Donald Trump's threat of tariffs on foreign-made films risks stoking tensions between the European and American film industries and dominating conversations at the Cannes film festival this week, reports FRANCE 24.
The US president has added a trade war to the sector's list of concerns that already included competition from streaming platforms.
The already tricky commercial outlook for big-screen owners and film producers darkened considerably last Sunday when Trump said he wanted 100-percent tariffs on movies "produced in foreign lands".
Even if most observers think the proposal is unworkable, it risks destabilising an industry that is highly globalised and depends on open trade.
"It'll be one of the big issues in Cannes," said Eric Marti from US-based media measurement agency Comscore.
He said statements from another American leader – the co-CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos – had also focused minds.
Sarandos said recently that cinema-going was "an outmoded idea for most people", pointing to the fact that audience numbers worldwide have not rebounded since the Covid pandemic.
The festival in Cannes from Tuesday will see directors, actors and distributors try to make sense of Trump's intentions and those of his Hollywood advisors, actors Jon Voight, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone.
"We're a bit perplexed," Marti told AFP. "We don't know how it's going to work in practice."
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.