Cultural Diversity in the German Motion Picture Industry

The study analyses the state of cultural diversity in the motion picture industry in Germany in 2000s. Specific attention is paid to the presence of the Third World cinema productions on the market and to the role of the World Cinema Fund in increasing the degree of diversity. When it comes to the level of product diversification in the film industry, the most influential factors are cinema attendance, the strategy of adjusting supply to the demand, cost consideration and government policies. Arguments such as the preferential treatment of culture – which stem from the legal regulation – or the long-term adaptability of the economy are able to encourage an increase of cultural diversity. Both documentary analysis and content analysis will be used in order to examine the UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the Art. 167 on Culture of the Treaty of Functioning of the European Union and the WCF Booklet 2004-2010. The German film industry has been chosen for a more detailed analysis since the aforementioned factors are particularly visible there. The tradition of government intervention and of regulation of the supply of films to the market is well-rooted. Also, the German audience exhibits a strong home bias in demand. Such a bias appears apart from the popularity of American productions. The World Cinema Fund is an example of an initiative which aims to increase the level of diversity on the film market by supporting both the production of movies in the Third World countries and their distribution to the German market later on. The actual effect of the WCF on the state of cultural diversity in the motion picture industry in Germany is assessed. In order to measure the degree of diversity on the German market for movies, three properties are reached for – variety, balance and disparity – each of them being a necessary but an individually insufficient element to claim diversity in any environment. The higher the variety, balance and disparity are, the more diverse a system is. With the use of those three properties, the degree of diversity is measured firstly on the German market and later on within the WCF set. Every film is considered a unique product; thus, variety stays in ratio with the amount of films available to the audience. Balance is assessed by measuring the market concentration. The methods of the four-firm (CR4) and the eight-firm (CR8) concentration ratio are used for Eva Joanna Kocula vii the analysis of the German market and the group of films selected by the WCF respectively. Disparity is related to dissimilarity and distance between movies. Criteria such as county of origin, region and genre are taken as indicators of such a distance. Finally, analysis of the WCF is compared with the wider context of the German film market.