Source: The Hollywood Reporter
""Toy Story"" Marks A Digital First For Europe
French cinema entered the 21st century Wednesday, February 3, 2000, with Europe's first ever public digital film screening, Disney/Pixar's ""Toy Story 2."" Phil Barlow, Vice President of Walt Disney Motion Pictures, attended the premiere at Gaumont's 14-screen Aquaboulevard multiplex in south Paris, the first cinema in Europe to be equipped with a digital video projector. The new technology that will see an end to degradation in quality and bulky film spools, has already been seen in the States, where the first film ever to be digitally projected, ""Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace"" screened in four pioneering American cinemas in June last year. Jean-Louis Renoux, managing director of Gaumont Cinemas, said the Aquaboulevard theater would host four or five digital projections this year, including one French movie.