4,700 Filmmakers Urge EU to Halt Creative Europe Overhaul
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- The open letter, signed by 4,700+ film personalities, calls on the EU to abandon its AgoraEU proposal to combine Creative Europe's culture and media strands, with Cannes-bound directors Pawel Pawlikowski, Lukas Dhont, and Rodrigo Sorogoyen leading the appeal.
- The MEDIA program, which has backed Oscar winners including "Anatomy of a Fall," "The Favourite," "Flow," "Sentimental Value" and "Mr Nobody Against Putin," would see its budget restructured from €2.44 billion (2021-2027) into a €3.2 billion (2028-2034) MEDIA+ pool that also funds news media.
- Signatories including Juliette Binoche, Ruben Östlund, Yorgos Lanthimos, Stellan Skarsgård, Sandra Hüller, Vicky Krieps, Francis Ford Coppola, and Michel Hazanavicius warn the merger offers "no guarantee of dedicated funding" for film, audiovisual, and cultural diversity.
- The letter's timing is calibrated to EU Commissioner Henna Virkkunen's expected May 15-16 appearance at Cannes, coinciding with EU Member States preparing their first official position on the proposal.
- The signatories frame the stakes in civilizational terms, writing that "the destiny of democracy and that of cinema, both born in Europe, are intimately linked" and that Europe's cinema story must be written "with even greater ambition."
Why it matters: The signatories aren't fighting a cut — the proposed €3.2 billion MEDIA+ pot is larger than the current €2.44 billion. The actual fight is structural: merging film funding with news media dilutes the ring-fenced audiovisual budget that has backed arthouse hits and Oscar winners for 35 years. With 4,700 names and a Cannes platform aimed at Commissioner Virkkunen, the campaign lands at the precise moment EU member states form their first official negotiating position.
