Wolf (AFM): "Rome will soon become one of the 10 most important festivals"
Jonathan Wolf – Managing Director of the American Film Market and Executive Vice President of the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), has no doubts: "The RomeFilmFest will become one of 10 most important festivals in a short period of time. But there will be no conflict with us".
Interviewed first by the RomeFilmFest then by the biweekly Le Stanze del Cinema (IMAIE), Wolf confirmed that Rome is an enormously important festival, "above all because of the large city in which it takes place and the great investment in it".
With regard to the conflict between the festival’s market and AFM, Wolf maintained that "our event has always come after various festivals, such as Toronto, Venice and Montreal, and there has never been any problem".
Today marks the last day of the Business Street, a meeting place for the buying and selling of film rights. Many applied for accreditation at the last minute: last Saturday, there were 230 international buyers and sellers and approximately 250 form Italy, but those numbers have gone up since the market’s inauguration.
Accredited guests include noteworthy companies such as Trust Film, Celluloid, The Works, Summit, Media Asia, Fortissimo, TF1, Bavaria, New Line Cinema, Filmax International, Beyond, Film Distribution, Pyramide, Gaga, Weinstein Co., Nordisk Film, Arte Francia Cinèma, Concorde Filmverleih, Senator Entertainment, Asahi Shimbun, Asmik Ace Entertainment, Non Stop Sales, Channel Four Television, Pathe Entertainment and the Sundance Channel.
Naturally, all of the Italian companies that sell internationally are also present – including Adriana Chiesa Enterprise, Intramovies and RAI Trade – as are various Italian buyers: Medusa, RAI Cinema, BIM Distribution, Mikado, Lucky Red and Istituto Luce.
This first edition focused greatly on individual video screenings, made possible by the sellers’ video libraries. According to organizers, however, there is greater demand for film rather than digital screenings: "We must rethink this aspect and increase the number of 35mm screening posts for next year".
(Translated from Italian)
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