BFI FAN CON is a brand new conference for BFI FAN (Film Audience Network) members, from small community cinemas and touring collectives right up to large multi-screen independent cinemas and landmark film festivals. The inaugural event took place in September 2024 (Belfast) and Ellys attended on behalf of Cardiff Animation Festival.
Here’s what Ellys told us about her experience:
I had a brilliant time attending my first BFI FAN CON in Belfast. I attended a lot of insightful talks, discussions and training sessions and it was brilliant to meet everyone and talk so passionately about film exhibition and festivals.
Ellys attended the following talks, all of which she found were engaging and informative:
The ‘Family Fortunes: Reaching Families and Children‘ talk was presented by Exeter Phoenix and Cinemagic Film Festival which explored how they have successfully engaged children / family audiences with their programme and developed a sustainable practice with families being one of their biggest audiences. This is something Cardiff Animation Festival will consider when programming in the future and how they can bring new content to families that would otherwise not have access to it on the big screen.
Read more about all the sessions above.
A community engagement session, We’ll Come to You: People-Centred Approaches to Film Exhibition (curated by Linnea Pettersson) explored potential barriers for audiences from underserved socio economic backgrounds and what can be done to to address them – this was helpful for Ellys in relation to the touring programmes they offer to communities across Wales and how they can consider a people-centred approach to their programming.
Linnea Pettersson is the BFI FAN Socio Economic Champion, read more and find resources here.
Ellys made several new connections with festivals and cinema programmers across the UK and Ireland which could result in more exciting collaborations for Cardiff Animation Festival in future. The new knowledge, training insights and contacts will be shared with the festival team to continue improving Cardiff Animation Festival events for the years ahead.
…the lunches and dinners at BFI FAN CON were a great, relaxed networking opportunity to meet fellow film exhibitors and gain an insight into how everyone approaches their work in a similar role to me – which is something I don’t often get the chance to experience.
Ellys attended BFI FAN CON with the support of Film Hub Wales via our Bursary scheme. If you want to attend a meeting, course or event that would benefit your organisation and develop audiences but the costs are prohibitive, you can submit an application for support here.
