The 15th Annual International Small Cinemas Conference entitled Changing Policies, Transforming Audiences and Work Practices In-flux, which took place this year from November 5 to 7, 2024, at the F22 Hall in Zagreb, has now officially concluded. The conference was organized by the Department of Culture and Communication of the Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO) in cooperation with the Zagreb Film Festival (ZFF) and the Academy of Dramatic Arts (ADU), and was held as part of the ZFF Industry program. During the three days of the conference, experts and researchers from all over the world discussed the key challenges and prospects for development of the film industry in small countries. The conference program covered a wide range of topics – from discussions on the impact of global streaming platforms, issues of innovation in film production, distribution challenges, as well as on policies to encourage production in smaller film industries.
After opening words from the organizers (Jaka Primorac, President of the Programme Board of the Conference, Selma Mahadžić, from Zagreb Film Festival, Davor Švaić from the Academy of Dramatic Arts and Aleksandra Uzelac, Head of the Department for Culture and Communication at IRMO) the first day of the conference on November 5, 2024 was opened by Jakob Isak Nielsen from Aarhus University, Denmark, who gave a keynote lecture entitled Four Avenues for Small Film Ecosystems, in which he presented a comparative analysis of seven small European film ecosystems and highlighted four key strategies for facing the challenges of a domestic market that is too small. The invited lecture was followed by a round table entitled Evidence-based Policy-making for Small Film Industries, in which researchers Ivana Kostovska (VUB Brussels, Belgium) and Jakob Isak Nielsen (Aarhus University, Denmark) and public policy stakeholders Christopher Peter Marcich (Director of HAVC and President of EFAD) and Krešimir Partl, State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, discussed the relationship between research data and public policy instruments and necessary strategic approaches to small film industries. The first session of individual presentations dealt with internationalization and challenges of production in small film industries, and was followed by a panel on the new law on audiovisual activities in Spain introduced in 2022 and its implications for small film communities – primarily on implications for linguistic diversity and gender equality in the audiovisual sector. The first day of the conference was closed with a panel on the role of clusters for the development of small film industries, where Romanas Matulis and Kestutis Drazdauskas presented the work of the Baltic Film & Creative Tech cluster, while award-winning Croatian producers Danijel Pek (Antitalent) and Zoran Vujić (Poster) commented on the possibility of developing a similar cluster in the Croatian context.
The second day of the conference, held on November 6, 2024, was opened by the panel Approaches to Competitiveness in Small Film Industries, in which representatives of three Horizon Europe projects dealing with the international competitiveness of the European audiovisual sector, Anastasios Drosou (SCENE project), Antonios Vlassis (Reboot project), and Andre Rui Graca (CresCine project) talked about increasing the competitiveness of small film industries in Europe. This was followed by three sessions of individual presentations that dealt with distribution and cinema infrastructure, the impact of global streaming services on local markets and the reactions of small countries, diverse practices in film production and issues of film reception. The second day’s program ended with a round table organized with the support of DKE – MEDIA Office Croatia, which dealt with the challenges of the independent cinema network in Croatia. The round table, moderated by the Head of the CED-MEDIA Office Martina Petrović, was attended by representatives of the independent cinema network Maja Holek from the cinema ‘Velebit’ in Koprivnica, Renata Kiršić Veselica from the cinema ‘Labin’, Goran Plantak from the cinema ‘Gaj’ in Varaždin, and Alen Munitić as a representative Mediterranean Film Festival Split (FMFS). The second day concluded with a party at the Tvornica kulture, jointly organized by the Zagreb Film Festival, the Sarajevo Film Festival and the Institute for Development and International Relations.
The third and final day of the conference, held on on November 7th, 2024, was opened by Petr Szczepanik from Charles University in Prague, Czechia, with a lecture entitled Geography of the Streaming Economy: East-Central Europe as a Digital Periphery, in which he offered a detailed analysis of the impact of global streaming services on the markets of Eastern and Central Europe. The final two sessions of individual presentations dealt with technological innovations in film production and public policy and local industry actors’ responses to them, as well as the effects of incentive instruments for foreign productions and service productions themselves on small film industries in Europe. Performative panel How to Emancipate the Screen?, moderated by Boris Ružić, FFRI and performed by Dina Pokrajac from Dokukino, Marta Baretić from the cinema ‘Katarina’ and Karla Crnčević (cinema ‘Unseen’) opened a discussion on the emancipatory potential of film art, engagement of audience and the activist potential of small independent cinemas, which, with the final words from the organizers, closed the last day of the conference.
Over the three days of the conference, more than a hundred participants from all over Europe gathered, including invited scientists, numerous domestic and foreign film professionals, members of professional associations, public policy stakeholders, students, and other audiences interested in an overview of the current state of the film industry in small countries, as well as on discussions on the future of the film sector. Held as a part of the ZFF Industry program, the conference, through its format, which, in addition to scientific presentations, provided a series of panels and round tables aimed at film professionals, contributed to more intensive discussions during the conference and a richer exchange of knowledge between the industry and academia. The conference also emphasized the importance of small cinematographies in preserving local identities and in exchanging cultural values and highlighted the need for new approaches and policies that reflect the changes in the digitalized and globalized world.
The conference program is available at the following link.
