The Amandus Festival participated for the third time in a collaboration on a week-long workshop in the Polish city of Olsztyn. At the workshop, which was named FIELD Film Industry European Leaders’ Days, twelve Norwegian filmmakers aged 20 – 30 years had the opportunity to participate in a variety of exciting seminars and courses, as well as work on developing projects and a pitch.

Much of the stay focused on creating networks across national borders and navigating the European film market. Several courses specifically addressed these topics, and the participants worked in groups with other participants from Poland, Malta, and Ukraine. Creating relationships and networks across national borders was central. Additionally, they were introduced to a variety of other aspects of film production.

One of the seminars was led by the program manager of the Amandus Festival and Amandus Blikkfang, Eivind Nordengen, where the topic was precisely film festivals. Here, discussions were held on how filmmakers can gain access to festivals, what to be aware of in registrations, and how one can use festivals to build oneself as a filmmaker.

The workshop concluded with a presentation of the pitches developed by the groups, where they received feedback from several professional industry actors.

FIELD was organized as a part of the WAMA Film Festival, with Filmforum.pl and Institute Kosmopolis as organizers, and was supported with EU funds.