German film, European film: transnational production, distribution and reception

Abstract

During the 1990s the German audiovisual industry changed from a primarily state subsidized ‘high cultural’ didactic system to a market-oriented popular cultural entertainment system. At the beginning of the decade the German film industry had declined to a meager 5% of the national film market. It now set out to reach the broadest possible audience in the global film market. Many analysts and critics of German film viewed this shift negatively, yet a decade of film statistics show that from 1991 to 2001 German film production almost doubled, attendance rose 27%, and screening spaces expanded by 12%.2 Perhaps most significantly, the German film industry expanded its share of the national box office (the sixth largest film market in the world) by over 10%, reaching up to 30% in some quartiles. If this description makes it appear that these changes were national transformations, this is not the case at all. The significance of the transformation of the German film industry lies in the fact that it took place within larger processes of globalization. Thus, for example, if film production in Germany doubled in a decade, of the 84 feature films premiered in 2002, 39 were coproductions with non-German partners. All the Hollywood majors have opened affiliates in Germany, companies like Buena Vista and Deutsche Columbia Tristar have produced and distributed some of the most important German box-office hits, while Studio Babelsberg spent the decade as part of the French-based global media conglomerate, Vivendi Universal. In other words, the expansion of the German film industry was not simply a market effect of globalization but also involved a process of conscious transnationalism. Germany is at the center of the European Union (EU) and this has had a particular effect on the film landscape. For instance, the expansion of screening spaces in Germany and the increased frequency of German films being screened derive in part from the EU program, Measures to Encourage the Development of the Audiovisual Industry (MEDIA). MEDIA has fostered the formation of a network of movie theatres subsidized by EU funds: over 1000 theatres in over 250 cities. In return for economic support, these theatres have committed themselves to screening at least 50% European productions at least 50% of the time. This step has guaranteed European films an outlet and meant that they do not all go directly to archival shelves!