26/11/2007

Nearly 400 participants from 36 countries – including network exhibitors, distributors, research groups, equipment suppliers, producers and some of Romania's emerging filmmakers – took part of the 12th annual Europa Cinemas Conference, held in Bucharest from November 15-18.

Discussing the future of European cinemas in the era of the internet and digital technology, exhibitors agreed that the Internet could be used to their advantage and become the new word-of-mouth platform for European films, providing better knowledge of films and attracting young audiences to cinemas.

As far as digital projection is concerned, exhibitors look upon it as a means to diversify their programming, once investment and content issues are solved. Exhibitors consider content to be most lacking, failing to see the value of purchasing equipment immediately for the screening of so few European films. However, several companies presented plans to launch European films, new films and retrospectives in digital.

Costas Daskalakis of the European Commission explicitly stated that the MEDIA Programme would not finance digital equipment in cinemas. Europa Cinemas will continue to grant additional support to the scheduling of European films screened using 2K technology.