29/10/2002

French cinema sailed into 2002 on a high of excellent results in recent years. However this was not enough in itself to calm the troubled waters. Despite the fact that inequality in financing, the concentration of film distribution and the consequent crowding of exhibition are all endemic to the French film panorama, the horizon is rosy with a prosperous and creative film industry that is often the envy of its European neighbours. The annual appointment for France’s film and audiovisual industry operators was the 12th edition of the “Beaune Meetings”, organised by ARP (the French Directors’ and Producers’ Association) took place in a climate characterised by paradoxes of strength and weakness, potential solutions and a generalised resignation to inevitability. The only issue that really found all the participants at this three-day event in full agreement was the need to defend Europe’s cultural diversity.