European Film and Television Co-production: Policy and Practice (2025)

The Circulation of European Films Within Europe

Comunicazioni Sociali, 2018

While more than a thousand films are made in Europe each year, only around 20 actually circulate in any meaningful way outside their own national market but within Europe. Despite the processes of globalisation and digitisation, we are clearly still some way from a film industry that knows no borders. This paper analyses the sorts of European productions that do travel successfully within Europe, and why. It draws on research undertaken for the MeCETES project (Mediating Cultural Encounters Through European Screens, 2013-2016), and especially the extensive database of films released in Europe between 2005 and 2015 put together by Huw D. Jones. The key factors affecting the ability of European films to travel successfully in nonnational European markets include the size of the budget, whether one of the major American studios was involved as producer or distributor, whether the lead producing nation was one of the Western European big five, the language in which the film was shot, critical acclaim, and the way in which the film tells its story. Five categories of European films, their production circumstances and their market performance, emerge from this analysis. First there are large-scale, big-budget blockbusters, many of them inward investment films backed by the Hollywood majors, which tend to travel well within Europe and enjoy equivalent success online. Secondly, there are small-scale, director-led, art-house films that command significant critical attention and travel to cosmopolitan audiences across Europe. Thirdly, there are feel-good, middlebrow films that occupy the middle-ground between these two extremes: modestly budgeted films that occasionally achieve crossover success and travel well within Europe. The other two categories describe films that travel very little, if at all, outside their domestic market. The fourth category is modest to low budget films with a strong national appeal, which may be successful in their own domestic market but rarely travel well beyond that market, whether theatrically or online. Fifthly, there are a great many European productions that fail to secure significant national admissions, let alone admissions in non-national markets. In many cases, this is indeed about failure. The dominance of the European film market by a small number of powerful American, British and French companies, and to a lesser extent, German, Spanish and Italian companies, indicates a lack of diversity within the films that circulate. And while some European films do circulate successfully outside their main producing nation, the vast majority do not. National film cultures within Europe are also surprisingly resilient in this era of globalised, digital storytelling and a surprising amount of national film-making is still enjoyed by national audiences. The challenge to policy-makers thus remains to find more effective ways of enabling a greater degree of cultural exchange, openness and inclusivity, within and beyond Europe.

Exporting the French Co-production Model: Aide aux cinémas du monde and Produire au Sud

2018

This chapter examines how the Aide aux cinemas du monde fund and the Produire au Sud workshop aim at strengthening France’s central position in the co-production of world cinemas. The Aide aux cinemas du monde provides funding to French co-producers of films from all over the world, while the Produire au Sud workshop, linked to the Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, works towards developing cooperation between European film professionals and emerging filmmakers from the South. Drawing on an analysis of film policy documents and data, field observation and recent film festival studies, this chapter investigates how both initiatives support co-production, in parallel to developing and exporting professional practices and discourses that shape the co-production culture developed in France since the 1980s.

The Vertical Axis of Film Policies in Europe: Between Subsidiarity and Local Anarchy

In Mingant N., Tirtaine C. (eds.), Reconceptualising Film Policies. Routledge, New York, 2018

In Europe, the policies that regulate and support the production of lms have a very long history. The rst signicant measures date back to the 1920s, when many European governments began to adopt quotas limiting the presence of American lms in European cinemas and to guarantee visibility to domestic productions (Guback 1969). The measures varied considerably from country to country, but the objectives were the same. From this historic moment, it is possible to trace one of the hallmarks of all public policies implemented for the lm sector in Europe over the course of almost 100 years: the convergence of economic and cultural goals. This dual nature of public intervention starts to become clear, particularly from the end of World War II, when European governments also begin to earmark funds to support the cost of lm production. On the one hand, this seeks to guarantee resources for national lm industries that must: (a) face ever-increasing production costs; (b) deal with some structural weaknesses (e.g. the small size of domestic markets); and (c) contend with very strong foreign competition, primarily from the United States. On the other hand, the policies of European governments seek to defend a cultural sector, which plays an important role in the life of a country. Films help to develop and renegotiate the identity of a nation, to thematise its issues, ideals and contradictions, to animate public debate and to foster the intellectual growth of its population. To relinquish having their own lm industry thus means giving up all of these potential benets. Or it could mean yielding to others (that is, to the strongest market forces, such as the major Hollywood studios) the task of dictating the public agenda of one's own country, becoming over time more and more permeable to external values, ideals and lifestyles (Brunetta and Ellwood 1994). From the post-World War I era to the present, lm policies in Europe have undergone many changes. What appears to be one of the most sig-nicant developments registered over time is the increasing number of public entities governing the sector. While in the aftermath of World War I national governments were the only authorities entitled to do this, today there are two other policy-makers: on the macro level, the Euro-pean Union, and on the micro level, a multiplicity of local governments.

