A cooperation among three ECFA members is currently translating into a successful result for CINEKID (Amsterdam) and JEF (Antwerp). An inflatable result!
CINEKID Amsterdam and the JEF’s Youth Film Festival in Antwerp collaborate in the construction of an Inflatable Cinema, which will be launched in Antwerp in early 2024 and that will serve the needs of both organisations. This inflatable Cinema is a replica of the Portuguese project created in 2018, that has been touring around European festivals ever since.
Building up this theatre takes one hour; it can be assembled in any possible location and welcomes 30 children in a comfortable cinema setting. Visiting the Inflatable Cinema feels like a true cinema experience, properly darkened and with the immersive quality in sound and vision that is required to let everyone dream away with the movies on the big (!) screen.
The Inflatable Cinema idea was developed in Portugal by Sergio Marques, who calls it “an example of social, physical and intellectual inclusion for children”. In 2023 the Inflatable Cinema project won the Cultural Accessibility Award in Portugal. Now the concept is exported to two European partners.
Iris Verhoeven (JEF): “We cannot only use this beautiful dome during the festival, but in the future we also want to have the Inflatable Cinema travel throughout the year to find hard-to-reach audiences in their own environment, in a schedule in which JEF and CINEKID will coordinate operations.” This simple idea can not only help quality cinema in reaching new audiences, but is also a wonderful example of how ECFA members can inspire each other and share both knowledge and costs together.