Europa Cinemas Goes Digital: A Report From the 13th Europa Cinemas Conference

The thirteenth Europa Cinemas (EC) conference was held from November thirteen to sixteen in Paris. Over five hundred film professionals from forty European countries as well as a few representatives from Latin America discussed cinema digitalization. Two parallel workshops have focused on the subjects of economic models and the measures to support investments in new technologies as well as a new image and the development of young audiences’ taste for cinema. The conference has confronted the film industry (especially exhibitors and distributors), representatives of national film funds as well as members of the European Parliament and the European Commission to present various economic models of going digital in the EU. The thread throughout debates was the necessity to equip the cinemas in the EC network in a fast and standardized way – with the intention to keep the costs of digital transition in Europe as low as possible, and to assure the same possibilities for the promotion of all national and European films. However the independent sector faces insufficient resources to finance substantial investments on their own. In order to design “the best scenario” of digital transition in Europe, the film industry has to argue the financing models which include the private and/or public local and regional funding. Going digital means turning cinemas into local cultural centres and art houses, but it also requires new ways of advertisement and marketing.

Mrs. Christine Albanel, the French Culture Minister, has stressed the significant role cinemas play in modern urban cities: “The hyperproduction of images brings also hypervitality to society. Therefore, the support of cinema digitalization in Europe is legitimate and must be backed through political assistance and the public funds of each EU state.” The public meaning of the cinema was brought up also in the speech of Véronique Cayla, General Director of the National Film Centre in France, who said cinema is the place where people share emotions. EC president Claude Miller and director Claude-Eric Poiroux reminded the audience that in times of crisis the number of cinema goers tend to increase since it becomes a place where people go to strengthen and find new energy. Gilles Lipovetsky, French philosopher and sociologist, who believes that society has become hyperindividualistic and based on emotional consumption, has explained how the explosion of films resulted in a more versatile and more intelligent cinema: “Films of today are deconstructing our stereotypes. Perhaps most of the people go to see formatted films, yet the production itself is more complex (expanded themes and territories, documentaries, animation …). Cinema is not dead. But modern cinema that seeks a loyal public must create collective, multicultural spaces with a qualitative programme.”

Christophe Forax, representative of European Commissioner Viviane Reding, has pointed out the priorities of European Commission in the next years: increase in the number of screens, the creation of “mini networks” (within but also outside the EC) and youth audience oriented programmes as well as education on film. The Commission will continue to financially back Europa Cinemas network in its stimulation of cultural diversity and digitalization. The Commission expects to strengthen public funds with bank investments to assist the public-private partnership in financing the digital transition. Ignasi Guardans, a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Culture, has advised film professionals to compose concrete, realistic and pragmatic propositions, and, further on, challenge the French presidency or European Commission to put it on the agenda for EU government money: “The reason why Europe needs this structured model of digitalization must be communicated.” Guardans agrees that the preservation of cinemas is vital for cultural society balance and should be supported, however in times of crisis and considering that EU policy makers tend to treat the cinema as part of the entertainment industry, going digital is hardly considered a priority. “Public money is available, but aims to support wider development of economical situation in the region and the stimulation of new markets – and the concept of digital cinema can also be considered as such.” Therefore Guardans suggests a more efficient lobby of small and medium enterprises who could claim the instruments of the Lisbon agreement for business support: “We need better organized cinemas which participate in land development and provide new jobs for people. We need cinemas that are alive and righteously claim the new technology.”

Peter Dinges, General Director of Filmförderungsanstalt in Germany has explained the model of public funding in Germany. It divides the costs of digital transition and cinema preservation to the government involved with 47-percent of public funds (twenty percent of the national film fund, twenty percent of regional funds and sixty percent of state funds) and all the additional costs to the distributor (forty percent) and exhibitor (thirteen percent). The United Kingdom as well as Scandinavian countries use the contribution made by distributors to cinemas’ investments on VPF (virtual print fee). These models are based on the film prints savings as the proportion of costs paid by the exhibitor related to the current supply of 35mm prints. In Norway eighty percent of the smaller cinemas are owned by municipalities and also receive extra regional funding since the capital with less than half million as well as other remote areas in the country simply can't run the cinemas without a loss. Part of the digitalization process will be covered by cinema goers and DVD viewers through the levy collected by the public Film & Kino, the Norwegian cinema association. The reasons for public funding are again the significance of small cinemas as the cultural centres and important meeting places in town. In Poland, the plan for digital transition will also include regional funds as well as financing by local city councils.

The transition is expected to be hard for independent distributors. Fixed print costs are being replaced by multiple additional costs and there is still an amount of films not available in digital format. Therefore the participation of producers in the transitional process must also include providing the digital master copies for which they can also apply for public funds. A number of distributors who were present at the conference provided examples of film releases in the two different formats (digital and 35 mm) and declared that they were willing to get involved and work side by side with cinemas within the framework of independent groupings. The European Commission has proposed that organisations such as the EIB (European Investment Bank) could offer supplementary mechanisms to finance the transition to digital of those European cinemas that do not generate sufficient revenues to access the VPF.

Digital equipment is an essential tool in film programming and production and going digital means being competitive. There's no shift in public taste, it is a shift in economics. In order to aggregate the potential audiences we need to change the environment in which we watch films and we need to integrate and cooperate in getting all the fragmented pieces together to form the European digital cinema network.

The final part of the conference was the optimistic forecast of European Commission Media Programme which will continue to support International Media (Media Mundus) and Euromed to strengthen cooperation between the audiovisual industries of “third” countries and European countries, and to promote European films in Asia and Latin America.

By NINA PEčE, Director of Kinodvor arthouse cinema, Slovenia