Seven European film festivals have joined forces to launch an alliance called ’Smart7’ to share advice and knowledge on issues such as programming, audience development through to sponsorship and fundraising.
The network is composed of New Horizons IFF (Poland), IndieLisboa IFF (Portugal), Thessaloniki IFF (Greece), Transilvania IFF (Romania), FILMADRID IFF (Spain), Reykjavik IFF (Iceland) and Vilnius IFF (Lithuania). Smart7 has been supported by the EU’s Creative Europe MEDIA Programme and European Festivals Networks.
Thessaloniki’s general director Elise Jalladeau explained the main goal of the alliance is to share knowledge and experiences, while promoting European cinema and developing audiences. “Each of us has their own identity and own specific curation, colour and approach to programming,” said Jalladeau. ”But we hope that this initiative will launch stronger bridges between our teams, between our programmers and between our audiences.”
New Horizons’ artistic director Marcin Pieńkowski noted the festivals “have the same goals, the same policies, very similar visions, that is why our cooperation seems to be natural.”
Jalladeau added: “We were already exchanging news, programmes, interns, talent trips, tips, hopes and worries with our festival colleagues on an informal basis. The Smart7 network is organising our relations on a more formal basis.”
“With film festivals, we have 10 days each year to perform our best,” added Vilnius’ CEO Algirdas Ramaska. “The next chance to make it better and fix some mistakes will be after one year. I always say that talking to the right person for five minutes can save you five years of doing things wrong. And that’s why it’s so important to mix our marketing, communications, programming, technical, sustainability, industry, guest teams etc. This is a goal and a vision of true partnership and cooperation, that can bring benefits to all of us.”
The next two years will see Smart7 organising four workshops dedicated to festival professionals on such issues as programming and audience development, sponsorship and fundraising, promotion and sales, and sustainability and green practices.
In addition, the seven festivals will come together to launch a competitive section of seven films by emerging filmmakers from each of the member countries who are committed to new narratives and innovative cinema language.
The film selection will be screened at each of the Smart7 festivals, and a jury of university students from each country will decide on the winner of the € 5,000 prize.
No comments yet