According to Wim Wenders, who is also President of the European Film Academy, Europe is often perceived by its citizens as a political, economic and bureaucratic structure with little place for culture. “The administration of Europe has become the image of Europe. This is one of the reasons for euroscepticism”, said Mr Wenders. He suggested focusing more attention on the cinema as a solution to this problem. “Movies practically invented the American Dream. They can do miracles for the image of Europe too”, he added.

Despite the fact that about 80% of the films shown in Europe are American, about 1200 films are produced each year in Europe, which helps make European culture valued throughout the world. “We can be proud about the past and present of our cinema”, added Mr Wenders. What worried him, however, was that for our children “movies are synonymous with blockbusters”. He said “We are losing the young audiences” and urged that cinema literacy be made a compulsory subject in school curricula across the EU.

Mr Wenders also noted that fewer and fewer films from other European countries are shown in EU Member States. This needed to be tackled, as our European identity “depends on sharing our culture and values”. Mr Wenders paid tribute to the EU MEDIA programme as well as the EP LUX Prize for enabling people to see films from other European countries.

Importance of non-commercial and EU initiatives

The Polish film distributor Roman Gutek pointed out that “watching European movies is becoming more and more an elite activity”, while for younger and independent film makers it had become more difficult to reach an audience. He suggested innovative, more diverse distribution channels, such as the Internet and non-commercial cinemas, that would not be “run by people selling fast food”.

Giorgio Gosetti, General Delegate of “Venice Days” at the Venice international film festival, stressed the importance of film festivals as an arena for intellectual debate. “We should be interested in quality cinema. It is mostly European, and it is not boring”, he said.  Next, Anne Jäckel, a visiting UK research fellow and the author of “European Film Industries”, spoke about the history of European co-productions. Both speakers noted the crucial role of EU institutions in supporting European cinema.

Funding, literacy and broad access needed, stress MEPs

Silvia Costa (S&D, IT) noted the challenge of cinema digitalisation and emphasised the need to ensure copyright and remuneration for creative works. Noting that the impact of digitalisation had been “much bigger than initially thought”, Mr Wenders agreed that copyright must be respected but added that a large amount of filmed content, especially historical documentation, should “belong to everybody”.

Jean-Marie Cavada (EPP, FR) pointed out that, in the light of rising nationalism, cinema could help greatly to create a “European sense of belonging”. But, he added, “we can't have culture without funding”. He believed that not only national funding but also a European fund was needed to support the film industry. “We must ensure that the money in EU funds goes where it is needed”, added Hans-Peter Martin (NA, AT).

Ivo Belet (EPP, BE), Petra Kammerevert (S&D, DE) and María Badía i Cutchet (S&D, ES) supported the idea of including film literacy into school curricula. Meanwhile, Lothar Bisky (GUE/NGL, DE) and Seán Kelly (EPP, IE) pointed to the need to translate and subtitle more European films. “Getting people to watch European films is a way to bring them closer to the EU”, stressed committee chair Doris Pack, winding up the hearing.

This hearing also launched the 4-week screening cycle of the three films competing for the 2010 LUX Cinema Prize. The films are Akadimia Platonos by Filippos Tsitos (Greece, Germany), Die Fremde by Feo Aladag (Germany) and Illégal by Olivier Masset-Depasse (Belgium, France, Luxembourg).  Members of the European Parliament will vote to choose the winner and the award ceremony will take place on 24 November in Strasbourg.