Film festivals at EU Delegations : feasibility study exploring different possible modus operandi for making available a package of European films : executive summary

In today's globalised world, the European Union should be equally as concerned about deploying its cultural and creative assets as it is about asserting its political and economic influence. Cinema's potential to communicate about Europe and its creativity has been recognised by a number EU Delegations (EUDs) in third countries that regularly organise film festivals. Such festivals are often one of the EUDs most effective tools in reaching out and making Europe and its values, stories and creativity known. Unfortunately, European Film Festivals often lack professionalism and are organised on tight budgets. To efficiently build on existing initiatives and ensure that European cinema contributes to the EU's external cultural relations EUDs and their partners need the following: better access to good quality films, support for communication and marketing activities, more funding to increase festival quality standards, ambitious side events to engage civil society and higher involvement of the European audiovisual sector. The study analyses the current state of affairs in the EUDs and then proposes a set of centralised and decentralised support measures to streamline the organisation of film festivals in a cost-effective way to ensure that they become effective diplomatic, cultural and trade tools for the EU.