Media Program Boosts Diversity and Reach of European Cinema
Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentEuropean filmmakers are fortunate to have a friend in Brussels who reliably lends a hand getting their movies made and seen.For the past 30 years, the European Union’s Media program has supported film industries across the EU in myriad ways, investing more than €2.6 billion ($3.1 billion) in programs that boost the output of new local movies and other content from development to distribution.Since 1991, the Media Program has been systematically pursuing its stated goals of promoting European cultural and linguistic diversity and pushing to increase circulation of European films within Europe and beyond.Almost every European auteur, from Pedro Almodóvar to Bosnia’s Jasmila Žbanić (“Quo Vadis,