09/05/2014 - The third edition of the Venice Film Market launches a new platform intended to support European producers

Following the second edition, which showed a 25% increase in the number of distributors, producers and sales agents attending the market as well as films presented, the third edition of the Venice Film Market (28 August – 2 September 2014) of the 71st Venice Film Festival (Lido, 27 August – 6 September 2014), directed by Alberto Barbera, continues its development and launches a new initiative, the Venice European Gap-Financing Co-production Market, which will take place on 29 and 30 August 2014. 

The Venice European Gap-Financing Co-production Market is a new platform intended to help European producers to secure the final financing for their projects through one-to-one meetings with potential and appropriate international professionals.

The main criterion in order to participate in this original event is to have 70% of the financing in place, and the VFM will offer 16 selected projects (eight European and eight Italian) the unique opportunity to close their international financing through selected financiers, producers, distributors, sales agents and film funds.

The call for projects opens on 9 May, and the submission deadline is 20 June. The regulations, submissions procedure and the application form are available here.   

A special Italian Industry Focus will also be organised this year and will emphasise the internationalisation of the Italian industry with specific networking sessions, panels and events involving international and Italian professionals.

The Venice Film Market of the 71st Venice International Film Festival will partner with and strengthen the Industry Office, which in turn will continue to function as it has in past years throughout the entire Venice Film Festival, offering many services to its guests.

The 2013 edition of the VFM clearly showed a very positive increase in the number of professionals attending the market, with 246 key distributors and 86 key sales agents. In addition, some 1,400 professionals, including producers, film commissions and institutions, exhibitors, film festivals, etc, attended the Venice Film Market from 58 countries.

The general feedback from the industry is that this Market is the perfect place for networking and fits seamlessly with the programming of the festival, proving that Venice is once again becoming a rendez-vous to add to the professional agenda.

(Translated from Italian)