Creative Europe in Slovenia: Kino Otok – Transforming Festival Practices

In the final period of Creative Europe (2021–2027), as the new funding programme for the cultural and creative sectors – AgoraEU – is being shaped at the European level, this is an opportune moment to reflect on the experiences, achievements, and shifts that international collaboration in European projects has brought to Slovenian organisations. The Creative Europe Ambassadors, coming from various organisations and creative sectors but united by their commitment to active engagement in the international arena, have generously shared their extensive experience and perspectives. These varied contributions highlight the specific trajectories of individual organisations while also offering deeper insights into the development of artistic practices, institutional models, and the cultural ecosystem in Slovenia.

In her contribution, Tanja Hladnik sheds light on how the Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival is adapting to new social realities, while also highlighting the importance of audience engagement and collaboration among European festivals. We invite you to read on; contributions from other ambassadors are available here.

Kino Otok – Transforming Festival Practices

The international film festival Kino Otok – Isola Cinema is celebrating its 22nd edition in 2026. Although the number may not mark a milestone anniversary, the celebration is well deserved: the festival’s journey over the years has been anything but smooth, owing to the cyclical financial uncertainty within Slovenia’s non-governmental sector. In 2016, we secured support from the Creative Europe programme for the first time and have successfully retained it for most of the past decade. This has substantially improved both the scale and the stability of the festival’s financial planning, contributing significantly to its programme and organisational development.

Kino Otok was founded in 2004 as a festival of Asian, African, South American, and Eastern European cinema. Over the years, however, the programming teams gradually moved away from these rigid geographical boundaries. The programme evolved organically towards greater diversity, also within European cinema. Consequently, the Creative Europe call requirement that at least half of the films in the festival programme originate from as many European countries as possible (at least 15) has had little impact on our annual programming decisions. Nevertheless, the financial support has provided better working conditions, enabling a higher quality of programme design and delivery, including audience development activities.

If film festivals are to survive and remain relevant, we must continually adapt and reinvent ourselves in response to the increasingly rapid and radical social and political changes shaping our globalised world. Two recent examples highlighting the need for swift adaptation are the proliferation of VOD platforms and the COVID-19 pandemic, both of which have permanently altered viewing habits – and both of which film festivals have had to confront more or less simultaneously. Like many other film festivals, Kino Otok has mobilised its resources and adapted its activities to continue fulfilling its mission of bringing filmmakers and audiences together. For example, we have developed new hybrid or exclusively online programmes, complemented film screenings with live social events to draw audiences away from the comfort of their home screens, and devoted considerable attention to young viewers, with the aim of nurturing the loyal audiences of the future.

However, the constant need for adaptability, innovation, and the development of (young) audiences can be exhausting for the teams behind small and medium-sized international film festivals. For this reason, in recent years – and also encouraged by the Creative Europe programme – we have increasingly joined European networks that, beyond additional financial support, offer valuable opportunities for formal and informal exchange, peer learning, and the long-term development of festivals.

In 2023, Kino Otok became the coordinator of the Young Programmers for Young Audiences! network, or Young4Film for short. The network is dedicated to our core mission: actively involving young film selectors in the curation of festival programmes. Six established international film festivals seek to challenge the entrenched practice of programmes for young audiences being curated exclusively by adults. Alongside Kino Otok, the network’s members include the Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival (Serbia), the Vilnius Short Film Festival (Lithuania), Piccolo Grande Cinema (Italy), the Cinehill Film Festival (Croatia), and the Valladolid International Film Festival – SEMINCI (Spain).

Looking ahead, film festivals will need to continue evolving in step with the times, maintaining close connections with creators of film and other audiovisual works, as well as with audiences of different ages, backgrounds, and interests. With the rapid emergence of the latest generation of technologies – shaping not only the creative and production processes but also the viewing experience – we will need to broaden our focus beyond traditional film to include the diverse forms of contemporary audiovisual creativity. The Creative Europe programme can support festivals in exploring these new horizons, both through financial incentives and new opportunities for international networking and the development of innovative approaches to programming and audience engagement. However, the effectiveness of Creative Europe’s support in shaping the future of film festivals will, in my opinion, depend largely on continuous and open dialogue between European policymakers and professionals across the festival sector.

See also

• Kino Otok - Isola Cinema Festival
• Otok Cultural Institute
• Creative Europe Desk Slovenia
• Mateja Lazar, Nika Mušič and Sabina Briški Karlić: Creative Europe 2024. Slovenia’s Imprint on the European Cultural Space
• Mateja Lazar: The First Decade of the EU Creative Europe Programme

External links

• Kino Otok – website
• Otok Cultural Institute – website
• Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival – website
• Vilnius Short Film Festival – website
• Piccolo Grande Cinema – website
• Cinehill Film Festival – website
• Valladolid International Film Festival – SEMINCI – website

About the article

The text was prepared by Nika Mušič in May 2026, in the framework of the public procurement “Development and upgrade of information portals of the Ministry of Culture for the transition to the eKultura platform” in which Motovila Institute collaborates as a partner with Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory.