Yellow Affair takes first steps in Toronto

13/09/2010

The fledgling international sales company Yellow Affair, headed by former NonStop Sales executive Miira Paasilinna, is introducing at the Toronto International Film Festival (September 9-19) its first full line-up of titles including Sweden’s Sebbe [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], one of the 46 European films shortlisted for the EFA nominations 2010.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

With offices in Stockholm and Helsinki, Yellow Affair is part of the Finnish media group Yellow Film & TV which comprises eight companies, including Helsinki Filmi, one of Finland’s most active production outfits. The sales outfit handles half a dozen films a year from the mother company’s various subsidiaries, plus other pick-ups.

Paasilinna stresses that Yellow Affair offers a different business model than her competitors and is more a partner to producers than a pure sales representative. “Although we do not offer co-financing, we get involved as early as possible on a project and share risks, which means that a producer can get something back from the first sales revenue. As we share risks, we select only films that we feel have a market potential,” she stressed.

Aware of the shift from the tradition sales market with cinema distributors’ minimum guarantees to multiple deals on various distribution platforms, Paasilinna said she works very hard from the script stage through the various phrases of a film. Her company has received support from the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation to create an online screening facility and distribution platform.

In Toronto, Yellow Affair will screen Dome Karukoski’s comedy Lapland Odyssey in the Contemporary World Cinema sidebar. Another eight films on the company’s line-up are: Babak Najafi’s Sebbe (winner of Best Debut Film at Berlin), Finnish film Playground [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Irish film Parked, Czech/German/Slovakian co-production Three Seasons in Hell [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Hungarian black comedy The Children of the Green Dragon (which will premiere in Pusan), as well as three documentaries, including Like a Pasha (produced by Atmo in Sweden).