What does leadership really mean today, in our specific film and TV reality? And how can we best address its role, so as to make it a cultural force for the changes we need to make happen? Impact and agency are trend words – and, part of a new norm in the making. Leadership is lacking across our audiovisual ecosystem, but what kind of leadership is needed to foster agency and embed real change? How do we communicate and activate impact on personal, professional, public, and planet levels? Can we meet in rethinking development, financing, production and distribution, as we ask: what are we offering the world? Because our place in it, is by no means secure.

Near Future Retreat (NFR) started an ongoing journey in Tallinn in 2022 and has travelled across 7 festivals and markets during 2023, from the European Film Market in Berlin, to NEXT/Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes, across New Nordic Films/Haugesund and Finnish Film Affair/Helsinki, circling back – first to Tallinn, and - via European Film Awards - to the EFM in 2024. Each Retreat connects diverse perspectives and some of the questions that emerged are: where and with whom does our solidarity lie; where and how do our responsibilities feed into the creator community; which types of knowledge are valued in our ecosystem, and which are not; how will our industry include a bigger landscape, and what is the balance between the narratives we live in and the narratives we create?

The think tank format is called a Retreat because it offers a time-out to stop running, to listen and land in our bodies, to allow feelings to be expressed, moving from inner hidden knowledge to a wider, shared knowledge - together. The NFR will be a small group of around 12-14 people, and the insights will be shared in coming think tanks and select public forums, and only in accordance with the Chatham house rules. The exchange is facilitated by New Nordic Narratives, represented by producer Helene Granqvist and scriptwriter Valeria Richter.

This event is on invitation only.