UNIC Announces Virtual Mini-Cinema Day for February 24

UNIC, the trade body that represents cinema groups and operators in 38 European markets, has announced a virtual “mini-Cinema Day” to take place on Wednesday, February 24. 

A key component of the Cinema Day will involve a breakdown and discussion of the performance of local titles—which in a record 15 European territories made up 25 percent or more of box office in 2020, a side effect of a paucity of Hollywood exports as the Covid recovery remains slow in the United States.

The full program can be viewed here and includes “Quick-fire sessions” that break down the success of local titles in Denmark (Druk/Another Round), the Netherlands (Alles is zoals het zou moeten zijn), Norway (Knutsen & Ludvigsen 2 – Det Store Dyret and Børning), and Poland (with Helios CEO Tomasz Jagiello addressing the subject). 

A panel debate later that day—moderated by UNIC CEO Laura Houlgatte Abbott with Edna Epelbaum (CEO, Cinevital, Cinepel, Cinemont, Quinnie & President of the Swiss Cinema Operators’ Association), Christian Bräuer (Managing Director, Yorck – Kino & President, CICAE), Christine Eloy (Managing Director, Europa Distribution), and Samuel Bolaños (Director of Marketing & Revenues, Cinépolis Spain, Yelmo Cines) will address in more detail the rise of local content in 2020, with the attendant challenges and opportunities in marketing, how working with local distributors has evolved, and how the shifting balance between local and imported content may extend past the Covid-19 pandemic.

Phil Clapp, president of UNIC and CEO of the UKCA, will provide closing remarks.

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