ÉCU 2025 IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!!

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE:

ÉCU – The European Independent Film Festival 2025 Tickets, Fri, May 9, 2025 at 7:00 PM | Eventbrite

April 2025: Pushing Through Final Preparations Ahead Of The Festival

The days are numbered. Just one more week until the 20th edition of ÉCU – The European Independent Film Festival takes place at Les 7 Parnassiens in Paris! Inside the office, the atmosphere is buzzing as we finalise preparations for the weekend after next. Here’s what our interns have accomplished in the past month:

This year’s filmmaking department has been very busy editing and preparing the promotional films that embellish ÉCU’s screening sessions every year. Bruno’s been working overtime in minutious and time-perfect detail to complete his passion project: the ÉCU 2025 Sizzle Reel. Meanwhile, Jowita has been covering our social media content and Lolie finalising the online Q&A’s with some of this year’s nominated filmmakers.

As Ana and Maria continued to finalise the festivals relations with its sponsors for this year, so that the festival can reach as many conversations as possible, Head of Sponsors & Marketing Augustine and Head of Press Guillaume have teamed up this month to contact as many cultural institutions, embassies, humanitarian organisations and other associations linked to the topics of this year’s films as possible. Our personalised emails range from Women’s Rights issues, to Civil War in the Congo. We are excited to share that many have responded positively!

While our graphic designers Clara and Jonathan have been finalising and perfecting the real-life presentation on the posters, postcards, and programmes for this year’s festival, our Social Media team, Christina and Kelly, have cared for ÉCU’s virtual presentation via Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok! It features a POV office tour and ÉCU president Scott Hillier learning gen Z brainrot.

Our HR team, Grace, Ketsia and Berfin, have been making sure the lives of the interns are running smoothly as they prepare and organise ÉCU 2025. While navigating the different departments and responsibilities, they’ve also been very busy selecting, interviewing and hiring new interns hoping to join the ÉCU team.

Finally, our inestimable Events Department, Nola, Lidia, Bennedetta, Varada and Sabine have laboured over the DCP’s and files of this year’s nominated films, processing them all in different versions to ready them for next week’s screenings! They’ve also been managing the relations with our filmmakers who, anxious to come to Paris and attend the festival, have only spread more excitement and anticipation of ÉCU 2025!

With the festival just around the corner, there are many preparations that still wait to be done. Yet, a great burden of the interns’ hard work has already shaped itself into the upcoming festival. We look forward to seeing how it is received by you!

ÉCU 2025 Partners

Intellect Books

Intellect is an independent academic publisher for scholars and practitioners teaching and researching in the arts, media and creative industries. Best known for our work in media and film studies, we provide publishing services in many subject areas, backed by over 30 years of steady growth, and a reputation for excellence in design and production. Intellect publishes an extensive Film Studies book and journals collection to include Film International, Film Matters, Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, Journal of Screenwriting and Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas.

View the complete Intellect Film Studies journal range here:

https://www.intellectbooks.com/journals/film-studies

LaCinetek

LaCinetek is a streaming platform dedicated to heritage cinema, founded by filmmakers Pascale Ferran, Cédric Klapisch, and Laurent Cantet. Its unique catalog comprises over 2,500 films recommended by renowned filmmakers, who share their “ideal film library” by providing lists of their 50 favorite films. These films can be purchased or rented directly on the website. To date, 136 directors, including Martin Scorsese, Agnès Varda, Sean Baker, and Bong Joon-ho, have shared their lists. The LaCinetek subscription offers a full cinephile experience, allowing subscribers each month to discover curated selections of films from the catalog, centered around specific themes or retrospectives.

Women in Media

Women In Media promotes gender balance in the film and entertainment industries through networking, professional development, and advocacy for women, women-identifying, and gender-nonconforming filmmakers who work above and below the line and the people who love to collaborate with them.

Beachtek

Beachtek is a small customer-oriented company and we take great pride in developing, designing and manufacturing innovative audio adapters for all types of cameras.

Lost In Frenchlation

Lost in Frenchlation helps bring the world of French cinema to the international community in Paris by screening some of the latest and greatest French films, but with English subtitles! They host drinks before the showing to allow movie-goers like ourselves to get to know one another, practice their language skills, and maybe even make new friends. The films are often followed by Q&As with the director, stand-up comedy shows, wine tastings, or even movie-themed walking tours.

Recent Articles

Independent Film Is Far More Favoured Than Funded

Head of Press department Guillaume Antignac has recently dissected a study released by Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. The US Independent Film Audience & Landscape Study conducted by Keri Putnam, former HBO exec and director of Sundance, outlines how despite continued underground and under-financed sentiments, Independent Cinema is significantly undershooting it’s market potential.

Read here: https://ecueufilmfestivalgroup.substack.com/p/independent-cinema-is-far-more-favoured

ÉCU’s 2024 Female Filmmakers and Their Thoughts on Gender Disparities Within the Film Industry

Nicole Trinkl, one of our journalism interns on last year’s festival, has recently sent us this piece she wrote on the #SheShoots panel from ÉCU 2024. It features interviews with writer, producer, and director Binnur Karaevli, Esin Özalp Öztürk and writer, actress, and director Violeta Valcheva.

Read here: https://ecueufilmfestivalgroup.substack.com/p/ecus-2024-female-filmmakers-and-their

ÉCU 2025: Launch Party and Release of the Official Selection

Catch up on this year’s ÉCU Launch party, where the Official Selection was announced at the Tro’ Quai in La Villette. We were lucky to have some of our nominated filmmakers show their faces on short notice, and also had the chance to speak with them about their films in exclusive interviews!

Read here: https://ecueufilmfestivalgroup.substack.com/p/ecu-2025-launch-party-and-release