Follow live the Bologna Lab!
22-24 June 2025
To meet the strong interest in the Bologna Lab and ensure that all European exhibitors and professionals unable to attend in person can follow the sessions, the Lab will be live-streamed on YouTube.
The Bologna Innovation Lab will take place from Sunday 22 to Tuesday 24 June 2025. This year’s edition is entitled "Rethinking Cinema in Changing Times: From Local Engagement to Global Politics, Sustainability and AI" and will welcome 35 exhibitors from different countries across Europe.
Led once again by Madeleine Probst (Head of Film, Watershed, Britol, United Kingdom) and Mustafa El Mesaoudi (Managing Director, Cinema & Rex Filmtheater, Wuppertal, Germany), who will be joined this year by Miranda van Gelder (Head of Program & Education, Hoogt on Tour, Utrecht, Netherlands), the Bologna Lab will offer a valuable chance to exchange ideas and explore practical solutions to key challenges facing the film sector.
The live-streamed sessions will include a diverse range of topics such as: designing more accessible, inclusive and dynamic social spaces, dealing with politics; navigating whether and how to present (or not present) certain films/events, creating events that bring a return on investment, sharing practical approaches to the environmental crisis, curation and the (re)discovery of cinema’s past, amongst many others.
Themed sessions and practical workshops will provide participants with a space to share challenges, exchange innovative ideas, and explore potential programming and communication strategies.
Click here to follow the live sessions.
Timetable for the live sessions (indicated in CEST local time – Bologna, Italy):
Sunday, 22 June 2025
SESSION 1 – Creating inclusive, sociable and sustainable spaces pt 1
10.35-11.00am
Keynote : Jean-Marc Lalo (Architect, France)
SESSION 2 – Creating inclusive, sociable and sustainable spaces pt 2
12.00am-1.00pm
Case study: Ida Schomber (Kino Traumstern, DE): “Reinventing our foyer - the importance of creating spaces to communicate within the cinema”
SESSION 3 - BRAND BUILDING WITH/WITHOUT AND ACROSS SPACES
2.15-3.00pm
Keynote: Züleyha Azman (Kino Rotterdam, NL) “Brand Identity : KINO's marketing beyond just films”
Miranda van Gelder (Filmtheater ’t Hoogt, NL) “Branding a cinema in transition”
Maja Jurić Ivoš (Kino Kinoteka and Tuškanac Summer, HR) - "Spaces – Where the charm of the past meets the energy of the present”
Monday, 23rd June 2025 - PROGRAMMING & GLOBAL POLITICS
SESSION 4 - DEALING WITH POLITICS ; NAVIGATING WHETHER AND HOW TO PRESENT (OR NOT) CERTAIN FILMS
9.30- 11.15am
Mustafa El Mesaoudi (Cinema & Rex Filmtheater Wuppertal, DE): “No Other Land – the film exhibitors didn’t dare showing”
Maddy Probst (Watershed, UK): “To screen or not to screen?”
Romet Toomas Tiitsar (Tartu Elektriteater, EE) - “Programming During the Russian Invasion of Ukraine"
Nicola Callegaro (Cinema Giorgione, IT) “I would prefer not to... How to balance different political sensitivities”
Open discussion
SESSION 5 - GAMIFICATION AS AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
11.30am – 1.00pm
Thierry Baujard (Co-founder, Spielfabrique) “Kino Games: a program to engage with video games”
Tom Gastinel (COO, RIVRS, MyMetaStories) - “Gamifing European Short films : 1 online event - 3 use cases” on ZOOM
Open discussion
SESSION 6 - MAKING SMALLER FILMS WORK
2.30pm - 3.15pm
Leslie Vuchot (Le Lucernaire, FR) : “Finding space for Indies or Classics revisited”
Kim Foss (Grand Teatret, DK): "Direct-to-Cinema Distribution”
Maddy Probst (Watershed, UK): “The indie way - Collaboration across exhibition and distribution”
EVENTISING - WITH RETURN ON INVESTMENT
3.15-4.00pm
Manon Koerhuis (MIMIK, Deventer, NL): “Approaching new audiences with special events: Knit Cinema”
Hristo Hristorov (Odeon Cinema, BX): “Regenerative eventisation - Events that matter to younger audiences”
Giulia Zucchetti (Cinema Beltrade, IT) “Only Lovers Left Alive: marathons, midnight movies and restored films”
Tuesday, 24th June 2025
SESSION 7 - WHAT’S AI GOT TO DO WITH IT?
9.30 – 10 :30am
Mark De Quervain (CEO Action Marketing Works Ltd. INDY Cinema Group) “From Busy to Brilliant”
Pavel Prozavnik (Kino Pilotů, CZ): "Dear ChatGPT, Can You Help Me Run a Cinema?"
Group discussion
SESSION 8 - DEVELOPING INCLUSIVE PROGRAMS
2.00-3.00pm
Miranda van Gelder (Filmtheater ’t Hoogt, NL) “Sensory cinema: creating inclusive programming”
Arianna Issoglio (Cinema Baretti, IT) "Cineteatro Baretti, your friendly neighbor"
Joanna Stankiewicz (Cinema Palacowe, PL): “Programming for Everyone: Cinema as a shared space”
DEVELOPING WORK CULTURES THAT CENTRE WELLBEING AND INCLUSION
Maddy Probst (Watershed, UK): “Being true to our values.”
Marlene Hofmann (Casablanca Filmkunsttheater, DE): “Creating Space Together: Collective Work as a Practice of Inclusion and Wellbeing”
Wojtek Kampa (Kino Pod Baranami, PL) “"Taking the team out of the comfort zone without leaving anyone behind."