The Dijon Film Meetings put current events through the scanners
- Netflix’s arrival in France, the neutrality of the internet versus cultural exception, and theatrical distribution: the ARP decodes today’s most explosive topics
While Netflix, amidst a great media frenzy, is making the final preparations for its French launch, scheduled for Monday 15 September (a topic that Cineuropa will be covering in detail next week), the ARP (Civil Society of Writers-Directors-Producers), one of the most influential professional associations in the French cinema landscape, is preparing the 24th Film Meetings, which will take place in Dijon from 16-18 October 2014. As is the case every year, the programmed debates will certainly not be lacking in pep – nor high-level expertise – in a context that has been marked by recent developments such as the nomination of a new Minister of Culture (Fleur Pellerin), who will undoubtedly make the trip to Dijon, and by the alarm sounded in August by Jean Labadie (Le Pacte) over the complete, unpunished trivialisation of piracy and its serious impact on the activities of independent distributors.
"Netflix, and what then?", "Neutrality of the net vs cultural exception: what regulatory framework could still halt the devaluing of cinema and culture?", "Theatrical exhibition of films: how can we find the best conditions for distributing film works?" – these three debates featuring on the menu at the 2014 Film Meetings promise to provide some exhilarating and heated exchanges, as well as a way of decoding, in detail, the present and the future of the French and European film and television industries.
Chaired by Abderrahmane Sissako (whose latest film, Timbuktu [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was popular in competition at Cannes, will be screened in Dijon), this edition will also be livened up by a filmmakers’ debate and by several film screenings (with their directors in attendance), including La Famille Bélier by Eric Lartigau (read the article), Gaby Baby Doll [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sophie Letourneur (read the article), The Search [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile] by Michel Hazanavicius, Arthur Joffé’s Le feu sacré, and Samba [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by directing duo Olivier Nakache and Eric Tolédano (read the news).
(Translated from French)
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