Over the weekend of March 15-16, the European Film Academy is hosting watch party screenings of two of its Lux Audience Award nominated films in partnership with its European Film Club, a platform and network of film clubs across Europe where teenagers aged 12-19 can watch and talk about European cinema. Through the inaugural two screenings, young people will be able to watch Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal” and Oksana Karpovych’s “Intercepted.”
Speaking with Variety ahead of the weekend of screenings, CEO and Director of the European Film Academy Matthijs Wouter Knol recalled first hearing about the idea for the European Film Club upon taking the post in the organization in 2021. “I joined the Academy planning to restructure it into an organization that would be more effective in building a culture for European cinema and have more impact when it comes to reaching audiences,” he says.
“That’s also when I first heard about the European Film Club and thought, well, if we want European film culture to grow, we shouldn’t focus just on adults, but also young teenagers who are in the early stages of their lives and can discover all that European cinema has to offer,” he adds.
Upon conducting research, the European Film Academy found out that a whopping 84% of young people would “like to watch more European films,” contradicting a widespread notion that teenagers are not interested in what is outside of the mainstream. “I think it’s a mistake to think that what is most accessible to young people on the internet, in streaming platforms, for example, is automatically the only thing they are interested in,” says the exec.
“There is a substantial number of young people in Europe who are interested in watching European cinema and we just need to be able to reach them,” he reflects, emphasizing that the European Film Club is “fully co-created” with the teenagers. “It’s not just a hollow phrase.
“When we make decisions, form strategies, think about the design and the functionalities of the platform, this is all co-decided with the teens. That, from the beginning, made me realize that these young people, contrary to popular belief, care about cinema.”
Courtesy of European Film Academy
Of joining two successful initiatives by the European Film Academy — the European Film Club and the Lux Audience Award, the largest audience award in the world voted by the general public and members of the democratically elected European Parliament — Wouter Knol says it’s a “great opportunity” to make young people aware of the weight of their voices.
“We want to encourage young people to watch the films and vote,” he adds. “The importance of connecting the two initiatives is to make young people aware of the fact that, yes, it is about watching films, but also about having an opinion about the films and making them aware that their voice counts. It’s an important thing to realize, as a young person.”
Of the two films chosen for the screenings, the CEO points out that, although vastly different in form, both address “important themes in a very cinematic way.” Of “Intercepted,” a foreboding documentary mixing intercepted phone calls of Russian soldiers with images of the destruction in Ukraine, Wouter Knol says it is a “tough watch, but we live in a tough world.”
“The background of war is how people talk to each other and create a picture of the enemy,” he continues. “In the film, you can see the results of that and how people demonize each other because of politics. By making young people aware that this is how it works, it can also make them aware of how to counter it in the future,” he concludes.
Using films as a way of discussing urgent political issues is one of the main goals of not only the European Film Club but the Lux Audience Award, which this year also nominated Mati Diop’s “Dahomey,” Leonardo van Dijl’s “Julie Keeps Quiet” and Gints Zibalodis’s Oscar-winning “Flow.”
Annie, a member of the European Film Club and the host for the screening of “Animal,” says the two films selected for the inaugural screenings “present very authentic issues that each country represented in the films deals with. As Europeans, it’s important to note what our European neighbours go through.”
Emerson, a U.K. member of the Youth Council, emphasizes the need for films that offer representation: “With minorities being in different films, it’s a way of showing that there is light at the end of the tunnel.” Thomas, a fellow member from Spain, echoes that message, saying he didn’t see any LGBTQIA+ representation on what he watched as a kid, and it was “hard for me to understand there were people like me.”
Courtesy of European Film Academy
The watch party format amplifies that potential for connection brought by cinema. To Wouter Knol, it’s key that young people are not only exposed to different films but also given the chance to talk about them in a communal setting. “It’s a crucial experience to live in a democracy from a young age, especially in the world of today where democracies are, sadly, in decline, even in Europe.”
As for the future of the European Film Club, which first launched in 2023 and keeps growing bigger each year, the CEO says it is an initiative “with future embedded in it because it involves European citizens of the future.”
“It’s an important project to build and grow and a challenging project as well because it takes time to reach young people and for them to embrace it and become part of it,” he adds. Of this year’s pioneering marriage with the Lux Audience Award, Wouter Knol highlights that, “this democratic process of voting and participating in discussions can change how we do things in Europe and I believe it’s a very essential thing to do. I’m very proud of the European Film Academy, a small organization, for making this possible. It’s a great thing to be a part of.”
