17/05/2005

For the third consecutive year, the cinema from the Old Continent finds itself in the glare of the Cannes projectors with Europe Day, which began last night with a powerful symbol: the appearance on the red carpet steps for the official projection of the European mega co-production Joyeux Noël [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Carion
interview: Christophe Rossignon
film profile] of the 25 EU ministers in charge of Culture and the Audiovisual, accompanied by Vivianne Reding, the European commissioner for Information Technologies and Media. Gathered this morning for a debate centred around the theme « European filmmaking and the Information Society » in the company of many filmmakers including English director Michael Wintebottom, from France Nicolas Seydoux (Gaumont) and the Dane Peter Jensen (Zentropa), the 25 ministers and the European commissioner later presented their findings to the Press.

According to Viviane Reding, who underlined the fact that 9 out of 10 films distributed to neighbouring countries are supported by the Media Programme, “the development of cinema on the internet constitutes an extraordinary opportunity to energize new audiences, to provide new sources of revenue to the industry and to promote the heritage of cinema.” However the Commissioner warned that the problems of pirating had to be resolved, so as not to repeat the mistakes made by the music industry, by means of a graduated political response to illegal downloading. A strategy approved by the 25 ministers who accepted to take measures nationally that will be coordinated at a European level and promised to encourage their Education ministers to “change the mentality of young people and make them understand that a film has a value and to destroy that is to destroy cultural diversity."

(Translated from French)