Foreword by Luigi Grispello

Dear readers,

It is an honour for me to have the chance of presenting the new edition of the European Cinema Yearbook, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year. It was through the Yearbook that MEDIA Salles – with the mandate of the MEDIA Programme and the support of the Italian Government – began its work alongside cinema exhibitors.
The initial inspiration has proved to be decisive over the years: to provide exhibitors, the essential link in the cinematographic chain, with information as detailed and precise as possible on the trends in the European cinema market, accompanying it with statistical elaborations, comparisons on the trend of cinema-going in all European countries and the leading world markets, long-term comparative analyses.
In particular, changes in the sector and the need to understand the transformations leading towards the digitalization of movie theatres have prompted us to include and constantly update a section devoted to digital theatres, in order to monitor the growth trend in Europe and throughout the world. This is a particularly necessary analysis at a time of such radical change which, alongside the great expansion of the new technologies – with more than half of Europe’s screens having switched to digital by the end of 2011 – is registering new signs of difficulty for single-screen cinemas and small exhibitors, penalized by economic models that often tend to reward the large circuits.
This is another reason why MEDIA Salles continues its training work – begun under the guidance of Jens Rykaer, whom we all remember with gratitude and affection – focusing on understanding the developments in digital projection and its critical issues, with a specific analysis of the best models of development and best practices. Information, training, ongoing updating – thanks also to tools made available over the web, such as the DGT Online Informer and the Facebook page with its time to market account of the international distribution of Italian films. All this always from an international perspective: the only one that allows us to gain a real understanding of the changes going on in the cinema market and to operate efficiently on it.

Luigi Grispello
President of MEDIA Salles