Exhibitors worried but enthusiastic
Yesterday in Budapest the 10the annual conference ended for the European exhibitors network Europa Cinémas. These professionals, in the front line against a drop in admissions (lire l'article), expressed their concerns but opinions on how to solve the problem are divided. For the more optimistic, this drop is temporary and can be explained by the lack of strong films, citing Germany, where the drop in quality films is however impossible to define. For the pessimists, the problem runs deeper and is directly related to competition from DVD, from piracy which has become commonplace and is difficult to beat and from methods of broadcasting films, notably on mobile phones (article), and finally the reduction in the broadcast window between theatre and video which is now about 5 months.
More globally, a gulf persists between the buyers and sellers, even though all admit that the two major problems within European cinema are promotion and education.
The workshop organised around the subject of the visibility of European cinema allowed a chance to return to the fundamentals of the job of exhibition and distribution : local commitment and passion. Claudia Bedogni (Istituto Luce – Italy), thanks to the example of Sophie Scholl [+see also:
trailer
film profile], recalled that to bring a film out is also and perhaps mainly about drawing the attention of the public film to the artistic, social or political merits of the piece. For Ferenc Port, exhibitor in Budapest awarded for his programming (read the article), each cinema has its own character and gains a faithful audience over the long term. Finally, Michel Malacarnet explained that it is largely thanks to state aid that Utopia (France) found its place. This theatre network was awarded the Prix Europa Cinémas for Best Entrepreneur to Jeanne Moreau. The prize for best programming for a Young Public went to Katrin Rajasaare for the Kino Soprus in Tallinn (Estonia).
The digital workshop focussed on two essential points, on the economic model developed for financing these large operations and the relation between exhibitors and distributors in this new environment.
(Translated from French)
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