At the opening of the Seville European Film Festival this week, the European Film Academy introduced the Month of European Film as Europe’s own film and award season. Starting on 13 November, it celebrates the diversity of European film for four weeks until its grand finale on 10 December with the European Film Awards in Iceland. Across Europe, thanks to the Academy’s partner Europa Cinemas, flagship cinemas in 35 countries from Reykjavik to Athens, from Lisbon to Bucharest, but also including small towns and networks, highlight European films, presenting special programmes, events and dedicated retrospectives. At the same time, the global streaming platform MUBI presents a special focus on European films, allowing film lovers around the world to participate.
“With the Month of European Film, the Academy is launching a new network,” said Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and Director of the European Film Academy. “A large part of this network consists of movie theatres curating smart programmes with handpicked films that cater for the curiosity and tastes of their local audiences. Programmes that help to rediscover European film culture. For the very first time, all these efforts and initiatives are linked to each other over a longer time via the Month of European Film, carefully orchestrated by the Academy.
“What Europe is missing is a strong awareness of both the joint richness and the vulnerability of its own cinema and with it, the will and dedication to respect and protect it. We are convinced that strengthening the visibility of European films which feature our very own European stories and history shouldn’t be done only on a national level. This is a European question and need, one that can only be answered successfully together, by further joining forces. For us, this initiative is a first step. The Academy will be increasingly committed to this in the coming years.”
The Month of European Film kicks off on 13 November with the European Arthouse Cinema Day, a project organised by CICAE, and the European Film Academy’s yearly Young Audience Award. Instead of a uniform catalogue, each participating cinema is creating a unique program according to their expertise and catering to their audience’s taste. Knol added: “Our goal in the future is to create more visibility for films from the annual Academy Selection as well as for the nominated films to a larger audience and to our members during the Month of European Film.”
There will be many different initiatives. Many cinemas will show retrospectives of renowned European filmmakers such as Lars von Trier (in Prague, Czech Republic), Jacques Tati (in Kolding, Denmark), Jonas Mekas (in Prishtina, Kosovo and in Tel Aviv, Israel), Pier Paolo Pasolini (in Bucharest, Romania) as well as Agnes Varda (in Ferrol, Spain). The cinema in Kolding, Denmark, will also have special screenings of European short films for people living with dementia, the cinema in Kecskemet, Hungary will have screenings alongside an exhibition of movie poster interpretations panted by young students, the cinema in Prague will feature European films only during the whole month, many screenings will be accompanied by food, drinks or even film parties. A lot of movie theatres focus during the Month of European Film on films from a specific European country: There will be an Italian retrospective in Kyiv (Ukraine), a French Film Festival in Glasgow (Scotland) and Berlin (Germany), a Hungarian Film Week in Bucharest (Romania), a Ukrainian Film Festival as well as Spanish films in Wroclaw (Poland), Hungarian films and a Francophone Film Festival in Prishtina (Kosovo) and a Nordic films retrospective in Tel Aviv (Israel). The cinema in Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina) cooperates with local embassies and shows films from Germany, Spain and Slovenia and much more. More initiatives and events can be found here: www.monthofeuropeanfilm.eu
From 14 November the global streaming platform MUBI features 100 European films from classics to truly great new films, in their original language.
The Month of European Film culminates on 10 December in the 35th European Film Awards in Reykjavik. The ceremony includes the announcement of the nominations for the LUX Audience Award, bringing European films right back to the public and involving them in the vote for the winner.
After a Berlin pilot last year, The Month of European Film aims to continue to grow every year to include more and more places and ways for film enthusiasts to join in this great celebration of European films.
The Month of European Film is an initiative of the European Film Academy supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union and working together with partners such as Europa Cinemas, CICAE and MUBI and many local partners.
