Disentangling economics and culture in European policies for cinema: what can we learn from Portugal and non-commercial exhibition?

ABSTRACT

Policy orientations by the European Union foreground the need to attend to peripheral territories (especially non-dense urban areas), as they combine multiple socioeconomic and cultural asymmetry factors. This applies to cinema, in-between market- and cultural-driven logics, and film exhibition in particular. Theatrical exhibition in Europe remains concentrated in urban multiplexes, where US blockbusters largely dominate, and although the majority of the films released are European, US films account for the majority of admissions. This paper results from an ongoing research about non-commercial exhibition in Portugal. We will present an overview of the European framework and then an outline of the Portuguese cinema policy settings. This overview will contribute to the clarification of the (minor) place and (high) importance of the cultural dimension of film exhibition, especially the role of non-commercial exhibition, an invisible segment in most official data and reports, although strategic to countering cultural inequalities and homogenisation.

KEYWORDS:

• Public policies for cinema
• Europe
• Portugal
• non-commercial film exhibition
• economics and culture

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the comments and suggestions received in presentations of this research in several academic meetings. We also thank Luís Delfim (Faculty of Economics, Porto), Luísa Barbosa (Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation) and Paulo Gonçalves (Portuguese Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual) for their insights and collaboration. Responsibility for any failings in the paper remains with the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and material

The primary data source used in this research is from ICA. Some data are publicly available at https://www.ica-ip.pt/pt/centro-de-informacao/. All data sources are clearly identified.

Notes

1. According to the Portuguese Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual, it targets exhibition of ‘national, European, or other countries filmographies whose distribution in Portugal is less than 5% of the market share, in relation to the number of spectators’ (ICA 2021a). We will get back to this in Section 4.

2. A systematic web search allowed the construction of a database with 266 exhibitors in 2014 (53% with regular exhibition), based on which a sample was extracted for the implementation of a survey for characterising the exhibitors.

3. According to the EAO, automatic funding can be defined as ‘cumulative funding provided by national film funds to which a producer has an absolute entitlement so long as they (or the firm) meet certain prescribed conditions’, while selective funding is described as ‘cumulative funding granted by national film funds at the discretion of the relevant issuing body’ (Kanzler 2018, 156).

4. See https://www.europa-cinemas.org/en/.

5. Portugal had 11 cinemas in the network in 2020, while, for example, Sweden and Greece had 47, and the Czech Republic 35.

6. In Portugal, VOD services pay an annual fee of 1% of the companies’ ‘relevant revenue’, and the money goes directly to ICA. If it is not possible to determine the ‘relevant revenue’, an amount of 1 M€ is assumed. Additionally, direct investment in film production is foreseen.

7. An example is the Support Fund for Cinema and Tourism (2018), a cash rebate scheme aiming at attracting cinematographic activities that might project Portugal as a tourist destination. It is a common initiative of Culture and Tourism government areas that has been followed by an Incentive to Production and Film Capturing (2018), and the creation of a project group assigned to promote and implement the Fund (Portugal Film Commission in 2019). Preliminary evaluation (ICA 2020) evidences positive results on the production side. However, impacts on admissions and gross box office need more time to be measured, and most probably complimentary initiatives and measurements are needed, on the side of culture rather than the market, such as effective socio-territorial impacts at the local level.

8. The production of documentaries has increased since 2012, grosso modo, and in some years it dominated feature films production. As for animation, only 1 feature film was produced, in 2009.

9. The number of films produced has been increasing over the last 5 years, but growth in the number of applications for public support is higher, despite some changes in support programmes, e.g. incentives to co-productions.

10. In terms of number of films exhibited, US market share is over 50% (ICA 2021b).

11. Our calculations, from ICA (2021b).

12. Its role has been of primary importance in supporting the Portuguese arts and artists before democracy.

13. The actual maximum for a production project is €0.6 M.

14. Three sub-programmes (ICA 2021a): one for national works only; another including national, European and world minority filmographies (with two applications per year); and the third addressed to ‘cinematographies with cultural relevance and low diffusion’ in all channels (theatrical, VOD and SOD platforms, DVD/Blu-ray editions and digitisation and/or conservation and recovering of old films). Support for distribution of national works is decided by ICA, the other two by jury boards.

15. The database comprises a detailed characterization of non-commercial cinema sessions, and its in-depth analysis will soon be available.

16. These are the three areas with central-state specific institutions in Portugal. ICA is the only one with legal personality (it is a public institute), the other two (arts and heritage) are General-Directorates.

17. By the time of our paper, an initiative has been launched, surfacing as a means to support artistic programming and guarantee the technical quality of the theatres/cine-theatres all over the territory, while also promoting the articulation between central and local levels of government: the Portuguese Network of Theatres and Cinemas (RTCP), formally presented as ‘a fundamental strategic instrument for countering regional asymmetries and promoting territorial cohesion in terms of access to culture and the arts in Portugal, based on decentralisation and shared responsibility of the central state with local authorities and independent entities’ (see https://www.rtcp.pt/pt/). RTCP depends on the Directorate-General for the Arts, so it will be important to follow how/if non-commercial exhibitors will be involved.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been developed in close partnership with the Portuguese Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (ICA), and it was financed by Portuguese public funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the framework of the project with reference UIDB/04105/2020.

Notes on contributors

Helena Santos

Helena Santos is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (FEP), integrated researcher of CITCEM (Transdisciplinary Research Centre of Culture, Space, and Memory, Faculty of Humanities ‒ FLUP) and collaborator researcher at CEF.UP (Research Centre in Economic and Finances, FEP). Her main fields of research cover cultural sociology and economics, especially cultural organisations, practices and policies in various artistic domains. She coordinates the Non-commercial Film Exhibition project (https://exibicaonaocomercialdecinema.weebly.com/project.html).

Marta Miranda

Marta Miranda ([email protected]) is a PhD student in Digital Media, a joint programme of the University of Porto and the Nova University of Lisbon. She is a member of the team of the Non-commercial Film Exhibition research project, and her master’s dissertation on cultural economics (FEP, 2020) focused on the non-commercial film exhibition segment and cultural policies. She is a Statistical Analyst at Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, Lisbon.