Dear readers,

this year again our appointment at Cannes has been particularly important: as is customary, we have published the latest statistics on digitalization in Europe, which crossed the 10,000-screen mark at the beginning of 2011. At the same time we have launched a new initiative to be put into practice with the European Audiovisual Observatory: an in-depth analysis of the digital transition in Europe, which will take stock of the crucial aspects in a transformation that has regarded about a third of Europe’s screens up to now and which will provide useful knowledge for all those, both in the public and in the private sectors, who are involved in the conversion of the remaining screens. Cannes Film Festival is not over yet, but we are already looking at our next initiative:
the eighth edition of the course “DigiTraining Plus: European Cinemas Experiencing New Technologies” that will start in Helsinki on 29 June 2011. I’m sure it will be another good opportunity for participants to acquire knowledge of use in their work !

Jens Rykaer
President of MEDIA Salles

MEDIA Salles and the European Audiovisual Observatory announced during the Cannes Film Festival their new initiative: a joint report on digitisation in Europe.

From left: Mike Vickers, MEDIA Salles Treasurer, Elisabetta Brunella, MEDIA Salles Secretary general, Wolfgang Closs, EAO Executive Director, Martin Kanzler, EAO Analyst.

For the most updated statistics on digitisation in Europe as at 1^st January 2011, see the European Cinema Journal 1/2011.
Click here!

THE EIGHTH EDITION OF THE “DIGITRAINING PLUS” COURSE IS APPROACHING!

First held in 2004, when there were thirty digital screens in Europe, “DigiTraining Plus: European Cinemas Experiencing New Technologies” is the course offered by MEDIA Salles to cinema professionals who wish to have reliable information and share experience at an international level on issues crucial in the transition to the new projection technologies. Economic models, including intervention by the European Commission, standards, the availability of digital content, the prospects for 3D and live events in movie theatres: these are some of the contents which will be dealt with by internationally renowned experts and by the exhibitors and distributors who were the first to take up the digital challenge.

Supported by the European Union’s MEDIA Programme and by the Italian Government, the main partners of the 2011 course are the Finnish Film Foundation and the Finnish Chamber of Films with the collaboration of the Estonian Film Foundation.

This year the eighth edition, to be held from 29 June to 3 July, introduces an important innovation: the course will be held in Helsinki but will also include a visit to Tallinn, to give participants the chance to make first-hand acquaintance with two particularly significant situations. Finland is, in fact, a country where the conversion to digital theatres has been and continues to be supported by public institutions as part of a programme that aims at innovation in all sectors in the country, including the cultural industry. Estonia, instead, can be considered an example of the many small-medium markets in which the digital transition has to find models that will allow the new technology to be adopted by cinemas whose function is prevalently social and cultural rather than strictly commercial.
The course moderator this year will once again be Tony Williams, a veteran of the British cinema industry, whilst the speakers will include European professionals such as Ron Sterk and Steve Perrin, who will be presenting joint initiatives launched by exhibitors in the Netherlands and in Great Britain, but also experts from the other side of the ocean, such as John Fithian, President of NATO, the US exhibitors’ association. A comparison between the situation in America and that in Europe will be made in the talks by Michael Karagosian and the session held by EDCF, a course partner. The visits to different types of digital cinemas – an urban multiplex such as the Coca Plaza in Tallinn and the versatile Kino Tapiola in Espoo, also the venue of a dynamic festival – will be another component of this course which for some years now has been considered by participants to be a valid landmark for those who wish to understand opportunities and risks in the digital transition and gain proactive experience of what has been defined the most important change in the cinema since the advent of sound.

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The Moderator

Tony Williams will be the course moderator

Focus on the speakers

Michael Karagosian MKPE Founder and President	John Fithian NATO President	Steve Perrin Chief Executive Digital Partnership LLP	Giovanni Dolci Arts Alliance Media Ltd
Till Cussmann Head of International Sales FTT	Tilman Scheel Managing Director, Founder, Reelport GmbH, Europe’s Finest GmbH	Harri Ahokas Head of Domestic Distribution at The Finnish Film Foundation	Emmanuel Joly European Commission

DigiTraining Plus participants will visit the Coca Cola Plaza in Tallinn (Estonia) and Kino Tapiola in Espoo (Finland)

Coca Cola Plaza, Tallinn

Kino Tapiola, Espoo