PROFESSIONAL GATHERING: MEETING FACE-TO-FACE. THE HUMAN SIDE OF FESTIVALS

OBSERVATORIO

Activity for accredited members only

In these times of impersonalisation and virtual relations, we are dedicating our professional event to staking a claim for the role of festivals as community builders. With the growth in virtual spaces in recent years, it has become necessary to design strategies to prioritise in-person activity and maintain spaces to foster the warmth of face-to-face encounters. Throughout our sixteen festivals, we have seen how the Mostra has brought about synergies via human interaction; bonds that ultimately become the seeds for collaboration and—why not mention it?—lasting affinities and friendships. In this professional gathering, we provide a space for all the festival’s attendees to bolster these values, bringing together different aspects of the sector: training, production, distribution and thought, which are all represented with the presence of programme designers (from events such as the Berlinale’s Forum Expanded, Curtas Vila do Conde, Porto/Post/Doc, FICXixón and SACO), reviewers, filmmakers, professionals, academics, students and educators (from institutions such as the Complutense University of Madrid, the University of Salamanca, the University of Vigo, EQZE and MASTER.LAV). Together, we will think of ways to foster this organic side of the community between events while building bridges between institutions in this avant-garde cinema ecosystem.