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This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Europa Cinemas Network. We can all be proud of the results achieved over the past three decades and the essential contribution of network theatres to the circulation and cultural diversity of European film, thanks - since the very beginning - to the ongoing support of the Creative Europe/MEDIA Programme and the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (Paris). But 2022 can also be seen as a pivotal year for the network and for cinema. After the shock of the pandemic and a COVID-powered boom in audiences for streaming platforms, the film environment has changed and a new ecosystem is emerging. The emphasis for the last few months has necessarily been recovery but this conference will be an opportunity to take a look at how to make the next few years a renaissance for cinemas. That renewal will be built on stressing core values that were perhaps taken for granted before the pandemic forced cinema doors to close.

Cinemas are social spaces and business enterprises, creating jobs, embracing a range of skills, from business management to marketing, as well as projection, social media, data analysis. For the film industry level, theatres are an essential and creative part of the value chain. An average of 60% of screenings of non-national European films take place in the Europa Cinemas network. The network is critical to the economy for sales and distribution, and producers and directors want their films seen on the big screen. The post-COVID recovery has been slow for most and much harder in some countries than others.

This Network Conference will face those realities with a sense of mission and purpose. It will be a chance to stress the unique assets of cinema but it will also focus on two critical factors in building the future: Innovation and collaboration. Cinemas are innovating to create a new era for film. It takes the form of improved sound and vision, a stronger “social experience” and more efficient mechanisms for communication and marketing. Cinemas have also been creating stronger relationships with audiences through social media and data analytics. The “Experience Economy” is becoming ever more important for attracting a range of audiences and allowing audiences to engage with European cinema in all kinds of ways, through festivals, events, special screenings, etc. Stronger digital marketing has increased the potential reach to younger and more diverse audiences. Cinemas are using these innovations as a potential means of engaging new generations in what is still a dynamic and evolving art form.

Where Europa Cinemas can, and will, make its most essential contribution is in collaboration. It is overwhelmingly made up of small businesses, proudly rooted to their local communities. It is when each of those unique businesses are united into a dynamic, participatory, sharing network that its strength is revealed: More than 3,000 screens in 44 countries with a common purpose.

The network value to European film has been scrutinised in recent years with the growth of streaming and the tests of recent years has only accentuated its importance. Europa Cinemas has also expanded work to capture and share best practice, creative ideas and business experience, through schemes, such as COLLABORATE TO INNOVATE, or the Audience Development & Innovation Labs across Europe.

The 2022 Network Conference will play a key role in creating the next phase of the history for Europa Cinemas and for the film business. The 22nd Europa Cinemas Network Conference will as well be live-streamed in English, to allow all European exhibitors and professionals not present in Paris to attend our event.

For the sixth time in a row, we will welcome our partners from Europa International (network of European sales agents) which will hold their gathering at the same time as our Conference. This will be once again an excellent opportunity to exchange on issues such as the circulation of European films and their visibility on an international level.

Europa Cinemas will be presenting in member cinemas in Paris, as in the past, “European films previews”. These screenings will take place on Thursday 1 December from 10.30 a.m. and Friday 2 December in the morning from 09.30 a.m.

The main Conference sessions and workshops will start on Friday 2 December at 2:00pm and end on Sunday 4 December at around 2:00pm.

Registrations for the 22nd Network Conference are now closed.

For further questions and information, please contact Fatima Djoumer, Lisa Püscher and Hélène Le Duff by email (inscription-networkconference@europa-cinemas.org).

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Photo credits: © Joana Linda