The European Union Celebrates Culture: The Case of The European Parliament LUX Prize

In recent years, there has been an upsurge of pan-European institutions, both from within the European Union and outside it, aiming to support European cinema. This article questions what it means to be a ‘European film institution’ in the contemporary film industry at a time when economic, political and cultural turmoil in the wake of the financial crisis affects this identity. The institution studied, the European Parliament LUX Prize, raises questions concerning the role of cultural support mechanisms in the European film industry, the value and the meaning of a shared European culture, and the film medium’s role in the building of a European identity. This article argues that pan-European film initiatives such as the LUX Prize have emerged as a quite distinct space where the negotiation of European cinema and European identities is particularly salient.