European Film Forum

Before the European Film Forum, which brought together several actors of the European film industry around tomorrow's training tools for the audience, the director of the Lumière Festival, Thierry Frémaux, together with Mariya Gabriel, reminded the audience of the importance of creation and the need to protect it. Especially in a digital context. That morning, the European Commissioner unveiled the prototype of a European film catalog, an idea launched in Berlin last February as part of "Digital4Culture". It comprises 115 video-on-demand services, representing together approximately 35,000 European films. Its beta will be launched in April while the final version is scheduled for the end of 2019. It will first serve professionals and public authorities and eventually the general public. She insisted that if digital, through the changes in distribution and consumption that it leads, can sometimes be seen as a danger, it is above all an opportunity that must be seized. The adoption of the AVMS Directive, which will guarantee 30% of European-programming on the platforms, as well as this new repertoire, aim to support this creation and its propagation. In addition, the Commissioner launched a program of meetings with schoolchildren in Europe to introduce them to cinema, sponsored by industry personalities such as Wim Wenders. In this spirit, a repertoire project of European classic films that have marked the history of the continent is also underway. Because, according to Mariya Gabriel, cinema remains an excellent vector for transmitting European humanist values, especially in these politically troubled times.

This exchange was followed by a round table composed of Sandra den Hamer, Director, Eye Film Institute Netherlands (Netherlands), Emilie Boucheteil, Director of Cinema Department of the French Institute, CinEd program (France), Claus Noer Hjorth , Head of Children and Youth Department, Danish Film Institute (Denmark), Gian Luca Farinelli, Director of Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna (Italy), Marc Sundermann, Head of Brussels Liaison Office, SVP Government Relations, Bertelsmann SE & Co KGAA (Germany) and Boglárka Nagy, General Delegate of the International Confederation of Cinemas of Art and Design - CICAE (Germany), on the programs set up, each in their own country to bring heritage cinema to the general public. It shows the need to make an event of this type of screenings and to focus on image education and film education.

You can watch the whole round-table just below :