New ways of financing and effective distribution for the film industry: 19-22 May 2007International filmmakers can benefit from a growing range of tax incentives and public funds as well as from newly established private equity funds. By integrating brands into their film they can create valuable cross promotion effects, relieving their budget, while Video on Demand platforms enable them to distribute their films worldwide to targeted audiences.International experts will help you to stay on top ...

IT's life! L'événement 2007 vous invite à plonger dans l'univers des loisirs numériques, avec convivialité, proximité, échanges et simplicité. Découvrez les produits et les usages des nouvelles technologies avec l'aide des marques présentes sur l'événement. Entrez dans un lieu unique, un lounge, un espace de rencontres entre ceux qui imaginent, conçoivent les produits et solutions numériques et ceux qui les utilisent et les utiliseront. Pour sa première éditio...

The continued expansion of film festivals and their financial by public authorities is well known. There are clear economic and political benefits derived from investing in cultural events since more visitors come to the venue of the festival and the local economy through expenditures on lodging, meals, local products and other leisure activities. Further, for the arts is an appealing political activity since there are no controversies involved and provides prestige for t...

As a response to the several inquiries that I have received, this article provides additional information following my December 15 background essay on the emerging field of film festival tourism. As noted before, film festival tourism is part of the rapidly expanding cultural tourism industry that serves a fairly affluent and knowledgeable audience. Conversely, local or national departments of tourism have realized that attracting cultural film tourists generates additional income for the local ...

In 2005, the Festival de Cannes created the Atelier de la Cinéfondation, a programme which aims to help young filmmakers bring their film project to fruition.For its third edition, the Atelier de la Cinéfondation has selected 15 directorial projects from 15 different countries. The talent of these filmmakers has stood out at international film events, and they will attend the next Festival in order to finalise the financing of their respective films.In the spirit of the Festival de Cannes, thi...

Friday, February 16-----The Berlinale Keynotes , a new information initiative launched this year by the Berlin Film Festival organization, got off to a successful start. Over 300 distinguished international industry representatives, invited by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the Berlin International Film Festival, came together to watch the new event format at the Ritz-Carlton, Berlin. The first edition focused on the future of the film industry in the digital age, in of technology, con...

Tuesday, February 13----Actress-turned-director Julie Delpy's TWO DAYS IN PARIS, which had its world premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival a few days ago, has been purchased for North American rights. The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment have announced the t acquisition of the film, which they are planning to release in the US and Canada this coming summer. TWO DAYS IN PARIS is a romantic comedy about a French woman photographe...

Monday, February 12----The International Film Festival Summit (IFFS), the first international conference for film festival directors, programmers, fundraisers and sponsors held on the European continent, hosted a reception today at the Vox Bar at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in the heart of Potsdamer Platz, the nerve center for the Berlin Film Festival. IFFS made a number of exciting announcements at the event, for both the International Film Festival Summit Europe, to be held on April 18, 2007 at the ...

Sunday, February 11----Arts Alliance Media (AAM), a UK company that is leading the charge on the creation of digital cinema networks in the UK and the rest of Europe, is the leading sponsor for the European Film Market (EFM). This successful collaboration will culminate next year with the company serving as the exclusive main partner of the EFM. “With Arts Alliance Media, we have found the ideal partner for digital film services,” comments EFM director Beki Probst. The London-based compan...

Friday, February 9----As the hooplah from last evening's Gala Opening Night has died down, it is now time for the Berlinale to get serious about the business of international film. After several days of preparation, the European Film Market opens this morning, shattering previous records of attendance, exhibition booths and films to be screened. With the changes in the industry calendar of the past few years, the EFM has become an indispensable place for sellers to hawk their wares and for buy...

Saturday, January 27----A series of "last minute" deals were announced in the past 24 hours that have made this Sundance a very positive one for film buyers and sellers. While there will undoubtedly be more announcements in the coming days, these acquisition pick-ups underscores the Festival's growing importance as not only a treasure trove of American indies, but of international fare as well. This was evident with the announcement that ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS, a Danish documentary by Eva Mulva...

