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INDUSTRY exhibitors / Europe

Exhibitors fear 'cinema without windows'

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- CICAE President Detlef Rossmann appeals for a cinematic alliance to be set up

The threat by the free-trade agreement between the United States and the European Union without a 'cultural exception' for audiovisual and film services as well as the shrinking of the theatrical windows are part of the essential issues that concern the European art house exhibitors. "We have to set up a cinematic alliance in Europe," stressed Detlef Rossmann, president of the CICAE Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d'Art et d'Essai at the annual conference during the 66th Cannes Film Festival. "I am afraid that our international art house exhibitors organization doesn‘t have enough influence in Brussels nor at the national governments to fight for our interests. We need  allies such as Europa Cinemas and UNIC, the great International Union of Cinemas in Europe."

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Politicians must realize that cinema offers an extraordinary opportunity for visual presentability. "It can link people," underlined Laurent Creton, professor at the Sorbonne in his conference speech. "Cinema is the language of the world." Nevertheless, the media chronology is shrinking. As representatives from Mali and Senegal reported, most of the films in western Africa are not seen in cinemas but get pirated. Although mostly mainstream movies are affected by piracy, it worries the art house exhibitors that the young audience wants to have everything available any time and everywhere. "That argument is used in Brussels to break the release windows," emphasized Rossmann.

It is urgent to figure out a way that the different distribution channels are not hurting each other. "If we cannot solve this problem the whole film production is in danger. The producers have to understand that they will hardly receive any revenues if a central element in the distribution chain is gone because that also leads to lack of publicity for the succeeding windows. That is going to be a big problem for VOD," concluded the CICAE president. "In view of the over-production in Europe, we should consider to invest a bit less in production but more in distribution and local marketing so that the diversity that Europe needs is going to reach the audience."

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