Industry 4Science

The Bridge Between Science and Audio-Visual Arts

Industry 4Science has been a crucial part of the AFO Festival since 2013. Czech and world-renowned experts in popularizing science discuss ways to communicate scientific discoveries and findings in the most attractive and understandable way. This section deals with new technological trends, documentary narrative inventions and new media. At the same time, it also focuses on the role of the science popularizers and methods of communicating scientific topics.

Our goal is to create a platform for sharing experiences and encourage interaction between scientists and the audiovisual industry. We emphasize the importance of promoting science as a key social topic and draw attention to the potential of science film and TV work for entertaining and communicating science to the public.

Camp 4Science

Camp 4Science is an educational and networking workshop for filmmakers focused on developing popular science documentary projects. Under the supervision of experienced international mentors, the participants refine their projects in terms of narrative, visual style, production and distribution strategies.

The participants will explore the specifics of the international science film market, funds and distribution. They also have a unique opportunity to meet and collaborate with science and film industry representatives. The camp is concluded with a pitching session in front of an audience composed of international experts in the field. Thanks to the support of Sandbox Films, the best presentation will receive a cash prize of $25,000.

Conference 4Science

Conference 4Science has been a crucial part of the AFO Festival since 2019. Czech and world-renowned experts in popularizing science discuss ways to communicate scientific findings in the most attractive and understandable way. The conference systematically deals with new technological trends and new media. At the same time, it also focuses on the role of Czech science popularizers and methods of communicating science.

Every year, the conference plays host to the best documentary filmmakers (Greg Boustead, Gabo Arora, Janet Tobias), world leaders in science popularization (Jan Lukačevič, James Kakalios, Susan Schneider) and big names of science (Walter Greenleaf, Tomáš Mikolov, Richard Dawkins). It is open to the general public and the guests of the festival – fellow audiovisual creators and scientific experts. We aim to show the backstage of scientific research, new methods of popularizing and communicating science to the public and the production of documentaries in their various forms. The conference features a pitching session of ongoing projects which the participants finetune during the Camp 4Science workshop.