Reg. Trib. Milano n. 418 del 02.07.2007 - Direttore responsabile: Elisabetta Brunella

International Edition No. 146 - year 13 - 16 May 2018

Special issue on the occasion of the 71st Cannes Film Festival

 
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KEY STATISTICS FROM MEDIA Salles


Digital and 3D screens in Europe: the new statistics as at 1st January 2018

A 4% increase in digital screens brings the European total to 40,000

In Europe forty thousand screens offer digital projection. To be precise, the number comes to 39,888 in the 39 countries, from Iceland to Georgia and from Portugal to Russia, that provided MEDIA Salles with their figures at first of January 2018 - figures comparable to those of the previous year.  In twelve months, 1,371 units have been added, for a growth rate of just under 4%. This means that on average almost four projectors daily were installed in 2017. Which markets saw the most significant increases?  We can distinguish two types: countries that had yet to complete the process of digitization in 2017 and those where new cinemas are opening, and which are obviously equipping themselves with digital projectors.

To the former group belongs Estonia, where the number of digital screens has grown from 62 to 73, whilst the new technology’s rate of penetration climbs from 71% to 91%, partly due to the closure of some older-generation cinemas. In Serbia, too, a considerable rise in the penetration rate of digital screens has been recorded: from 66% to 76%, thanks to the addition of a further 24 units. Slovenia, progressing from 95 to 111 projectors, has digitized more or less 100% of its screens. As well as these smaller markets, two of the six leading European markets have also taken a further step towards completing their digitization: Spain, with just under 3,500 digital projectors and Italy, with around 3,700, now see the new technology accounting for 97% of the total. 

In the second group come territories that have considerably boosted their offer of cinema venues over recent years, although remaining well behind Western European countries in terms of the ratio between inhabitants and screens. We see Russia, which had already digitized all its commercial screens in 2017 and over a twelve-month period added over 400 projectors, totalling 4,786 (more or less one thousand fewer than France, which has only half the number of inhabitants). The situation also regards Turkey, which grows from 2,443 to 2,630 digital screens, basically thanks to new openings, and Ukraine, which added 50 projectors on an equal number of new screens.

Once again this year it is worth noting that the Czech Republic records a markedly lower rate of penetration for the new technology compared to the European average. This is because, as well as commercial cinemas that are now almost all equipped with digital projectors, this market boasts many structures with a socio-cultural vocation, which lack the financial means to make the digital transition and therefore make use of electronic projectors and supports such as DVDs.

Lastly, there proves to be no change in the percentage of 3D on digital screens, which has settled at around 50% for some years now. This confirms that players in the sector consider the approximately 20,000 3D screens sufficient for offering audiences the stereoscopic films annually available on the European market.


© copyright MEDIA Salles


© copyright MEDIA Salles

Notes: data for Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina is updated as at 1st January 2017


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WOMEN IN DIGITAL CINEMA

Seneit Debese
Greta & Starks App
- diverse audiences enjoy and experience the same film at the same time.

Olivia ReggianiI love cinema as a window to the world that allows deep and emotional insights into life through stories. That's why I decided to start my own independent film distribution. During a documentary shooting about Kidisti Weldemichael, a blind Paralympics runner, I found out that Kidi had a lot of interests. The only thing she was missing out on was going to the cinema with her friends, because there was no way for her to fully understand the film. From my point of view, I simply couldn't believe that a person who enjoys movies and wants to go to the cinema, is excluded from that experience. There was already the technology to fly to the moon. Why not make films accessible?
The experience with Kidi inspired me to develop an app, Greta, in order to make inclusion a reality. GRETA is a special app and plays the existing audio description (AD) for blind or visually impaired cinema-goers and subtitles for hard-of-hearing individuals and people with hearing loss (SDH) at any time, place, or screening, whether indoor or outdoor cinemas, at home, at school etc. - simply, using one's own smart device. The app synchronizes to the film soundtrack and automatically finds the right film scene and plays the synchronous barrier-free version of the film. That way the users are totally independent and can choose their favourite film in their favourite cinema.
With the same technology, the app also offers diverse audio versions and multilingual subtitles for an international audience of 200 million persons in Europe. In this way expats, migrants, tourists, language students and many more can enjoy the film they want in the language they prefer. My vision is that no matter what language you speak or whether you have a disability or not, you will be able to share the same film in the same cinema theatre as anybody else - laughing at the same jokes.

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To see the three issues of the DGT online informer devoted to the first edition of
MAS - Mallorca Arts on Screen International Festival and Conference,
click the links
 
DGT online informer 143
DGT online informer 144
DGT online informer 145
 
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E-mail: infocinema@mediasalles.it