Can cinema be a vehicle for European values?

Can films help consolidate the idea of European identity, and will the cinema survive contemporary financial and technological challenges?

These questions were at the forefront of discussions leading to this year's edition of the Lux Film Prize - the European Parliament's own film awarding ceremony, which shortlists three European films annually to be voted on by MEPs.

This year, the Belgian bluegrass music and child death drama The Broken Circle Breakdown, directed by Felix van Groeningen, took home the top prize, beating off competition from the Italian euthanasia thriller Miele (a directorial debut for veteran actress Valeria Golino) and British 'social realist fable' The Selfish Giant, directed by Clio Barnard.

On awarding the Lux Film Prize to van Groeningen at the European Parliament last Wednesday, President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz said that the Parliament continues to hold the award because it deems films important to European culture.

"These filmmakers don't need politicians. But the fact is, we need them. We need them to show us what people are feeling," Schluz said.

Perhaps understandably, a seminar organised - hours before van Groeningen picked up the Prize - focused on how film could potentially strengthen European values and provide an idiosyncratic artistic framework for the continent.

"We're facing a real danger here. What if all people know about is the US judicial system, and what if the only social realities they're familiar with are those related to the Bronx in New York?" Xavier Troussard, head of unit for Creative Europe asked at the tail end of a panel discussion on film distribution.

It's certainly a loaded question. If we're to take the globalization of American cinema for granted, how is European cinema to stand out, particularly when faced with the financial recession and - as an adjunct challenge - the rise of new technologies.

Troussard said that one the most significant challenges facing European films is the need to "transform the appetite for cinema into a real opportunity", in light of the fact that "audience behaviour" is changing.

Speaking about the recent phenomenon of 'Video on Demand' - which allows viewers to legally stream recent films and television shows - Troussard, however said this should not be viewed as an 'El Dorado' option for fledgling cinemas and film distributors.

"Instead, we need to look for ways in which we can 'editorialise' our content," he said.

Addressing an audience of international students - as well as youths forming part of 28xCinema, an initiative aimed to encourage the dissemination of and discussion about European cinema - chair of the EP Committee of Culture and Education Doris Pack recounted an anecdote which summed up the way the LUX Film Prize is perceived by fellow parliamentarians, while also foregrounding its overarching mission.

"I had a bit of a conflict with an unpleasant British colleague recently," Pack said.

"He complained about being asked to watch and vote for the films ahead of the Lux Prize. 'Can I vote against the Lux Prize being held again?', he told me. I replied that he should have watched The Selfish Giant in order to see what is actually happening in his country," Pack said, in reference to Clio Barnard's film, the story of two young people living on the edge of poverty in contemporary Bradford, England.

Asked whether European cinema has a distinct identity, Valeria Golino, director of Miele, said that while she didn't have any concrete words to describe the exact qualities that make European cinema distinctive, she was still convinced that there is something special about the continent's cinematic produce.

"There is a strange freedom of expression among European filmmakers; a freedom of thought that isn't rhetorical or tied to 'television-style' methods of storytelling. This is what I ultimately look up to, and what I want to be like as a director," Golino said.