaries to ethical and unethical porn. Stop by: will it be a night to mope over Finnish films? Or a night about esoteric films with tarot readings and DJ sets?
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