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EXHIBITORS France

Espace Cardin: Digital projection in the heart of Paris

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This Thursday marks the official opening of two digital cinemas in the Espace Cardin, a stone’s throw from the Champs Élysées in Paris. Equipped with 35mm and high definition digital cinema through a collaboration agreement with the CST (Commission Supérieure Technique de l'Image et du Son), the two theatres will be open to the public on Thursday from 5-8 pm for free screenings.

The programme will include a series of European shorts organised by Arnaud Gourmelin (programmer of the Premiers Plans d’Angers festival).

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A press conference will also be held at the event by Pierre-William Glenn (president of the CST) and Pierre Cardin on the theme of "digital cinema”, with a detailed study on the evolution of digital theatres/films in the world, Europe and France (see the Cineuropa Special Report “Digital: The great challenge").

Currently, France has approximately 20 theatres equipped with digital film projectors: in particular, six theatres of the Kinepolis group (Metz, Nancy, Lomme, Thionville, Nimes, Mulhouse). In Paris, there are two theatres at the Cinémathèque française and two at the Gaumont Marignan; one each at the Balzac, the Publicis Champs-Elysées, the Gaumont Aquaboulevard and the Max Linder Panorama, a technology park that is almost entirely digital.

Overall, French exhibitors are cautious, even reticent, about the development of digital screening, and are concerned about the costs of a technical changeover and the possible loss of control over the programming of films. Meanwhile at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the Confédération internationale des Cinémas d'Art et d’Essai (CICAE), a group of 3,000 theatres that attracts 100m filmgoers annually called for clear preliminary guarantees for the respect of films (quality), audiences (diversity), and theatres (independence) before theatres go digital.

Véronique Cayla, general director of the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), has commissioned an expert study from Daniel Goudineau on the development of digitalisation in cinemas (see news). The study’s findings are due to be published at the end of June, early July.

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(Translated from French)

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