Last year, upon reaching the 7th edition of our Festival, we imagined we were not far from the perfection associated with this magic number. But the 8th Day of our 24-hour Festival has brought us quite a few surprises! With some great news to begin with: for the first time, EuroCine27 is being exported to Hungary! Then, in our traditional partner countries, there are new theatres in Italy and in Spain. And in Brussels, as well, there is something new afoot: EuroCine27 has now taken up residence downtown, at the UGC De Brouckère and at the Actor’s Studio (we welcome Claude Diouri aboard!). You might say that this is all trivial: what’s most important is maintaining the founding principle of the event, namely, arranging the showing of European films from the 27 EU Member States in the best possible conditions.
Last year we were already filled with eager anticipation when our historic partner UGC announced that for the next production of EuroCine27 all of its theatres would be using digital projection! That’s great, we thought: no more reels of 35mm film to be sent out across all of Europe! Just perfect copies. And how this would make child’s play of subtitles, which so often held us up in the past... Alas, we were disillusioned, because our two programmers came up against the cruel reality that whereas digital projection is becoming the rule across the whole continent, too few European films have shifted over! With the risk of letting our American cousins nibble away at still more market share. Fellow citizens of Europe, this is your call to digital arms! We must not let this Revolution in distribution and cinema operations pass us by. In this eighth year following its creation, the EuroCine27 festival has more reason to exist than ever before!
Philippe Reynaert
President
PS : Don’t miss the showing of ‘Hitler in Hollywood’ by Frédéric Sojcher and the lesson in cinema which follows. This incredible ‘mockumentary’ is suitably dedicated to the difficult relations between American and European cinema. |