EUROPEAN CINEMA IN THE POST-1989 COMMUNITY POLICY ERA

PhD thesis , 2023

This study delves into the intricate relationship between European cinema and Hollywood, analyzing the geopolitical, technological, and cultural factors shaping their dynamic. The American film industry's pervasive influence, seen as hegemonic, has spurred a counteractive European response, primarily guided by French leadership. Notably, Hollywood's presence in European cinemas catalyzed a sense of urgency for European nations to appreciate the importance of cultural interconnectedness through film co-productions. The research method employs a multifaceted approach combining historical, content, and comparative analyses, focusing on pivotal moments such as the Cold War's end, the Iron Curtain's fall, and the rise of on-demand media platforms. The study highlights Europe's struggle to strike a balance between economic aspirations and the promotion of fundamental values in audiovisual works. The conclusion suggests Europe's need to transition from preserving to proactively promoting cultural values, with an emphasis on embracing diversity and eliminating disparities in national approaches. Keywords: audiovisual, cinema, Europeanism, Hollywood, geopolitical dynamics, cultural diversity, on-demand media platforms, policy, technological influence.

European Film and Television Co-production

2018

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

Recent quality film and the future of the republic of Europe

a institute for Culture and Society, university of navarra, pamplona, Spain; b dipartimento di Studi umanistici e del patrimonio Culturale, university of udine, udine, italy This special issue provides a glimpse into the way recent European quality film originally participates in renegotiations of the social and political Project Europe, with its generous democratization process and transnationally shared cultural and economic goals. The stimulation of quality film-making has been on the political agenda of the EU for a while and followed more or less explicitly, two priorities: integration and competitiveness. Taking this stimulation into account, our goal is definitely not limited to showing how recent European cinema serviced EU priorities as soft-power controlled art. Animated by our own belief in the European project, we aim to reveal the way film-makers and their public art moved forward European concerns. We also try to trace the way films articulate deviation and excess of and within signification-sometimes divergent or critical of EU priorities-which not only raises awareness of various issues independent of the EU or national states agenda, but also performs the counter-ideological work of gesturing towards the misleading questions and challenges that animate the quest for political, ethical, economic and aesthetic value in current-day Europe (Žižek 2006).

The International Circulation of European Cinema in the Digital Era

«Comunicazioni Sociali - Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies», n. 3, 2018

From a political-economic perspective, the global market is dominated still by major international cinemas: Hollywood in particular – whose major studios (20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., MGM, Sony) maintain control locally through national subsidiaries – but also Bollywood, Nollywood and the Chinese industry in certain regions. European productions, on the other hand, remain for the most part confined to national successes alone, with only few exceptions – such as Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Dany Boon 2008), The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper 2010) and, albeit to a lesser extent, Gomorra (Matteo Garrone 2008). In the meantime, the influence of media convergence and the proliferation of digital platforms has demonstrated a series of content circulation strategies that differ to the classic windows of the distribution industry; strategies that have since become central to contemporary debates on film distribution. In academic studies, these mutations have contributed to broadening focus beyond theatrical distribution, in order to account for the circulation of films via alternative, formal or informal channels too (Tryon 2009; Iordanova and Cunningham 2012; Cunningham and Silver 2013). Some recent studies have emphasized in particular how contemporary research on film distribution can no longer exclude informal or non-linear circulation channels (Lobato 2012; Crisp 2015; Lobato and Thomas 2015). With the aim of studying how this new technological context is changing current tendencies, and taking root in the “national interest research project” (PRIN 2015) on the international circulation of Italian cinema, the special issue No. 3/2018 focuses on the strategies and outcomes of European cinema distribution beyond national borders.

European Cinema and Television

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2015

European Film and Media Studies is a series dedicated to historical and contemporary studies of film and media in a European context and to the study of the role of film and media in European societies and cultures. Books in the series deal with media content and media genres, with national and transnational aspects of film and media policy, with the sociology of media as institutions and with the impact of film and media on everyday life, culture and society. In an era of increased European integration and globalization there is a need to move away from the single nation study focus and the single discipline study of Europe. The series accordingly takes a comparative, European perspective based in interdisciplinary research that moves beyond a traditional nation state perspective.

Reconceptualising Film Policies

2017

This volume explores and interrogates the shifts in film policies over the past thirty years. It assesses the logic that has traditionally guided policy-makers, while bringing to light the agency of film professionals. It covers film industries from all over the world, foregrounding issues relating to geographical and economic integration, political regimes and new technologies. Featuring chapters by leading and rising acade- mics, in-depth case studies and interviews with practitioners and policy- makers, this book provides a timely overview of governments’ and industries’ responses to the changing landscape of the production, dis- tribution and consumption of films. Nolwenn Mingant is a Senior Lecturer in American Studies at the Uni- versity of Nantes, France and co-editor of Film Marketing into the Twenty-First Century (BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). Her research interests include film industries around the world and the international distribution of Hollywood films. Cecilia Tirtaine is a Senior Lecturer in British Studies at the University of Nantes, France. She is the co-editor of Film Marketing into the Twenty- First Century (BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). Her research interests include the British film industry and film and television policies.

The role of public support for the film industry – an analysis of movie production incentives in Europe

Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wrocławiu

The European model of financing culture implies state intervention. In fact, ineveryEuropeancountry,filmproductionissupporteddirectlyorindirectlybythestate, creatingacomplexsystemoffinancingfilmproduction.Thechoiceofaudiovisualsupport systemsaffectsthedevelopmentofnationalcultureandfilmindustriesaswellasthesector's resilience to crises, especially in the long term.The study focused on the development of an incentive system for supporting the audiovisual sector in European countries. The aim of the paper was to identify the mechanisms and motivations for supporting the domestic production of films and to analyse the public support for local audiovisual industries. Theauthorreviewedtheliteratureandconductedacomparativeanalysisofincentivesystems supportingtheaudiovisualsectorinEuropeancountries.