French National Cinema Center Boss Pans EU Subsidy Cut: “This Is No Time to Disarm Our Industry”

France’s top film financier on Tuesday decried a cut by the the European Commission to the AgoraEU program just as YouTube and other social media platforms dramatically increase their share of screen time for Europeans.

“This is not the time to disarm our industry,” Bruel, president of France’s National Cinema Center, told the MIA Market in Rome. The EU has announced a 30 percent cut to €6 billion (US$6.7 billion) for the AgoraEU cultural fund to support film and TV production.

Bruel argued global business models for film and TV producers were under threat as audience viewing habits rapidly change. “Streaming is no longer the only major competitor to cinema, or even to television, and streaming is challenged by YouTube and other social platforms attracting a growing share of people’s attention,” he argued.

Bruel spoke at the Rome conference as Italian and French producers and industry execs outlined a new Europe Investment Fund unveiled at the MIA Market to attract more international financing for European film and TV series. The initiative includes a new Italian-French expert group to coordinate European policies for the film and TV sectors.

That’s as the contribution of social platforms like YouTube to European film and TV production does not proportionally match their market dominance. To make up for that shortfall, the MIA Market has outlined new financial tools, including higher U.S. equity financing, to complement traditional bank lending and European co-production funds to support European content creation.

At the same time, the challenge, as echoed by Bruel, is how European producers can attract greater foreign financing for homegrown projects while still being able to retain control of original IP and global distribution of homegrown products.

“The question then is whether Europe will retain its own capacity to produce the stories that define us, or become simply a consumer of other countries’ imaginations,” Bruel said.