When France played host to a United Nations climate conference 11 years ago, it could credibly claim that the fate of humanity hung in the balance. It made no such claims on Monday, when French officials gathered people from around the world to discuss the crisis in the global film industry.
Yet some of the language was familiar. At a time when Netflix, YouTube and TikTok are draining viewers away from movie theaters, and artificial intelligence is altering how movies are made, the threats to cinema are existential and demand a multilateral response, the event’s organizers said.
“We have never watched so many screens, and yet, by watching everything, we run the risk of ending up seeing nothing at all,” said President Emmanuel Macron of France, who chaired the conference along with Lee Jae Myung, the president of South Korea, which has become a film power in recent years.
Macron announced initiatives to educate young people about cinema, preserve aging film stock, save independent theaters and pour resources into domestic film industries. France and Korea each pledged 500 million euros ($580 million) to support filmmakers in their countries.
Whether the president’s call to collective action will be heeded was far from clear. Entertainment companies tend to go their own way, and even the Paris climate accord was later abandoned by President Trump (twice).
Much of the day was a kind of Davos for the Cannes Film Festival set. Executives and artists held forth about the many challenges to the industry, against the backdrop of a medieval village perched above the French Riviera. Among the 250 or so attendees was the actor George Clooney, the director Costa-Gavras, and senior executives from Netflix, the Walt Disney Company and NBC Universal.
The turnout of Americans was a sensitive subject for the organizers, given the upheaval in Hollywood, exemplified by the stalled merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as the role of some technology companies in disrupting the traditional economics of the film industry.
YouTube, the video-sharing service that has become a major rival to film producers and broadcasters, particularly for younger viewers, did not accept an invitation to come, though its owner, Google, was represented. The Chinese-owned social media service TikTok, another competitor, did send an executive.
The conference’s message to Hollywood seemed a polite version of “get your act together.” Given the disproportionate role that the United States still plays in many overseas film markets, the organizers said a healthy American film industry was vital to the health of the industry globally.
“For us in Europe, in Asia, what’s happening with Warner Bros. is significant, because Warner Bros. is one of the biggest studios that truly remains connected at heart with cinema,” said Gaëtan Bruel, the president of the French National Center of Cinema, a public agency that supports France’s film industry.
“What we fear is that tomorrow, we might have less movies from the U.S.,” Bruel said in an interview. “And why is that a problem? Because in the world, cinema equals American cinema in so many countries.”
France, Bruel noted, remains an exception to America’s cultural dominance. Only about 40 percent of box office sales are for American-made movies, compared with 85 percent in Latin America. Among the biggest hits in French theaters this summer was “De Gaulle,” a two-part epic about the World War II leader Charles de Gaulle.
For Macron, holding this conference — the first of its kind in recent memory — was a statement of intent for France as a film nation. Macron reminded the audience that cinema was born in France in 1895 when two brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière, showed 10 short films in a Paris basement.
South Korea, the organizers said, had followed France’s model to develop its film industry, which made it a natural partner. It also underscored how, at a time of American disengagement under the Trump administration, Europe is seeking deeper links with other regions.
Still, the organizers were careful not to criticize President Trump. They noted that his support for federal tax credits for movie production looked sensible to European governments. The Motion Picture Association of America, a lobbying group, signed on to a four-page declaration calling for a multilateral approach to defending the industry. Charles Rivkin, the association’s chairman, attended the meeting but declined an interview, pleading a busy schedule.
France’s €500 million pledge to its film industry is not without trade-offs. The French government has cut funding to other performing arts, including theaters, operas and orchestras. Organizers said some of that increased funding for film would come from funds that could have gone to those institutions.
For Macron, saving cinema dovetails with another cherished cause: the threat posed to young people by social media. France recently passed a law, later partly struck down by its highest court, that would restrict access to social media platforms to anyone under age 15.
“Our identities are narratives,” Macron said, ready material to be captured in stories. But he warned that the endless flow of attention-grabbing images in modern media “will end up digesting the works.”
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