Cultural Entrepreneurs Watch Out!
For its 8th edition, SOFA – School of Film Advancement is looking for up to eight film initiators, cultural managers, entrepreneurs, facilitators and catalysts with unique project ideas in the audiovisual world. Selected participants will be trained in various creative ways to reach local and international cinema-goers and they will be given the opportunity to make connections beyond borders. With the help of experienced lecturers, SOFA participants will receive tailor-made coaching, enabling them to realise their dream project in an efficient manner.
SOFA’s 8th edition will span over one year and will include three workshops as well as e-learning units. The workshops will take place in Warsaw (August 16-21, 2020), Tbilisi (April 2021) and Vilnius (June 2021) – SOFA will reserve the right to organise a workshop digitally should the legal regulations governing the COVID-19 pandemic not permit a workshop to be held on site.
SOFA is looking for professionals with previous experience in cultural management from Central or Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the republics of South Caucasus, Greece, Israel, Germany, or the MENA region.
Project proposals could include establishing a film festival, film fund, film commission, digital distribution platform, a cinema theatre, film museum/archive, a project connected to copyright law, a print or online film magazine, VoD platform, a training initiative or another creative and highly innovative project in the field of film culture management. This year, SOFA wants to open its workshops to projects from the gaming, immersive and/or interactive experience and VR segments.
At SOFA, we are committed to ecological sustainability: we therefore ask applicants in our call for proposals to include a statement describing how their proposed project is environmentally friendly. Preference will be given to papers with such descriptions.
The application requires a project description, budget, financing plan and a professional biography. There is an administration fee of 250€ - exceptionally reduced for this edition due to the COVID-19 outbreak - to be paid by selected participants. Scholarships are available upon request.
SOFA – School of Film Advancement is a programme of workshops aiming at strengthening national film and audiovisual industries and the European cinematic landscape, as well as kick-starting projects in the realm of cinema. SOFA helps its participants to develop their ideas into concrete projects, opening up new avenues towards application for financing programmes and final implementation. SOFA’s focus on cultural managers and film entrepreneurs rather than producers and directors has made it a unique programme on the international film/AV scene.
SOFA – School of Film Advancement is a joint project of Filmplus gUG (Berlin) and Institute for Democratic Changes (Tbilisi), funded by German Federal Foreign Office/Civil Society Cooperation and Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union. In addition, the 2020 Polish workshop will be funded by: Polish Film Institute, SDPZ (Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation), and the Lithuanian session by the Lithuanian Film Centre. The organisers also wish to thank the strategic partners Goethe-Institut, EAVE, and Midpoint.
Chatelin Bruno 
