Who Gets Seen? European Films, Global Recognition, and the New Visibility Economy
European cinema is experiencing a paradoxical moment. While films from smaller-language territories are achieving unprecedented international recognition, the path towards visibility has become increasingly complex and uneven. Festival premieres, Academy campaigns, European awards, streamers, sales strategies, media narratives, and social platforms now all shape how films travel and who gets recognized internationally. At the same time, the growing concentration of attention around a limited number of titles raises broader questions about the structure of visibility itself. Which European films manage to break through internationally, and why? Are audiences responding to artistic originality, political urgency, emotional accessibility, or market positioning? How important are festivals today compared to awards campaigns and distribution strategies? And can Europe build stronger internal recognition ecosystems rather than relying primarily on validation from outside the continent? The conversation examines how European cinema navigates an increasingly competitive and fragmented global landscape. The discussion explores the relationship between festivals, awards, distribution, regional collaboration, and audience reach, while also reflecting on how recognition shapes the kinds of stories that are financed, circulated, and remembered.
SPEAKERS
Radovan Síbrt
Founder/Producer, PINK (CZ)
Matthijs Wouter Knol
Director, European Film Academy (NL)
Ada Solomon
Producer, MicroFILM (RO)
Viola Fuegen
Vice President of Physical Production, MUBI (DE)
Lily Ford
The Hollywood Reporter (UK)
MODERATED BY
TIME
August 19th, 2026
16:30 – 17:30 (CET)
LOCATION
Festival Garden
Radovan Sibrt
Radovan Síbrt is a Czech producer, director, and co-founder of the independent production company PINK. His credits include the Academy Award- and BAFTA-winning Mr Nobody against Putin, the Berlinale Golden Bear winner Touch Me Not and the Berlinale Panorama-opening documentary When the War Comes.
Matthijs Wouter Knol
Since 2021, Dutch-born Matthijs Wouter Knol has been CEO and Director of the European Film Academy. He is responsible for the executive management, the vision and all related programming of current and future activities of the Academy, including brand and audience development, knowledge sharing and film heritage projects, and the annual European Film Awards. Before reading and graduating with an MA in Contemporary History from Leiden University in the Netherlands and the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, he worked as a magazine editor and journalist. From 2001 onwards, he worked in Amsterdam as creative and associate producer on thirty award-winning documentary films, with renowned directors including Heddy Honigmann, Maria Augusta Ramos, and Mani Kaul. For ARTE, he co-produced a digital edition of forty remastered works by the Dutch documentarian Johan van der Keuken, which was awarded the Prix Cahiers du Cinéma in 2006. After a short stint at IDFA (2007–2008), for twelve years he was a member of the senior Berlinale team, first as Head of Programming of Berlinale Talents (2008–2014), then as Director of the European Film Market (2014–2020). Apart from launching several new training and industry platforms over the course of his career, Knol is an advocate for more diversity, equity, and inclusion, introducing schemes to support this at Berlinale Talents, the EFM and the European Film Academy. He teaches and coaches at various film schools and is a regular moderator and speaker at international film industry events. He has been part of the main jury at the festivals of Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, Istanbul, and Locarno. He speaks Dutch, English, and German fluently, can converse in French and Italian, and is improving his Spanish and Portuguese language skills.
Ada Solomon
Ada Solomon is a Romanian film producer who has worked in the film business for over thirty years. She has credits on almost one hundred films, including the Golden Bear winners Bad Luck Banging and Child Pose, the Venice Orizzonti and FIPRESCI Prize-winning The New Year That Never Came and the European Film Academy winner and Academy Award nominee Toni Erdmann. Her career is inextricably linked to that of Radu Jude, with whom she has made twenty films. She has worked with prestigious filmmakers including Cristian Nemescu, Ivana Mladenovic, Alexandru Solomon, Răzvan Rădulescu,Tomasz Wasilewski, Hana Jusić, and Drago Sholev, and contributed to the debuts of many European filmmakers, among them Belgium’s Marta Bergman; Moldava’s Olga Lucovnicova; Norway’s Emilie Blichfeldt; Italy’s Chiara Malta, Federico Bondi, and Adriano Valerio; Romania’s Anamaria Comănescu, Paul Negoescu, Alina Șerban, and Seb Mihăilescu. She is Chair of the Board of the European Film Academy, one of the initiators of the Pop-Up Residencies, and a founding member of the Board of Romanian Alliance of Producers. Solomon is the recipient of the European Film Academy’s European Co-Production Award – Prix Eurimages 2013, the Central European Initiative Award from the Trieste International Film Festival in 2018, an Underground Spirit of Europe Award at the Palic International Film Festival in 2021, a Czech Producers’ Association World Excellence Award at the Ji.hlava International Film Festival in 2022, and shewas listed by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the Top 40 Most Influential Women in Film Business.
Viola Fügen
Viola Fügen started working for Pandora Filmproduktion in 2006, at the same time, she began working on co-productions for The Match Factory. In 2013, Viola founded Match Factory Productions together with Michael Weber. The company, like the world sales company from which it originated, focuses on high-quality arthouse cinema. She is a member of the European Film Academy, and on the board of the Producers' Association, as well as ACE. Films in her recent producing portfolio include HARVEST by Athina Rachel Tsangari, THE END by Joshua Oppenheimer, GRAND TOUR by Miguel Gomes, and ROSEBUSH PRUNING by Karim Aïnouz.
Lily Ford
Lily Ford is The Hollywood Reporter’s UK Reporter, covering breaking news, features, award shows, and in-depth industry analysis from on the ground in London.