24/08/2006

During the San Sebastian International Film Festival on September 24, The European Producers Club (EPC) will hold a co-production forum open to all European professionals, both members and non-members of the network.

The event will feature a conference on the development of Spanish cinema and co-production opportunities with Spain. The EPC regards the Iberian peninsula as one of the most dynamic territories in terms of international financing with the launch in December 2005 of SGR Audiovisual, set up to assist producers, distributors and other film industry professionals in accessing better bank loan conditions, which now total €12m, along with the recent creation of Mesfilms Inversions, a €6m co-production fund created by the Catalonia Region.

The forum, the twenty-fifth of its kind organised by Jean Cazès of the EPC, will include individual meetings that allow producers to discuss projects selected with their European partners, but also with investors, international sales agents, distributors and television representatives.

The candidate projects will be evaluated by a selection committee that includes France’s Yves Marmion (UGC), Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre (Mact Productions) and Michel Reilhac (Arte France Cinéma); the UK’s David Thompson (BBC Films), Chris Curling (Zephyr Films) and Nik Powell (NFTS); Italy’s Cecilia Valmarana (RAI Cinema) and Sergio Pelone (Film Albatros); Germany’s Raimond Goebel (Pandora Filmproduktion), Ira von Gienanth (Prokino) and Mylada Rybarova (Senator Film); and Spain’s Antonio Saura (Zebra Producciones).

For further information and to register before September 15 (stating with or without project), please email: forums.epc@wanadoo.fr

(Translated from French)