Closure of the first Arthouse Cinemas mentoring • CICAE

On October 11, the first CICAE Arthouse Cinemas mentoring program closed officially with a final online meeting among mentees, mentors, and the organisers. In the meeting, each mentees presented shortly their mentoring pathway highlighting initial set-up goals, the difficulties encountered, and the solution found together with their mentors, as well as the outcome of the 5-month-mentoring process.

The outcomes of the first edition of the mentoring have surpassed the expectation as the team as the prolonged follow-up with the professional development of the mentees allowed to observe the first results already within the time of the mentoring.

Depending on the projects of the mentees some of the concrete outcomes are: the obtention of 4,5 higher funds for a young audience festival that grew and its capacity of reaching audiences has increased by up to 40%; the reopening of a cinema that had to close down and the hiring of a new team; the development of a new communication and business plan and accordingly recuperation of 25% of memberships lost during two years of forced closure; the establishment of accessible programming in partnership with associations representing impaired audiences, attracting new members for the audience development for deaf, blind and dementia-friendly screenings; the start of a green action group supporting the development of sustainable strategies and development of a green action plan for a cinema planned to open in the coming years.

Most of the mentees said that they have already implemented what learned through this programme into their daily professional life and they have re-adjusted their projects according to the feedback given in the several meetings and exchanges. It was a great experience allowing to kick off new partnerships and give a fresh perspective on the exhibition sector and on programming. For the CICAE it is a first edition of the mentoring programme that gives a very close-up understanding of needs of cinemas but also an encouragement to continue supporting exhibitors in improving their skills and further develop this new means of training and networking.