Public aid mechanisms in feature film production

Motivation and problem definition One only needs to go to the local cinema to see the overwhelming dominance of American film. In most smaller cinemas, non-national European (NNE) theatrical works almost never hit the screen, and in the giant multiplex theatres, you will usually have a hard time finding just one or two foreign films that did not originate in the USA. Whereas nearly everybody knows the names and faces of Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez and Brad Pitt, few people can actually name any European stars who draw an audience. The same goes for Hollywood studios: even laymen could probably come up with ‘majors’, such as Walt Disney, Columbia TriStar or Warner Brothers – but would they have heard of Tobis, Gaumont or Pathé? And when was the last time that you, the reader, went to see a non-national European movie? There clearly seems to be a problem with the European feature film industry. Awareness of and interest in its works, like its market share, appear to be low. What is the actual state of the film industry in Europe? In other words: how bad is it really? Is its condition about to improve, or is it getting worse? Has there been an effort by pan-European organizations in general and the European Union (EU) in particular to set up public-aid mechanisms, and if so, what do they look like? The answers to these questions form the background to this article