28/03/2014 - The industry sidebar of the Vilnius International Film Festival will focus on the Baltic market and film marketing

As the Vilnius International Film Festival continues on apace, it is preparing to welcome industry guests for the fifth edition of Meeting Point Vilnius, the festival’s industry section, which takes place between 31 March and 3 April.

This year's edition of Meeting Point Vilnius focuses on marketing and promotion. It is aimed at an audience of festival programmers, film producers and others interested in gaining an insight into current developments in the film industry of the Baltic states.

This year’s event will be held in partnership with the Maia Workshops from Italy, with Maia’s programme director, Graziella Bildesheim, in attendance. Another organisation that will be represented and will speak during Meeting Point Vilnius is SOFA – the School of Film Agents – represented by its founder and director, and the Berlinale delegate for Eastern Europe, Nikolaj Nikitin. Other attendees include Álvaro Vega, CEO and founder of DobleSentido, a Spain-based cinema marketing, communication, events and training agency; Mia Bays from Missing in Action Films, a producer with more than 20 years' experience working in film sales, marketing and distribution in the UK; and Peter Buckingham, director of Kube Consultancy, a thinker, strategist and analyst with 30 years' experience in film and media, with a particular focus on connecting audiences with creative work.

Panels and lectures will be moderated by Nick Holdsworth, a British journalist and industry expert with more than 20 years' experience of involvement in the Central and Eastern European film industries.

Running concurrently with the Meeting Point Vilnius industry event, the Baltic Film Market will bring the latest Baltic-region films and works in progress to festival programmers, buyers and agents. Programmers from Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, Sarajevo, Moscow, Transylvania, Minsk, Thessaloniki, Berlin, Gothenburg, Helsinki and other festivals will be among the participants. Furthermore, producers will have the opportunity to visit a range of top Lithuanian locations. Distributors and sales agents from the region – on the lookout for new, interesting projects – are also expected to attend.