Festivals have always been partners of film distributors, acting as quality guarantor for arthouse cinema and representing excellent showcases for independent films at local level. In a time when they are becoming more and more exhibitors and in some cases even distributors, Europa Distribution’s workshop seeks to shed light on today’s relationship between festivals and distributors. Entitling its workshop “Dial A for Audience. How can Distributors, Film Festivals and Exhibitors join efforts to make this long distance call”, Europa Distribution means to put the spotlight on the virtuous mechanisms of collaborations among the different parts of the Industry who have the crucial role of bringing films to the audience.

Enrico Dirksen (Neue Visionen, Germany), Ivan Hronec (Film Europe, Czech Republic - Slovakia), Sylvie Leray (Artcam, Czech Republic), Damiano Ricci (BIM, Italy), Fredrik Scholze (Arthaus, Norway) and Rūta Švedkauskaitė (Kino Pasaka, Lithuania) will present case studies based on the challenges they experienced as distributors in promoting quality cinema in a growingly competitive market environment. By exploring how resources can be pooled to market films more efficiently across film festivals and theatrical distribution, the workshop aims at exploring the business relationship between film festivals and distributors.

During the Sofia Meetings Europa Distribution and Europa Cinemas will celebrate their 4th year of collaboration, by co-organising a public panel entitled "Bridging the Gap - Building Relationships and Designing Experiences", focusing on the collaboration between distributors and exhibitors in promoting and marketing films.
The panel, to be held on Saturday 18 March from 9.30 to 11.00, will bring together both the distribution and the exhibition side, focusing on a concrete example from the speakers’ experience. Madeleine Probst (Watershed, UK) will moderate the panel and present the BFI "New Release Strategy" Programme, while Hrvoje Laurenta (Kino Europa and Zagreb Film Festival, Croatia) will represent Europa Cinemas, bringing the point of view of exhibitors. Joe Kreczak (Curzon, UK) and Rūta Švedkauskaitė (Kino Pasaka, Lithuania) , both members of Europa Distribution, will bring into the discussion their experience of collaboration with local exhibitors looking at the big picture from the perspective of independent distributors working in very different markets.
 
Attending distributors will also participate to the Sofia Meetings activities: screenings of Bulgarian and Balkan films, meetings and networking events.