09/03/2007

The on-off debate sparked by UGC Cinemas (with interventions by its partner MK2) on the issue of payment to distributors, producers and filmmakers from cinema tickets bought with membership passes (see news) has been switched on again, this time by BLOC (Liaison Office for Cinema Organisations).

The 15-member umbrella group, which includes the CSP Chamber of Film Producers Unions, D.I.R.E. (European Independent Distributors), the SPI Independent Producers Union, the SRF (Society of Film Directors) and the UPF (Union of Film Producers), has not only positively acknowledged the request for a two-year price freeze – proposed by UGC (who wanted to decrease the base price, and therefore payment) – but also stressed yesterday that the exhibitors’ attack "came at a time when rights were one of the winning arguments presented to the Centre National de la Cinématographie among a range of economic arguments in favour of re-evaluating an increase in these base prices".

Moreover, BLOC is taking advantage of the debate to request French film industry professionals to reflect on a number of what are seen as "fundamental" questions, such as the length of films’ theatrical runs, sometimes only a few days although a cinema may have exclusive exhibition rights for six months, and, more generally, imbalances between distributors and exhibitors, the latter having exclusive rights to the full theatrical run of a film (priority exhibition of promotional material, choice of number of screenings, choice of cinema seating capacity, price setting).

Another point in BLOC’s firing line is "practices...that force distributors to pay cinemas so that they accept to promote films (e.g. trailers, posters and billboards, advertising in exhibitor magazines)."

Lastly, BLOC – co-presided over by director Pierre Salvadori and producer Jean-François Lepetit – believes it is necessary to study the possibility of changing the system of "financial support for cinemas according to a number of criteria related to their programming and financial practices, with the aim of encouraging the most honest practices possible, as is already the case for production and distribution support."

(Translated from French)