17/11/2008

At the Europa Cinemas annual conference – which closed yesterday in Paris – Véronique Cayla, director general of the National Film Centre (CNC), called on European countries to join forces to create a positive power relationship with US majors in order to finance the digital transition of European theatres. Below are some extracts from her speech.

"I’m very optimistic about the future of movie theatres. For the more individual screens we have in our lives, the more we need opportunities to get together and share collective emotions. At the same time, we live in a world flooded with animated images, many of which are formatted. On the other hand, we’re seeing an increasing demand for different works and programmes that have true meaning. Having said this, theatres are in the middle of a difficult period of change that could turn out for the best or worst.

“We can imagine digital projection as an advantage, with greater circulation of films and an infinite number of sub-titles for each print. But the situation could also lead to a disintegration of the network of European theatres, as some are equipped with the latest technology and show ‘mainstream’ films, while others still use silver screen projection for economic reasons, and show increasingly fragile works, i.e. European films that risk being marginalised”.

Cayla continued: “What can we do to avoid this situation? On a technical level, we need to have one, single standard (2K) and be sure of the interoperability of equipment, which is the focus of daily tests carried out by the French-German working group. On an economic level, the situation is more complicated: we’re having difficulty constructing a ‘business model’ and financing has met with obstacles. Everyone agrees that the majority of the costs should be borne by distributors, as in the US. But in Europe, the market share for US films is around 60% through the distribution arms of majors. They should therefore provide the funding. And negotiating in a disorganised manner (country by country or network by network) would create a negative power struggle.

“We have to implement this plan on a European level. Banks are essential for this and the one with the best credentials is the European Investment Bank. Moreover, in Europe, we have a very dense network of theatres. In order to protect it, we also need public funding (local, regional, European). We must all join forces in order to have the authority to make distributors pay for the majority of costs. In France, we are lucky enough to be able to make the changeover to digital somewhat alone, but this isn’t our desire. Diversity involves more than one country: European countries need to work together for the circulation and development of European film."

(Translated from French)