Cinema venues in Belgrade and Oldenburg and a Tartu-based entrepreneur have been honoured by exhibition network Europa Cinemas at its 2023 awards.
The best programming award went to the Dvorana Kulturnog Centra Beograda in Belgrade, Serbia. Founded in 1963, the cinema is located within a cultural centre and also hosts and co-organsises film festivals such as The Auteur Festival and Beldocs as well as thematic screenings such as Goethe Fest and Days Of Contemporary Danish Cinema.
The cinema has featured more than 80% of European programming over the last year.
The best young audience activities award went to Casablanca cinema in Oldenburg, Germany. Managed by Tobias Rossmann, the cinema hosts the Oldenburg Children’s Film Festival every November. It also hosts activities such as the School Cinema Series and Cinéfête, a French school film festival designed for different learning level and age groups, Schulkino Wochen, Youth Film Days and Semana De Cine Español.
The entrepreneur of the year award was presented to Andres Kauts, exhibitor at Elektriteater in Tartu, Estonia and a leading figure in the Estonian exhibition landscape. In 2021, Kauts initiated a project involving four Estonian cinemas aimed at developing a new software tailored for small-size cinemas. With financial support from Europa Cinemas, the initiative became operational by the end of 2022.
The awards, which have run since 2002, are given to recognise ”outstanding actions and sustained efforts” by network exhibitors to encourage the circulation of European films, the diversity of programming and development of audiences, targeting in particular the young public.
Europa Cinemas network comprises 3,060 screens in 38 countries and is supported by Creative Europe/Media, the CNC, Eurimages and the Institut Français.
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