ABCinema
Watershed Arts Trust
Audience Development
England
2014
Total project grant (euros)
160,000
Programme
Creative Europe
Sub-programme
MEDIA
Funding scheme
Audience Development
Call number
EAC/S27/2013
Call publication date
19 Dec 2013
Application deadline
28 Mar 2014
Result publication date
1 Jul 2014
Partners
Association des Cinematheques Europeennes (BE);
Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique (BE);
Deutsches Film Institut (DE);
Les enfants de cinéma (FR);
Eye Film Institute (NL);
Watershed Arts Trust (UK);
ABCinema is a film literacy project aimed at finding innovative and participatory approaches to engaging young audiences in film heritage and culture outside of a formal education environment.
The key objective of this one year pilot project is to explore new and creative approaches to film literacy, inspiring the next generation of movie goers to get curious and excited about cinema as an art form and as part of Europe’s cultural memory. By co-ordinating the efforts of six leading European film archives and cultural cinema organisations, the project fosters pan-European collaboration, peer-to-peer learning and add value to partners’ activities in film literacy.
The key tasks of ABCinema are to:
- create an online catalogue of films selected for their relevance in film history or as a tool for teaching film language
- editorialise the content (focus on movies, contextualization, educational tools…)
- engage children, young people and teachers in the ongoing development of the catalogue, by creating focus groups to ensure that the content is relevant, inspiring a creative and critical thinking
- promote the film catalogue and the outcomes of the activities
- R&D into young audience development
Part of the project included a 3-day sprint held during the 2014 Flatpack Festival in Birmingham. The event brought together representatives from some of Europe’s leading film archives with some the most forward-thinking UK cinema practitioners and young people.





