Brussels, 01/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - During a press conference in Venice on the occasion of the 60th edition of the Film Festival, European Culture Commissioner Viviane Reding presented a first Cinedays 2003 programme that is to unfold from 10-24 October throughout the EU. This is the second time the festival is held, a press release from the Commission spokesperson recalls (see EUROPE of 19 September and 15 November 2002). The official opening of Cinedays 2003 will be held in Brussels on 9 October and the Italian EU Presidency will organise the closing ceremony on 24 October in Rome.
Ms Reding thus pointed out that 300 partners (cinemas, televisions, etc.) have announced they will be taking part in this 2003 edition. Several European television channels (SAT 1 in Germany, ARTE in France and Germany, BBC 4 in the United Kingdom, TVE in Spain, Italian RAI and the Mediaset channels in Italy) have pledged to put European films and programmes on. A special effort will also be made by several film archives including Narodni Filmovy Archiv (Czech Republic), Deutsches Filminstitut (Germany), the film archives of the Basque country, Andalusia, the Canary Islands and the Extremadura, the Lorient multimedia centre (France), the Museo Nazionale des Cinema in Turin and the National Archive of Wales. Cinedays 2003 will also have the support of two networks, UGC and Europa Cinemas. "(For more details see http: //http://www.cineuropa.org/index.asp?lang=en ).