ARTEF

Programme 2025

ARTEF's strategy, launched at the Göteborg Film Festival 2025, centres on think tanks that bring together practitioners and policymakers to explore structural barriers and develop collaborative, solution-driven approaches. The findings from these discussions have informed a report with actionable recommendations to support systemic change, to be presented at Göteborg Film Festival on 29 January 2026. By fostering open dialogue across different perspectives, ARTEF aims to ensure its work is constructive, transparent, and grounded in shared industry-wide accountability.

A New Europe Must Emerge: Rethinking People, Power and Pipelines

Conversation with Victoria Thomas and Dr Regina Mosch, moderated by media analyst Johanna Koljonen

29 January 2026

Draken, Drama Hall

Nordic Film Market at Göteborg Film Festival

In her 2025 State of the Union Address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared that "a new Europe must emerge" — but what does this mean for European cinema at a time when the industry faces unprecedented disruption from streaming platforms, technological transformation, budget cuts, and evolving routes to market?

ARTEF's new report "A New Europe Must Emerge" brings together findings from four think tanks held throughout the year. Conceived along the film value chain and gathering professionals, creatives, scholars and policymakers, these think tanks aimed to shed light on the complex nature of anti-racism work in various European contexts. How do we deal with pressures from global shifts towards the right, rapid digital transformations, the climate crisis as well as threats and realities of war and continue to do effective anti-racism work?

DEVELOPMENT: What defines a European story?

Examining narratives supported by national and pan-European film funds.

FILM FUNDS: Who owns European stories?

Analysing intellectual property ownership and market access.

FILM MARKETING: The role of trade press

Investigating how trade press shapes or limits films' success trajectories

FILM FESTIVALS & AWARDS: Barriers and Pipelines

Evaluating curatorial practices in reflecting Europe's cultural diversity

PAST EVENTS

Training

From September 2020 to May 2021, ARTEF hosted a collaborative anti-racism awareness training with Dr Emilia Roig from the Center for Intersectional Justice, Berlin. Representatives of 30 European film institutions and organisations joined the 9-month long training. We have also offered individual and bespoke anti-racism training to institutions and organisations.

Readings

In Spring 2021, we hosted a bi-weekly reading called #FridayForward open to all the participants of our training. This hour-long event included a 30 minute reading from excerpts of a selection of authors tackling anti-racism texts followed by 30 minutes of collective discussion.

Panel Discussions

We host industry panels and roundtables, such as at the London Film Festival in 2022, where we presented “Formations: In Conversation with Nikyatu Jusu and Moussa Sene Absa” in collaboration with BFI.

Equity and Inclusion Pathway Seminar

Between 2023 to 2025, we partnered with the Equity and Inclusion Pathway Seminar, hosted at European Film Market and funded by Creative Europe Media. The EIPS was an industry-wide consultation forum bringing together European decision-makers, advocacy groups, stakeholders and change-makers with the aim of shifting the needle regarding equity, inclusion and accessibility in terms of policymaking, strategy, measures and actions.

Networking

At Berlinale 2023, we hosted a “Breakfast with ARTEF”, an informal networking think tank with 30 industry representatives from our two stakeholder groups. This meeting, and the results from the conversations, sparked our series of think tanks in 2025.