Cannes Market Dailies

There was a conference today about art house cinema in Europe. The discussion was lead by Roxane Arnold, François Amyé, Christian Bräuer, Christine Eloy, Katarzyna Siniarska, and Carla Simón. A major point made at the conference was how the definition of art house films differs from country to country and so does the audience, which makes it difficult to make any generalizations on how art house cinemas are doing. However, it seems like older people are the ones to frequent art house cinemas rather than the younger generation. Carla Simón said the solution is to teach children and students about cinema and to get them excited about cinema. She stated, “we need to be reminded of the importance of what cinema can do for society.” Another aspect of how to reach a wider audience is by marketing. The group discussed how cinemas and distribution companies can’t predominantly rely on social media marketing or print press marketing, that it has to be a combination of the two. You have to appeal to both the people that would normally come to art house cinemas, as well as draw in the people that normally don’t. Overall Roxane Arnold was able to sum it up well by saying, “we are faithful and loyal to each other and there is still real confidence, despite all of the black clouds like Netflix.”