Strong Momentum for Arthouse Cinemas at Lumière Summit

Arthouse cinemas stood at the centre of the first Lumière Summit, the international gathering of heads of state and government, industry leaders and decision makers convened by French President Emmanuel Macron and co-chaired by Korean President Lee Jae-myung at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. The summit's most concrete result for the sector is IRIS, a new international initiative dedicated to independent screens, which Dr. Christian Bräuer, President of the International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas CICAE, warmly welcomed. In his opening address, Macron returned repeatedly to arthouse cinema, describing the independent cinema model as essential to the reach of films and to a cinematic pluralism that is under threat today, and its preservation as a shared responsibility. He called for a new multilateralism to shape the industry and the cinema of tomorrow. IRIS is where that ambition takes concrete form. The initiative aims to protect, strengthen and connect the independent cinemas, distributors and non-profit networks that keep film diversity alive, and to act quickly where local players are most isolated or under threat. Representing more than 2,400 arthouse cinemas in 47 countries, CICAE has pursued precisely this mission for decades. Its most recent Arthouse Cinema Training (https://cicae.org/activities/training) has just concluded, with more participants and from a wider range of countries than ever before; some of them are building arthouse cinemas from scratch in their own regions, from Rwanda and the Ivory Coast to Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal and India. 'The Lumière Summit sent a strong signal to our sector: arthouse cinemas are not a niche, but essential infrastructure for a diverse film culture and a healthy film economy. Films reach their audiences where cinemas know how to connect them with people – and nowhere is that more true than for independent film. We will gladly and actively support an international mechanism that stands behind independent arthouse cinemas,' said Christian Bräuer in a statement. Click HERE for a press release.