21/04/2005

This year, for the third time, the European Producers’ Club, directed by Jean Cazès, is organising a Coproduction Forum which will take place at the French Film Commission stand on the 13th of May, in partnership with the Cannes Film Market Producers Network and the Ile de France Film Commission. On the Forum, about twenty producers will present their projects to a highly professional European jury including two Frenchmen, Michel Reilhac (Arte France Cinéma) and Yves Marmion (UGC), David Thompson (BBC Films) from the UK, Raimond Goebel (Pandora) and Ira von Gienanth (Prokino) from Germany, and Antonio Saura (Zebra Producciones) from Spain.

On the next day (Thursday 14th May), a brand new meeting will gather scripwriters. This new event is called the Cannes Screenplay Market ; it was created after the success of its first edition ever, in Strasbourg, during the RISE (European Script-writers’ Meeting) and is supported by the Media Plus Programme, the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), the Procirep, and the French Film Commission. These meetings are a great opportunity for script-writers to promote their work. Indeed, 20 of them, selected on the condition that they have already had one script made into a feature film and distributed, will be able to directly meet experimented (at least two films) potential producers during a series of one-on ones. The event will be followed, on Friday the 15th, by the General Assembly of the European Producers’ Club. This year’s main topic will be the new regulations concerning tax shelters in the Netherlands and in Germany. In the afternoon, some meetings will gather members representing 50 different national professional associations (producers, distributors, and financers).

(Translated from French)