Juliette Binoche, Francis Ford Coppola Joachim Trier, Ruben Östlund, Stellan Skarsgård, Sandra Hüller and Vicky Krieps have joined calls for the European Union “to future-proof” the bloc’s 35-year MEDIA program which has supported thousands of films over the years. They are among more than 4,700 cinema professionals to have signed an open letter entitled “ Europe needs cinema, Cinema needs Europe”. It has been published as EU Member states discuss plans for a controversial new mega-program bannered AgoraEU which will bring spending for culture, media and civil society under one umbrella. The move has set alarm bells ringing across the independent European film industry. Under the proposal, the MEDIA program will be merged into a new Media+ strand combining support for film and audiovisual industries with that for video games, news media and journalism.…