The Creative Europe-supported initiative aims to explore and rethink the future of cinemas, and their relationship with local communities and audiences

l-r: Award winners Lars Dolkemeyer and Julius Hackspiel (Gamerausch), Sebastian Naumann (CICAE), Hatice Özdemirciler (Independent Cinema Office) and Jure Maticic (Mestni Kino Domzale) during the awards ceremony (© Emma Rivallain/Futura Cinema)

From 29 September-1 October, Futura Cinema presented some of its Incubation Programme projects to a group of European cinemas and cultural professionals, who had been invited by CICAE and FilmFest Hamburg. Futura Cinema is a touring incubator dedicated to developing innovative tools and solutions in the cinema and cultural sectors, and is supported by Creative Europe – MEDIA.

The initiative aims to explore and rethink the future of cinemas, and their relationship with local communities and audiences. The approach is to provide solutions for movie theatres that want to improve accessibility, inclusivity and audience development. “We invited a delegation of 30 European professionals, mostly cinema exhibitors, who are the first beta testers of the projects,” explained Anne Pouliquen, founder and general manager of Futura Cinema. The project experimentation sessions unfolded in several cinemas and other venues across Hamburg.

The revitalisation of spaces and transdisciplinary collaboration are the primary objectives of Gamerausch, which projects a selection of video games on the big screen and places them in context through discussions with guests from the cultural sector, academia and the video-game development industry. “A lot of people enjoy watching other people play games,” said curator and creative producer Julius Hackspiel. The project masterminded by the Berlin-based cinegaming collective was deemed the European Delegation Favourite and also received an Honorary Mention from CICAE.

The participants in the projects within Futura Cinema’s Incubation Programme previously met for the first time in September 2025 in Strasbourg. “They didn’t know each other, so they created a team around the projects,” said Pouliquen. “We supported these projects by providing a steering committee that gave them advice. Each project had a specific mentor who worked with them all year.” In addition to the physical events held at festivals in Strasbourg, Vienna, Copenhagen (CPH:DOX) and Brussels, Futura Cinema organised individual workshops with all of the projects.

At the closing event in Hamburg, the participants had the privilege of presenting the final stage of their Futura Cinema project to a select group of European cinemas and cultural professionals. The crowdfunding and distribution platform Be Water is designed as a safe space to protect audience privacy. “Be Water” was a mantra of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in 2019. In turn, the leaderless movement adopted this famous slogan from Hong Kong/US martial artist and actor Bruce Lee.

In detail, Be Water organises collaborative screening events for films that might fall victim to censorship in certain countries. “Partnering with cinemas, festivals and screening venues, we run privacy-first screening events connecting in-house movie-goers with online audiences who can choose to stay anonymous, providing a safe space for post-screening dialogues and creative social experiences,” said project leader Tsz Ki Chan. “Anyone can join in via a mobile phone, using the chat room.” Be Water received a CICAE Special Mention at the Futura Cinema awards ceremony.

An inclusive approach is adopted by Route6, a participatory artistic project that invites residents of rural areas to take a fresh look at the road, its landscapes and the areas it passes through. The travelling festival offers outdoor film screenings and aims to revitalise cultural spaces along the historic Route Nationale 6 in France. Meanwhile, the project Image Before Motion offers a different experience of images and narratives: at the start of a screening, a photographer presents his or her work on the big screen. In this way, a photographic work unfolds in dialogue with a film.

An innovative project intended to attract new audiences is RaveScreen, a form of participatory cinema that combines film screenings, live electronic music and meditation. The audience is free to dance, move or simply watch. RaveScreen transforms cinema from a passive experience into something collective that can be felt through the body.

“Our initiative seeks to inspire positive social impact by providing solutions to enable cinemas to improve audience development, the revitalisation of spaces and transdisciplinary collaboration,” Pouliquen summed up. 

Here is the full list of award winners:

European Delegation Favourite
Gamerausch

Honorary Mention by CICAE
Gamerausch

CICAE Special Mention
Be Water