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EXHIBITORS Switzerland

Swiss authorities to support theatres

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Things are gathering pace with the burning issue of equipping Swiss movie theatres with digital projectors. At the request of Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter, the Film Section of the Federal Office for Culture (OFC) announced that in a few weeks it will deliver to the Internal Affairs Department a plan aiming to support the diversity of films on offer on national territory. This support should enable exhibitors who meet the programming criteria set out by Film Section experts to raise up to 50% of investment necessary for the purchase of digital projectors and servers for their theatre(s).

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If this support programme is validated by Burkhalter, two thorny problems will still need to be sorted out. The first concerns the financing of the planned support. If the Swiss Parliament was to refuse to grant extraordinary funding to the OFC, Laurent Steiert, acting head of the Film Section, would probably have no other choice than to fund the diversity support plan with part of the ordinary funds allocated for film – which could cause serious tensions within the profession.

The second difficulty concerns the remaining 50% of investment theatres need to find in order to equip themselves with digital. Many exhibitors could be unable to provide this remaining amount.

Aware of the risk of cultural desertification caused by the possible closure of some cinemas, especially in small towns, more and more people are suggesting that the cantons or regions should in turn set up support programmes – as has already been done in the Bernese Jura, which stands as an example in this respect. However, with each canton having full control over its cultural policy, there is reason to fear there could be major disparities in their individual handling of the issue.

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(Translated from French)

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