Friday, January 26---On the eve of the Festival's closing weekend, several impressive distribution deals have been announced, which have made this one of the more active Festivals in recent years. In light of the box office and awards bonanza of the little-film-that-could LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (a Sundance pick-up last year for Fox Searchlight), acquisition execs have been aggressive in snatching up films with equal potential. Of course, whether these were wise decisions that will pay off hands...

Thursday, January 25----Deals are coming fast and furious as the Sundance Film Festival enters its final weekend. While some acquisition execs will be waiting to see what American and international titles win jury and audience awards, the activity has been brisk with more deals announced in the past 48 hours of various films that have world premiered at the Festival. ONCE, a tender Irish romantic musical comedy by John Carney, has sold worldwide rights to sales company Summit Entertainment. O...

Tuesday, January 23----A slew of acquisition pick-ups have accelerated as the Sundance Film Festival heads into its final days before the announcement of its awards on Saturday evening. Talks of bidding wars, all night negotiation sessions and aggressive kibitzing have generated alot of buzz in indie circles, with more announcements expected in the coming days. Among the prominent deals announced, Paramount Vantage, the newly formed specialty arm of Hollywood major Paramount Pictures, has pi...

Monday, January 22----In one of the few deals announced here for a fiction feature (documentaries have been getting all the action so far), The Weinstein Company has announced its acquisition of worldwide rights to GRACE IS GONE, screening in the US Dramatic Film Competition here. The film, directed by James C. Strouse, stars John Cusack in a departure from his useful laconic screen self, as a father who is overwhelmed when he gets news that his wife has been killed in the Iraq War. The film ...

Monday, January 22----European Film Promotion, the pan-European organization that represents all the individual film promotion agencies in Europe, is lending financial and marketing for eleven European films that are screening at the Sundance Film Festival. Film Sales (FSS), the European Film Promotion sales initiative, is backing the promotion of 8 European feature films and 3 documentaries screening here this week. Begun in 2004, FSS is funded by the MEDIA Programme ...

Twenty-five of the best and brightest young actors and actresses from across Europe have today been chosen by European Film Promotion (EFP) as the tenth generation of SHOOTING STARS. In a very special weekend of events commemorating the first highly successful decade of SHOOTING STARS, the up-and-coming talent will be presented to the public together for the first time during the Berlin International Film Festival, 10-12 February 2007. SHOOTING STARS is mainly ed by the MEDIA Programme of...

Monday, January 8-----The National Society of Film Critics (NSFC), one of the most prestigious film critics organizations in North America, has chosen the Spanish-language film PAN’S LABYRINTH as the Best Picture of the Year. The choice of a non-English language film harkens back to the heyday of foreign films in the 1960s and 1970s, when the films of Truffaut, Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa were given the Society’s highest accolade. In fact, all top three vote-getters in the Best Picture c...

Friday, December 29-----In a last farewell nod to the best films of the past year, respected film website IndieWire has announced the results of its first annual Critics Poll. The Romanian drama THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, an emotionally devastating meditation on the thin line between life and death, was the top choice of a group of 100 leading North American film critics. The film, the second feature of director Cristi Puiu, won the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, wa...

Monday, December 25----While most industries take a rare respite during Christmas week, for the film industry it is a frenzied period that is not the least bit sleepy or relaxed. For film distributors, the Christmas-New Year's holiday period has become one of the most essential make-or-break weeks of the year, with Americans (and presumably others) adding movie-going as part of their Holiday celebrations. In other words, after the spate of last minute Christmas shopping, going out to the movie...

Thursday, December 21----If another indication of the growing influence of non-fiction film was needed, the prestigious Sundance Film Festival has decided to open its ten-day celebration of indie and international cinema with a documentary film. CHICAGO 10, a factual and fanciful look at the infamous trial of organizers of the demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in the summer of 1968, a turning point in America’s evaluation of the Vietnam War, will open the Festiv...

Monday, December 18----The marathon of end-of-the-year film nominees continues, with the announcement of the choice by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) of their annual Critics Choice Awards. The Association is the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada, representing 200 television, radio and online critics. Founded in 1995, the BFCA presents its annual Critics Choice Awards each year to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking. The winners will be...