Cannes 2014 - Conference on EU audiovisual policy Policy challenges for a Creative Europe Friday, 16 May, 2014 15.00 – 17.30, Salon des Ambassadeurs Programme: 15.00 – 15.15 Opening Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth 15.15 – 16.00 1. Panel "Creating for a European audience" Films are normally intended to reach primarily a national audience through national distribution platforms (cinema and TV in particular). If they are successful, they may travel to other territories. They are rarely produced with the original intent of reaching a European or international audience. There are several reasons for this: - the national character of funding and distribution infrastructure; - difficulties in accessing finance for European and international projects, whether from public subsidies or from private investors; - insufficient attention to the development phase, even though that is key for international success. Creative Europe and co-productions cannot alone reverse this trend. The Creative Europe programme does offer funding for the development of projects with European appeal and a potential for wide circulation, but this is only a drop in the ocean due to the limited resources of the programme. While there is clear evidence that co-productions circulate better than purely national productions, they still appear to be mainly used as an additional source of financing How can we better complement Creative Europe development funding with national support for the development of projects with a European appeal? How can the potential of co-productions to improve the outreach of a film be increased? How can the capacity of future European talents to work on European and international market be improved? Moderator: Wendy Mitchell, Screendaily Panellists: - Peter Hyldahl, Beo Film - Christine Tröstrum, Berlinale Talents - Vincent Grimond, Wild Bunch - Nicola Giuliano, Indigo Film (tbc) 16.00 – 16.15 Discussion 16.15 – 17.00 2. Panel "Reaching out to a European audience" The digital environment enables films to reach their potential audience more easily providing they are well promoted and appear prominently among the other audiovisual content available online. This requires a strategy and promotional activities that represent a certain cost. Yet film support at national or local levels mainly focuses on the activities of creation and production. There is much less support for activities aiming to promote and deliver European films to the public. Indeed they are often neglected. The fundamental role of cinemas in creating value and recouping investment in production is not so clear for small, niche productions. For these, there is a need to test and implement other release patterns, such as multi-territory release on several platforms, including festivals, cinema, television, internet or VOD, and to experiment with new business models. How could support to production and support to distribution be better balanced? How can the success on one platform be better exploited on other release platforms? What is the real potential of cross-platform and cross-border marketing strategies? Moderator: Wendy Mitchell, Screen daily Panellists: - Tim Richards, vue cinemas (tbc) - Melissa van der Schoor, International Film Festival Rotterdam - Dragoslav Zachariev, EuroVOD - Rikke Ennis, TrustNordisk 17.00 - 17.15 Discussion 17.15 – 17.30 Conclusions