FilmEU is more than a project. It is unlike any other undertaking in arts and culture education. Each of the partners of FilmEU – originally four now eight – have embraced this European Alliance for Film and Media Arts. FilmEU is the most positive and transformative whole of higher education initiative yet conceived for the sector in Europe. With the European Universities programme, the EU is building bridges between institutions and countries.
FilmEU is enabling a necessary metamorphosis of the tertiary sector amongst the member states, one which each alliance member welcomes. FilmEU is an association of eight leading higher education institutions from across the member states and all parts of Europe. Led by Lusófona University from Portugal, it includes VŠMU - The Academy of Performing Arts, Slovakia, TLU - Tallinn University, Estonia, LMTA - The Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, LUCA School of Arts in Belgium, VIA University College, Denmark, IADT - Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology in Ireland and NATFA - The National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts “Krustyo Sarafov”, Bulgaria.
Having achieved so much in the initial phase, our ambition now and over the next ten years is to build something significant. Something that will last by implementing and expanding all the solutions we have designed together.
Something that will shape the education landscape for the screen arts in Europe and beyond. FilmEU will impact strongly across our entire institutions, but also across and beyond the cultural and creative sectors and industries in Europe and beyond. It will impact positively on society and inform the discourse on themes as diverse as sustainability, inclusion and climate and capacities such as research mobility, innovation and digital transformation.
Our core discipline of Film and Media will profit as will every other part of the alliance. It will extended to all the subject areas found in our HEIs, thus promoting the renewal of a broad church of disciplinary fields. By moving from a project mindset to a programmatic approach, FilmEU will empower each partner to become more than the sum of its parts. It will permeate our external engagement and internal structures. It will inform and shape not only the future of FilmEU itself but each individual partner as we seek to ready ourselves for the national and European Higher Education sector that is to come.
Much like the relationship between the EU itself and nation states, the EU Universities will at once exist side by side with our home institutions to the benefit of all.
Film is an essential part of our cultural milieu. Film as a medium allows us to share ideas, feelings, and knowledge. FilmEU will ensure not only that Europe can tell its own stories but that the creative industries are at the forefront of economic and social prosperity. Yet, it will also push the boundaries of what is possible in research, innovation and enterprise. FilmEU is at the cutting edge of the age of imagination, an age that has the potential to create a virtuous society and economy. We have a distinct opportunity to ensure that the film and media arts are an educational, cultural, and entrepreneurial catalyst for a common good.