20/10/2003

The theme “New strategies and new means to support the audiovisual industry: the European and American models” has been discussed at the opening working session of the 17th edition of EUROVISIONI, the International Cinema and Television Festival, which is taking place in Rome.

This morning’s session was led by Luciana Castellina, a member of the Eurovisioni advisory board, and there was an in-depth look at the comparisons between the European and American cinema exhibition market, presented by Elisabetta Brunella, the secretary general of MEDIA Salles, Italy. She outlined two main areas where the European cinematographic industry could learn lessons from its American counterpart, namely in improving distribution, and increasing the use of marketing and promotion. In fact, figures show that in 2002, the average marketing costs of new feature films in America reached a total of $30.62 million.

Elisabetta Brunella told Cineuropa that the European market can also learn from the strength of the American distribution system. She explained that distribution in Europe is fragmented, with many small, purely national distribution companies. In fact, research done by MEDIA Salles has shown that it often takes a European film two years to be released in all European countries. For example, the British production Bend it Like Beckham [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was released in the UK in April 2002, but it has only been distributed in Portugal in the autumn of 2003, after having been released in America. In general, the top EU countries whose films consistently do well on the non-national European market are Britain and France, with Spanish and Italian productions also featuring, followed by the occasional German film.

There was also an analysis of the European distribution for two specific films, the American blockbuster What Women Want and the international French hit Amélie [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. In all European countries bar France, the American film had a much higher number of prints released in cinemas, in some cases more than double hte number of copies of the French film. But, in spite of the large number of copies, the American film recorded a lower average of ticket sales per screen than the French production. For example, in Austria Amélie was released in 26 prints, and it recorded ticket sales of around 10,700 per copy, while the 102 prints of in Austria only recorded ticket sales of around 7,250 per copy.

The session also included speeches by Bernard Miyet, the president of SACEM and Eurovisioni, Ross Biggam, managing director ACT, and Neil Watson from the UK Film Council.
The Festival is continuing with atelier workshops on “The future of the MEDIA programme and television”, “New relationships between Pay TV and the European audiovisual film industry” and “Sporting rights: driving the audiovisual industry?”. Eurovisioni continues until October 24, when there will be the official closing ceremony for Cinedays 2003.