Eurovision Film Week, the most accessible film festival anywhere, and the first to take place exclusively on TV, radio and online, officially opened across Europe this week with EBU Members devoting significant portions of their broadcasting schedules to European cinema.

France Télévisions offered six days of European movies and related programmes from 24 – 29 November, but 25 other public service broadcasters will show films, documentaries, debates and interviews all this week*, in the run-up to the European Film Awards.

Eurovision Film Week is an unprecedented pan-European collaboration, supported by the European Film Academy, whose goal is to celebrate the partnership between Europe’s vibrant film industry and its public service media.

A key goal of the project has been to celebrate and promote the mutually supportive relationship between Europe’s public service media and the film industry.

The EBU believes that public service media that are weakened by reduced funding or political interference will undermine the film sector and affect the continent’s creative industries as a whole. This idea is currently being published by various European media platforms in an EBU opinion editorial signed by 20 directors general of participating EBU Members.

As Europe’s public service media hub, the EBU has created a film exchange specifically for the project on the Eurovision Showcase platform, where the broadcasters can share rights-free films in broadcast quality.

There are 26 films in the pool, and any participating broadcaster is free to show whichever films they choose. Twenty-two of the participating Members have announced they will broadcast films from the exchange, while three are showing films exclusively from their own archives.

The ambitious Eurovision Film Week project was planned and driven by the European Broadcasting Union’s Media Department, although its broad scope has required the expertise of various other teams within the EBU. In addition, the project could not have happened without the wholehearted cooperation of the participating EBU Members.

EBU Media Director Annika Nyberg-Frankenhaeuser paid tribute to the collaborative will underpinning the success of Eurovision Film Week.

“It's no mean feat to get 26 national broadcasters working together, communicating continuously and pulling in the same direction, especially on a first-time initiative such as Eurovision Film Week,” she said.

“Reciprocity and teamwork are basic values that sustain all EBU projects, and something on this scale needs a lot of coordination. I am pleased to say we can already see the same spirit in evidence as we work towards the World War I Centenary commemorations in 2014.”

To mark the arrival of Eurovision Film Week, the EBU is staging a high-level debate and film screening this evening at the Bozar centre for fine arts, in Brussels.

*Examples of how EBU Members are participating can be seen here: France Télévisions; ORF (Austria) ; RBB (Germany); RTBF (Belgium); RTVE (Spain); RAI (Italy)

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