France recently hosted the Lumière Summit, an international gathering focused on the future of cinema, at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Bringing together 200 guests from 55 countries, the summit aimed to address pressing challenges facing the film industry, including a significant drop in cinema attendance—down 40% over five years—as well as the growing influence of artificial intelligence, social media, and the fragmentation of audience attention. French President Emmanuel Macron co-organized the event with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, stressing that the summit's success would depend on forming new partnerships, launching collaborative projects, and fostering ongoing dialogue between sectors that have often operated in isolation. Notably, major American studios such as Sony Pictures and Disney, along with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, did not attend major film festivals like the Venice Film Festival but chose to participate in the Lumière Summit despite the ongoing Hollywood crisis. The National Center for Cinema (CNC), which co-led the summit on the French side, noted the absence of strong leadership from American representatives. However, the event showcased a strong international presence, with cinema exhibitors from Mexico and Australia, the South Korean media giant CJ Group, and ministers of culture from Nigeria and South Africa joining French media executives from Canal+, TF1, France Télévisions, and Mediawan. Executives from Netflix and TikTok attended the summit, but Meta (which owns Instagram) and YouTube were notably absent. These platforms were accused of competing with cinema without contributing to its financial support. The CNC highlighted that the competition is no longer just between streaming services and cinemas but involves a broader landscape of premium content models, including television, streaming, and video games, all facing challenges from low-cost, free platforms. The summit featured discussions with notable figures such as American actor George Clooney and French directors Costa Gavras and Michel Hazanavicius. Martin Scorsese, though not in attendance, sent a message urging the preservation of cinema's artistic freedom and heritage. A major initiative to support independent cinema was also announced, backed by prominent filmmakers like Pedro Almodóvar, Isabelle Huppert, and Jafar Panahi. France plans to create an international fund for creative support, endowed with one billion euros, half of which will be funded by its public investment bank, and the remaining 500 million from South Korea. In an op-ed published in Variety, President Macron called for global efforts to protect cinema's future and warned about the threats to artistic expression posed by the endless scrolling of social media. He emphasized that the screen itself is not the enemy and urged a "renewed multilateralism for animated images," stressing the importance of collaboration between public authorities, private companies, and regions around the world.