27/11/2017 - The Entrepreneur of the Year Award was handed to the CEO of the Anteo group during the network’s 20th conference; the Elvire Popesco Cinema in Bucharest and Agrafka & Kika in Kraków also awarded

Lionello Cerri with his Entrepreneur of the Year Award (© Ionut Dobre)

During the opening ceremony of its 20th Network Conference, held in Bucharest from 24-26 November, Europa Cinemas handed the Entrepreneur of the Year Award to Lionello Cerri for the Anteo group in Milan. The Award for Best Programming was bestowed upon the Cinema Elvire Popesco in the Romanian capital, while the Award for Best Young Audience Activities went to Agrafka & Kika in Kraków, Poland.

The Entrepreneur of the Year Award was given to Cerri for his work as an exhibitor and for the vital contribution he has made to the circulation and promotion of European cinema. Europa Cinemas’ governing committee recognised the strong commitment and substantial investment of Anteo. With the expansion of SpazioCinema Cremona Po last year, the opening of the Anteo Palazzo del Cinema in September and the forthcoming opening of CityLife Anteo, the group intends to continue supporting and developing a new way of understanding the movie theatre – not just as a vehicle for a product, but also as a “social space” – while keeping the quality of the cinematic offering and related services unchanged. “The whole Anteo team and I are happy to receive this important award: it makes us proud and spurs us on even more in our desire to proceed with and improve in our activities. We believe in quality cinema, we believe in European film, and we are convinced that it is essential to invest in it in order to ensure that audiences have sheer excellence – from every point of view,” stated Cerri.

Founded in 1992, Europa Cinemas is the number-one movie-theatre circuit in Europe, and its aim is to promote European film and support young audience-orientated initiatives. The network covers 43 countries, 680 cities, 1,126 cinemas and 2,806 screens. Thanks to the support of Eurimages, Europa Cinemas’ reach has also expanded to Eastern European countries, the Balkans, Russia and Turkey.