France hosts unprecedented international summit on cinema’s future

Around 200 figures from 55 countries will gather Monday at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence for an unprecedented summit on the future of cinema. France hopes the Lumière Summit will produce new alliances and concrete action for an industry facing pressure from artificial intelligence, streaming platforms and declining audiences.

The meeting brings together Hollywood studios, television networks, streamers, cinema operators, producers and video-game publishers. Sony Pictures, Disney and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which were absent from this year’s major festivals, including the Venice Film Festival, will attend. Their presence comes as Hollywood’s prolonged crisis has weakened its influence.

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The success of this summit will be measured by what is born from it: new coalitions, new projects and lasting dialogue between worlds that have too often worked separately.

Cinema attendance has fallen 40 percent in five years, despite recent successes such as “The Odyssey” and “Spiderman.” French President Emmanuel Macron, who is co-organizing the event with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, said the summit’s success would be measured by what emerges from it: new coalitions, new projects and lasting dialogue between sectors that have often worked separately.

The international guest list includes Mexican and Australian cinema operators, South Korea’s CJ Group, the culture ministers of Nigeria and South Africa, and executives from Canal+, TF1, France Télévisions and Mediawan. Organizers reject the idea that the gathering represents an “old world” summit and point to the participation of Netflix and TikTok. Meta and especially YouTube are absent, with YouTube accused of competing directly with cinema without contributing to its financing. France’s National Centre for Cinema, which is helping coordinate the summit, said the industry faces unprecedented challenges but lacks the level of leadership expected from its American partners.

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We find ourselves in this paradoxical moment where, although there are unprecedented challenges for the future of these sectors, we are not receiving from our American friends all the leadership one would be entitled to expect.