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What do you expect from the selection, as you are yourselves programmers? What do you consider to be a good competition?

Daira Āboliņa: I aim to discover young European authors, a new cinematic language, and new aesthetics: I’m searching for the next generation of film directors! Another concern is whether the films can interest wider audiences: how universal are they?

Jana Trnková: I always look for something that excites me. I don’t have specific expectations or search for particular qualities — I just want to be impressed by something special. I’m looking for that feeling you get as a spectator, but also as an exhibitor: the desire to share the film and the excitement that you experienced with other people.

Are your views as spectators and as exhibitors the same? Or are they different?

JT: I’m in a very privileged position (laughs). Kino Světozor shows basically what I like and what I want to watch! We program festival films that are on the verge between artistic and mainstream. Something innovative, different, and exquisite, but also accessible to a wider audience beyond just cinephiles.

In addition to the first question, can you tell us about your criteria for judging a film and giving awards?

Andrea Porta: It is quite difficult because each movie has its own specific characteristics. Each film could be interesting for different reasons. We must pay attention to everything —the actors, the photography… There are no canons that we must follow.

JT: We don’t have a table or spreadsheet where we score the points. We are quite different from each other—different countries, different ages, different experiences… The ideal movie is the one that offers each of us something different that we are intrigued by.

AP: A universal movie…

JT: … that offers something for everyone!

António Costa Valente: For me, it is better not to have strict rules when programming or watching films at a festival. The essential elements are a big screen and a great movie. The important is not the chairs, as comfortable as they can be… You must be taken by the film. In Giornate degli Autori, I expect to see these kinds of movies!

Over the past five years, Europe has been through different crises—sanitary, political, geopolitical… How does it affect the audience? Have you had to innovate to bring people back to the cinema?

DA: In general, I think people are back. It depends on the content. If you have strong films, it doesn’t matter if it’s July! Even in the summer, if a film sparks discussion, it works. I’m from a Baltic country, and I work for the biggest and oldest cinema in the country, the Splendid Palace, founded in 1923, now 101 years old!

Nowadays, people are confused and living in the shadow of the war. Many Ukrainians live in Latvia, and we have special free screenings for refugees. We try to understand how to live together with people that suffer from war. Some Russians are also coming to our country and trying to find places to live. The geopolitical situation makes everyone nervous… For that reason, we are looking for strong narratives which reflect the complexity of the current world situation. In Eastern Europe, people look for films that are honest and open to discussions about “living together”.

In my region, people are deeply affected by the current global situation, and we feel responsible for helping them find some stability and positivity. The criteria for judging films are now higher than before COVID—we need stronger films!

ACV: During COVID-19, we opened a drive-in cinema where people watched films from their cars and, instead of clapping at the end, they blinked their car lights and honked their horns. It was fantastic for the audience.

DA: We also opened an open-air cinema next to the wall of our historic venue. This year we had a great summer in the Baltics, it was very warm, and the cinema was absolutely successful. This year we introduced Jacques Demy’s films and musicals, and it was 90% full every screening.

What about young audiences? Children are growing up with small screens and there’s a crucial age when young people could learn to have a shared experience with a film on the big screen. What can arthouse cinemas do to help develop this habit?

ACV: The best experience with the children we had with the first Portuguese feature animation together with the education department of the region and with different schools. In each session which we’ve held in the weekends when the cinema was booked for only this event, they made drawings after the screening about the film. It’s a big experience for them and their reflections are very good.

DA: We have a special program for young audiences called Cinema Academy and we create special programming for them. Of course some of them are suitable for all audiences, but these films are with some additional bonus or content like a lecture specially for young audience. We also involved cinema influencers who worked with cinema issues in our region and of course they are younger people who have many thousands of followers. Of course not all of them will come to the cinema, but if they discover, discuss and debate on some topics of the films, then people will come to the cinema.

Of course more young audience are going to the multiplexes because of tradition. Splendid Palace is a popcorn free cinema and for young audiences this is an important issue, but there are films that are better without popcorn. We are planning first cinema lunch with film for younger audiences. It means that they have special gourmet dishes. We don’t yet know how it will turn out, but we will see. We are still strong on the position of having a popcorn free cinema, but we will see what will happen.

JT: Don’t give up on that! (laughing)

We also have a state programme which is called Schoolbag, which is supported by the ministry of education and teachers can decide whether this small amount of money will be spent on cinema, theater, museum or something else. There are a lot of options, but some of the teachers are our audience and they come almost every year and they trust our taste.

JT: You have to impress the adults to bring the kids to the cinema and school screenings are a perfect example. I remember it from my own school time, that the screenings that I was taken to by school were really heavy films, so educational, it was no fun at all. And it was always in the small arthouse cinemas, because I was in a smaller city. It didn’t excite me at all and then I felt like the small cinemas was for the hard stuff and the fun is in the multiplexes. And I feel like this is something we should focus on as exhibitors to talk to the teachers, talk to the adults and of course give them options that are educational, but also fun and exciting. So when kids go to a cinema with their school, it’s not a necessity, it’s not a hardship, it’s fun, it’s something that they should look forward to. If it’s an exciting experience, then they will want to do it even without the school involved and they want to go to our cinemas, not to a multiplex. They remember, that there is a cinema, that shows interesting movies.

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Interview by Victor Courgeon, representative of France and the cinema Méliès in Montreuil

and Maarja Hindoalla, representative for Estonia and the Film Archive of the National Archives of Estonia

September 2024

Picture, from left: Daira Āboliņa, Andrea Porta, António Costa Valente, Jana Trnková, Maarja Hindoalla and Victor Courgeon.

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