ARTE exploring new markets and digital media

The “Year of France in Brazil” taking place this year is celebrated at the Rio Film Festival with retrospectives of two “grandes dames” of French cinema, Jeanne Moreau and Isabelle Huppert. An homage to the French-German cultural channel ARTE is in the same chain of reasoning, especially as the broadcaster is a co-producer of international arthouse films which it successfully presents at prestigious festivals around the world and in competition for film awards.

Founded as a European public service television channel, part of an agreement between France and Germany in 1991, ARTE has been broadcasting cultural programmes since 1992, building up a network of coverage on both terrestrial and satellite (although it is not currently available in Brazil). The schedule airs a wide programme of performing arts, documentaries, films, magazines and 24/7 news which are increasingly available as streaming, podcast or video on demand.

Moreover it has become a trademark of high quality cinema funding. Annually 29.37 million Euros (12%) of the total budget of 365.90 million is spent on film, which is invested in the co-production of 20 to 23 films per year. The feature fiction scripts are chosen by Michel Reilhac, Director of ARTE France Cinema, and presented to the selection committee. He says that the choices of scripts are made on three different levels: “First on the script; second on the previous work of the filmmaker. And third, we meet with the producer and director.” The genre and the outstanding character of a script are also important aspects of the selection.

Officially ARTE isn’t involved in the development of the film projects, but can be if the director or producer ask for expertise. The Latin American market and filmmakers are well known to ARTE as films from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Paraguay have been funded in the past, but Brazil is still a field to be explored more in depth. Michel Reilhac, attending the Rio festival for the first time, is very optimistic about the potential of Brazilian cinema: “I feel that there is a new generation of Brazilian directors and producers making interesting films. There is this trend of international co-productions, particularly in Latin America, which is an extra opportunity for the people here.”

With the diffusion of new channels and internet television as well as the changing conditions of the cinema market, ARTE as a TV channel and co-producer of films is facing new challenges. Michel Reilhac is following the evolution of new media and their effects. From 2010 onwards, parts of the budget will be invested for studying and supporting trans-media and cross-media projects. “I am actually convinced that there is a new dimension which is just appearing and we have to look very carefully at all the new options that the new media offer. We have to try finding answers to the fact that many independent films don’t find their way to the cinemas anymore.” Thus the future steps of the cinema department are not only going to be about keeping up the tradition of auteur cinema, but to work on new ways of mixing traditional cinema and new media to support a wide® reception through the audience and optimise the “artistic nature of storytelling and the visual impact of the media on storytelling”.

By Zsuzsanna Kiràly