Drawing on seminal accounts by four eminent economic geographers, the Introduction provides a preliminary discussion of how space and place can be conceptualised as dynamic discursive constructions that are always in process, never finalised. It then considers the ways in which globalisation, the ‘digital revolution’ and the unprecedented mobility of modern capitalism have made space, place and locality ever more significant, not reducing differences but accentuating them, which has profound consequences for the screen industries. The next section addresses the complexities of ‘Europe’, the unifying framework of this collection, which is, at one and the same time, a geopolitical entity, an ideological concept and an ‘imagined community’. Following Elsaesser (2005), we argue that, despite being a fractured and contested economic and political entity, Europe remains an important conceptual and cultural space which the media industries both shape and are shaped by. We explain the origins of the collection and preview the central concerns of the twelve contributing chapters, identifying the ways in which they provide an enhanced understanding of the spatial complexities of European screen industries. The Introduction ends by explaining how the collection is organised into five interacting sections: Approaches to Studying Locality; Region and Nation; Minority Cultures; Location and Cultural Identity; Centres and Peripheries.