26/04/2010

After the success of the workshop held November 13, 2009, on the traditional distribution of documentaries on the international market, Antenna Media Torino – with backing from the Turin Piedmont Film Commission – is working to expand future models, to order to best help filmmakers promote, finance and distribute their films.

The next step is the intensive workshop Film Distribution 2.0 (created in collaboration with the consortium TOP-IX, MAIA Workshops and the Torino Film Lab), on April 27 at Turin’s Cineporto. The event will cover promotion, financing and distribution of films through new business models using social media, email campaigns, merchandising and crowd funding. Participant requests have greatly exceeded organisers’ expectations, proving vast interest in the subject (in its multiple possibilities, from creating databases of “preventative fans” to eliminating some traditional types of expenditure) from filmmakers and production companies throughout Italy.

Illustrating present and future scenarios will be Thomas Mai, a producer and sales agent with over 15 years of experience, during which he was head of sales at Danish company TrustNordisk, and led the Los Angeles-based Katapult Film Sales. Mai is a key player in the distribution of European films (by, among others, Lars von Trier, Lukas Moodysson, Susanne Bier). With his company Festival Darlings, founded in 2009, he has become a direct point of contact between producers and consumers, convinced that today it is impossible not to take advantage of all modes of distribution, from theatrical to DVD and Video on Demand.

Says Mai: “I don’t believe that traditional distribution is still feasible. There is more product than there are buyers, and it’s time for producers to stop thinking in terms of countries and exclusive contracts, and understand that the path to the future means paying attention to all existing platforms for selling films”.

(Translated from Italian)