Members

Today, FilmEU fully represents Europe’s geographical, cultural and linguistic differences, but also the diversity and richness of its European Higher Education Area. 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. What began as four partners during the design phase is now a much stronger, richer and more diverse partnership of eight like-minded institutions. We start from a clear disciplinary focus – namely the film and media arts and now move to embrace the varied domains that the cultural and creative industries encompass. This embraces everything from film and the performing arts, to disciplines that are at the vanguard of technological, scientific and creative knowledge, such as XR and AR.

FilmEU has sought out new associated partners who will add value and purpose, extending our reach to West Africa, Poland, Ukraine, USA, Canada, Australia and Brazil - where various industry, civil society and cultural bodies have joined us in an authentic association focused on bolstering the creative industries and society at all levels. FilmEU has completed its pilot phase.

We have imagined something greater than the sum of our parts. Empowered by our extended consortium we are focused on the implementation of everything learned. We will now build the foundations of an EU University of the Film and Media Arts, the only one of its kind, and create a body that will educate generations of creative leaders, use artistic research and innovation to enrich all disciplines that require creative thinking, and deepen the international aspects of all our institutions. We envision ourselves as one of the “Lighthouses of our European way of life” as the European Strategy for Universities enunciates. We want to attain this goal via our focus on educational programs that deal with key future creative skills, pedagogical innovations developed in closed articulation with the CCI industrial ecosystem across Europe and research and innovation endeavours that explore the multiple affordances of artistic research and project based innovations. And we will do so, while ensuring diversity, inclusiveness and gender equality amidst all our educational and research activities that target Europe’s digital and green transition via innovation in the cultural and creative sectors.

Together, these institutions collaborate around the common objective of jointly promoting high-level education, innovation and research activities in the multidisciplinary field of Film and Media Arts and, through this collaboration, consolidate the central role of Europe as a world leader in the creative fields.

The consortium integrates four institutions with strong expertise in Film and Media Arts education, a common internationalization ambition, and a long track record of past collaborations that include more than a decade of expertise in the development of European joint projects, including E+ Knowledge Alliances, Strategic Partnerships and “Erasmus Mundus” Joint Master Degrees, besides other joint education and research projects, in order to foster the excellence and attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area.

The Alliance name stems from the concatenation of the terms “Film” and “European” and signals the consortium’s ambition of contributing to the positioning of Europe as a key provider of top level education and research in the creative disciplines, namely Film and Media Arts, and position itself as a leader in this field. The alliance will pursue this via the implementation of original challenge-based pedagogical methods, the development of joint and rigorous academic programmes with a strongly embed mobility component; innovative research activities that span across all the areas of the knowledge triangle.

FILMEU believes Europe has all the right leads needed in order to play in the future a key role at an international level in the area of Film and Media Arts. These include the relevance of Europe’s historical filmic cultural heritage, the dynamism of its production sector, which services all creative outputs from pure entertainment to the highest artistic formats, and the unique educational offer already in place in the form of the Erasmus Mundus EJMD promoted by the members of the FILMEU consortium. These are but some of the elements that highlight the potential impact of the proposed Alliance and its relevance in the European context.

All the partners come from diverse cultural backgrounds and yet we share the language of film and storytelling. Though we are grounded in the visual arts, our different approaches and cultures is our strength. It encourages us to ensure, through the arts and film in its broadest sense, that all voices are treasured and heard. Indeed, this is something that is vital where new technologies are being developed. We need to ensure that new forms of storytelling are not the preserve of any one cultural block. This is not to say that we have a narrow world view – quite the opposite – FILMEU celebrates diversity and it is that praxis – that coming together of all our shared experiences and our differences – that makes this offering authentic and unique.