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CANNES 2007 Market wrap-up

Festival films eclipse market (3)

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Films screening only at the Cannes Film Festival Market had a very difficult time, with a few exceptions such as Nordisk’s family thriller The Substitute by Ole Bornedal, sold to six territories including France (Zylo), and Gaumont’s futuristic thriller Chrysalis [+see also:
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by first-time director Julien Leclerq, picked up by 15 territories (including Universum for Germany).

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Business on high budget English-language projects in production or development was brisk, notably for Summit Entertainment, whose sales turnover hit the $100m mark thanks to Roman Polanski’s $135m Pompei, pre-sold for astronomic prizes to large independent distributors.

London-based Handmade Films had an excellent market thanks to its $50m film remake of British classic The Long Good Friday. Paul Anderson’s film, announced at the beginning of the festival, was snapped up by Sony in a multi-territory deal. Myriad Pictures also had a good market with the Catherine Zeta-Jones vehicle Death Defying Acts [+see also:
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sold almost everywhere following a 20-minute promo.

Yet the general feeling from the majority of sellers of non-English language films was that the market has become strongly bipolarized, with on the one hand large A-list titles with star names attached and, on the other, quality arthouse films with crossover potential.

“Everything else in between just doesn’t sell anymore”, noted Thorsten Schaumann of Bavaria Film International. “It’s just too risky and too costly for distributors as less and less cinemas are available for those films without a reputation built at a festival or stars attached. The competition is stronger also from other territories such as Latin American or the Eastern European countries. We are losing a whole generation of cinemagoers in terms of arthouse education.

“It is sad, but at the same time challenging as we have to adapt and understand what to do to reach our audience. We have to be more precise, get directors involved in this thinking process. VoD and Internet revenues are not very high yet, but will be in a near future and represent an opportunity to reach audiences. But those new distribution windows should still be combined with a cinema release that represents a unique promotional tool“.

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