'The last time I was at the Festival was in 1957,' recalls US juror Fred Gronich, 'although I have had many things to do in Germany. I even organised a party for about 1200 people with wine I bought from my landlord in Wiesbaden!
'I always had to avoid being on a jury because of my work for the Motion Picture Association of America. I was one of the people who helped put together Deauville's Festival of American Cinema. My responsiblities covered film, TV, and video, but we used to do a lot to encourage the national industries across Europe, and the classic example is the UK, where I helped introduce the concept of multiplexes to regenerate film-going. But my primary interest was not distribution but production.'
Of Austrian family, but born in the States, Gronich came into the business after military service. 'I got a job with RKO in 1946, devising a training programme for myself, and came to Europe for the MPAA around 1952, first in Frankfurt and then in Paris. I became concerned with areas of transition, of film to television, to cassette and to cable, and how every one of those transitions would have an impact on the business. But film has always survived. Now I'm retired, my wife and I travel between homes in New York, California and Israel.' Phillip Bergson
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