From 29 September to 1 October, Futura Cinema showcased some of its Incubation Programme projects to a group of European cinema professionals and cultural experts invited by CICAE and FilmFest Hamburg. Futura Cinema is a touring incubator focused on developing new tools and solutions for the cinema and cultural sectors. It receives support from Creative Europe – MEDIA, a European program that funds cultural and creative projects. The initiative aims to explore and rethink the future of movie theatres, especially their connection with local communities and audiences. The goal is to find ways for cinemas to become more accessible, inclusive, and better at attracting new viewers. "We invited 30 European professionals, mostly cinema exhibitors, who are the first beta testers of the projects," said Anne Pouliquen, founder and general manager of Futura Cinema. The project demonstrations took place in several cinemas and venues across Hamburg. One of the standout projects was Gamerausch, a collaboration by a Berlin-based group that blends cinema and video games. The project shows video games on the big screen and discusses them with guests from the cultural sector, academia, and the game development industry. "A lot of people enjoy watching others play games," said Julius Hackspiel, a curator and creative producer involved in the project. The participants in Futura Cinema's Incubation Programme first met in September 2025 in Strasbourg. They didn't know each other at the start, but they formed teams around the projects. Pouliquen explained, "We supported these projects by providing a steering committee that gave them advice. Each project had a specific mentor who worked with them all year." In addition to physical events at festivals in Strasbourg, Vienna, Copenhagen (CPH:DOX), and Brussels, Futura Cinema also held individual workshops with all the projects. At the closing event in Hamburg, the participants presented the final stage of their projects to a select group of European cinemas and cultural professionals. Another project, Be Water, a crowdfunding and distribution platform, received a CICAE Special Mention at the awards ceremony. The platform creates a safe space to protect audience privacy. It organises collaborative film screenings for movies that might face censorship in certain countries. Project leader Tsz Ki Chan explained, "We partner with cinemas, festivals, and screening venues to run privacy-first events that connect in-house movie-goers with online audiences who can choose to stay anonymous. This creates a safe space for post-screening discussions and creative social experiences, accessible through a mobile phone and chat room." An inclusive approach is used by Route6, a participatory artistic project that invites residents of rural areas to rethink the road, its landscapes, and the places it passes through. The traveling festival includes outdoor film screenings and aims to revitalize cultural spaces along the historic Route Nationale 6 in France. Meanwhile, the project Image Before Motion offers a unique experience by starting a screening with a photographer's work on the big screen. This creates a dialogue between a photographic piece and a film. RaveScreen, an innovative project, aims to attract new audiences by combining film screenings with live electronic music and meditation. The audience can dance, move, or simply watch, transforming cinema into a collective, physical experience. Pouliquen summed up the initiative's goal: "Our initiative seeks to inspire positive social impact by providing solutions to help cinemas improve audience development, revitalize spaces, and encourage transdisciplinary collaboration."