STORY FORUM BASEL
Two-person exchange in the Writers Room: focused work on a current project
Concept

The starting point was a multi-year collaborative process.

Between January and April 2025, the idea emerged from 27 conversations — with funding institutions and industry associations, festivals, broadcasters and universities, with theatre, dance and the visual arts, with international training providers as well as with writers, directors and producers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Story Forum Basel steps in at the beginning of the creative value chain — where relevance and international reach are born.

Photo: Pietro Vitali
The Problem

Focus: Story Development

Creative development, production and exploitation of a work are separated today. Narratives are often only sharpened late, their potential remains underused. Funding flows mainly into production — not into early-stage story development.

Value Chain
Idea Development Production Distribution SFB steps in Story Forum Basel Film Theatre Literature Audio Drama/Podcast Composition Choreography Extended Reality Games

Story Forum Basel steps in before the format is fixed. Between idea and development, everything is still open — which is why the platform is designed to be interdisciplinary, before a story commits to a format.

The same applies to moving between formats: novel-to-film adaptations, radio drama and podcast adaptations, early-stage networking between composers and screenwriters, stage adaptations of film material, film adaptations of stage material, or literary material becoming a musical or a choreography — there too, Story Forum Basel leaves the door open.

Positioning

Support, not training.

Story Forum Basel replaces no one. We work through cooperations and create added value from the expertise of our partners — for participants.

01

Low-threshold & format-open

Accessible for selected projects, open to any format. Quality rises without raising barriers to entry.

02

Interface

We connect what already exists — institutions, funding bodies, interdisciplinary expertise.

03

Marketplace

Early-stage, curated networking and matchmaking between authors and producers from Germany, France and Switzerland.

Visualized

The interface, concretely.

Authors D-F-CH Produ- cers Funding bodies Institu- tions STORY FORUM BASEL

Story Forum Basel opens doors: the interface between everything that already exists makes cross-border development accessible. This platform is carried by Balimage together with the community of authors from Germany, France and Switzerland — grown organically, not imposed structurally.

Ways of Working

Crossing borders, growing together.

Story Forum Basel relies on cross-border, interdisciplinary exchange between film, journalism, art, technology and research. Silos are broken down, scientific precision is connected with cinematic emotion — local innovation becomes globally tellable stories.

Output & Impact

What comes out of it.

When story development is seen as a decisive part of the value chain, it changes the process — in practice, in exchange, and in the structure of the industry.

01

New Formats

Development and visibility of new narrative formats.

02

Early Connection

Artistic development meets funding logic early.

03

Network with Impact

Building a network that has an effect beyond individual projects.

Goal: develop story ideas earlier and more deliberately — increasing quality, relevance and economic viability. The benchmark: works with international reach, as the first edition has already produced.

Vision

A place that lasts.

The Writers Rooms are a beginning, not an end. The aim is a year-round platform for research, development, exchange and quality assurance — a centre of competence for story development, based in Basel and connected across Europe.

What emerges is above all this: reliability, visibility and creative space in a phase that has long been isolated and underfunded.

Why Basel

Distinguishing Features

Interested in working together?

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