27/11/2003 - Prague is the venue for the annual conference of the cinema chain of 1,200 screens across Europe. From today until Sunday there’ll be discussions about improving circulation of European films, East meets West and the advent of digital

The 8th annual conference of the Europa Cinemas starts today in Prague and goes on until November 30. Operators from the 474 cinemas in the chain, which boasts more than 1,200 screens, will be meeting in the capital of the Czech Republic to discuss how to improve the circulation of European films. In 2002 the chain had an audience of 21 million for European films and it is looking to find ways to improve on that figure.

Before getting down to the real business, today will be a day for watching the premieres of five European films: Ballo a tre passi by the Italian Salvatore Mereu, Inheritance by the Danish filmmaker Per Fly, Take My Eyes [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by the Spaniard Icíar Bollaín, Raining Cats and Dogs by the French director Jacques-Rémy Girerd and the co-production between Pakistan, France and Germany, Silent Waters by Sabiha Sumar. The conference will then be officially opened tomorrow by Claude Miller (director and president of Europa Cinemas), Costas Daskalakis (director of the MEDIA Plus programme) and Claude-Eric Poiroux (director general of Europa Cinemas).

The first debate tomorrow will be chaired by Pascal Rogard, the president of SACD, and will be on the controversial theme: Is cinema threatened by new diffusion systems?. Those expected to take part in the debate include Johannes Klingsporn (MD of the German distributors), the French representatives Jean-Paul Commin (president of the International Video Federation) and François Hurard (director of cinema from the CNC), the Norwegian Jon Bohmer (Pronto TV) and the Belgium expert, Nicole La Bouverie.

The afternoon’s discussions will be centred around Cinemas: a place for diversity of choice in European films . The debate will be led by Jonathan Davis (the consultant in charge of European affairs at the British Film Council), and there’ll be speeches by Jean Labé (president The National Federation of French Cinemas), the Italians Lionello Cerri (operators and producer - Anteo Spazio/Lumière) and Gianluca Farinelli (director of the Bologna Film Archive), the German distributor Stephan Hutter (Prokino Filmverleih) and the Polish representative, Roman Gutek and the operators Bertrand Roger (MK2, France), Stein Sandvik (Bergen Kino, Norway) and Ted Chiaradia, (Lux-Cinemarienburg, the Netherlands).

On Saturday there will be three workshops. The first will be Distributors and Operators: East meets West and will feature contributions from specialists like André Lange (the European Audiovisual Observatory) and the distributors Monika Weibel (Frenetic Films, Switzerland), Eliska Fuchsova (Artcam-Sirena Films, Czech Republic), Claudia Bedogni (Lady Film , Italy), Kirsten Dalgaard (Camera Film, Denmark), Olivier Masclet (Les Films du Losange , France) and Gabor Csurdi, (Budapest Films, Hungary).

The second will discuss the theme Digital in theatres: a challenge for European cinema, while the third atelier will concentrate on ways of modernising the image of European films.
This varied programme will be rounded off on November 30 by a presentation of European and Mediterranean film trailers, and with a session looking at the future of EuropaCinemas, especially in the light of actions undertaken as part of Media Plus for the upcoming European enlargement and the new guidelines on young audiences.

(Translated from French)