Milan, 2 July 2004

PRESS RELEASE

MEDIA Salles at the "Giornate Professionali 2004" This year MEDIA Salles was once again present at the "Giornate Professionali di Cinema", which ended today in Genoa (Italy). Yesterday, 1 July, the first meeting took place of MEDIA Salles' new Executive Committee, elected in Cannes on 19 May. This meeting, devoted in particular to programming activities for the coming two-year period, confirmed the Association's prime objectives. "Providing European exhibitors with a range of services in the fields of information and training, as well as initiatives for the promotion of European films - said the President Domenico Dinoia - is MEDIA Salles' commitment for a Europe in which the cinema is an important means for expressing cultural diversity".
Elisabetta Brunella, Secretary General of MEDIA Salles, gave a talk today at the Conference "European Cinema: culture and market", organised by FICE, providing an outline of the cinema market through a comparison of the 18 countries of Western Europe (a little over 390 million inhabitants and around 920 million tickets sold in 2003, with approximately one screen for every 15,000 inhabitants) and the 14 countries of Central-Eastern Europe (around 190 million inhabitants and just over 95 million tickets sold in 2003, with approximately one screen for every 40,000 inhabitants). Amongst other results, it could be seen that the annual frequency in Western Europe is more than four times higher than in Central-Eastern Europe (2.48 compared to 0.54) and that average ticket prices in Western Europe are more than double those of Central-Eastern Europe (5.80 compared to 2.77 euro). This reveals the high potential for development on the markets of Central-Eastern Europe. At the same time, it raises the question of what sort of cinema will benefit from the increase in cinema-going that is expected over the next few years throughout Central-Eastern Europe, including Russia.
Numerous activities were organised by the Association during the "Giornate Professionali". The Italian version of the Newsletter "European Cinema Journal" no. 3/2004 was available on the MEDIA Salles stand, together with a special edition of the MEDIA Salles' "European Cinema Yearbook", containing the research study "Which market for European films?", and other material giving information on MEDIA Salles' activities, first and foremost the new edition of the training course for exhibitors "European Cinema Exhibition: A New Approach", to be held in Budapest, Hungary, from 22 to 26 September, for which enrolments are due by 2 August.
Enrolment forms, as well as the provisional programme for the course, can be found in the "Training" section of the MEDIA Salles' website (www.mediasalles.it).

For further information:
MEDIA Salles
Via Soperga, 2
I-20127 Milan
Tel.: +39.02.66984405 - Fax: +39.02.6691574
E-mail: infocinema@mediasalles.it