European exhibitors are invited by Europa Cinemas to apply for financial support for screening European films in digital format in 2007.  Up to €18,000 per exhibitor company, €6,000 per theatre is available.  The support is not limited to the cinemas members of the network.

Deadline for submissions: 29 February 2008

Requirements

Eligible cinemas:

• Commercial theatres based in one of the 31 countries participating in the MEDIA Programme, that have been open to the public for at least 6 months, with a box office system and declaration of revenues
• Minimum number of screenings per year: 520
• Minimum number of seats per establishment: 70
• Technical equipment that meets professional standards
• Hygiene and safety conditions complying with national regulations
• Pornographic cinemas excluded

Digital projection

A "digital screening" shall be any screening of a European film or cinematographic programme of at least 60 minutes projected generally from a hard disk with a projector having a minimum resolution of 2K (particularly matrix-based DLP Cinema projectors). Screenings on DVD are excluded of the support.

Programming requirements:

Exhibitors need to report on all digital screenings of European films in 2007.  In order to be eligible for support the UK-based exhibitors have to demonstrate that they had a minimum of 140 digital screenings and 7 titles of European films, and within this amount a minimum of 80 screenings and 4 titles of European non-national films.  For every digital screening exhibitors must provide evidence of a contract with the distributor or the holder of the rights. Exhibitors are under obligation to invest at least equal amount in their European programming to match the Europa Cinemas support .

Further information and application forms are available from the Europa Cinemas website