Daily Tiger #4 (English)

Page 1

The CineMart team, from left to right: Inke Van Loocke, Jolinde den Haas, David Pope, Jacobine van der Vloed, Tobias Pausinger, Nienke Poelsma, Marit van den Elshout and Emmy Sidiras.

photo: Nadine Maas

Practical effect IFFR Head of Industry & CineMart Marit van den Elshout emphasises that programmes such as Boost! and Art:Film point the way ahead in these financially challenging times. By Nick Cunningham

“We have to take into account that, even though it has always been difficult to finance projects, it is not getting any easier – in fact it is getting much harder”, she underlines. “So we are strict in our selection process. This year, we looked even more at financial plans and at what the projects could achieve here.” Equally, qualifying status was determined by an impressive track record, as in the case of Alex van Warmerdam’s Number Nine (produced by his brother Marc). “With such a well-known director/producer team, we know how they use the fact of being here, that for them it is really the start of the film’s career.” Most meetings

CineMart 2013 presents 33 projects from 31 countries, of which five are in the Art: Film sidebar and another four in Boost! Sixteen projects pitched at CineMarts past are in this year’s IFFR selection, of which three (Guido van Driel’s opening film The Resurrection of a Bastard, Ricky Rijneke’s Silent Ones and Dummy Jim by Matt Hulse) compete in the Hivos Tiger Awards Competition.

Frédérick Pelletier’s Diego Star competes in the inaugural Big Screen Award Competition. Interestingly, a record five Dutch projects are in CineMart selection this year. “Because of the cultural funding situation and because Dutch films are having a difficult time, we wanted to look at what we could do for the Dutch film industry”, Van den Elshout comments. “But then we received such a lot of very good projects from the Dutch and it was very easy for us to select them anyway.” The Dutch selection reads like a who’s who of emerging and established talent, ranging from Boudewijn Koole, whose Kauwboy was the Dutch Academy Foreign-language Oscar submission to David Verbeek (How to Describe a Cloud, Big Screen Award Competition, see page 7), whose CineMart project Dead and Beautiful is, he says, 80% financed. Verbeek notes that success is never guaranteed at co-production markets (given that assurances for co-operation can be offered before home finances are in place), but solid activity is more likely at CineMart than at most other markets. “CineMart is the one that is most tightly organised, that gives you the most meetings, that offers the most interesting partners”, he stresses. Feel the feedback

CineMart debutante Dominga Sotomayor (CineMart project: Tarde para morir joven) picked up a Tiger Award

at IFFR 2012 with De jueves a domingo, which received HBF script and development support. Her producer is CineMart veteran Benjamin Domenech of Argentinean Rei Cine. “I am curious about the (upcoming) experience at CineMart”, explains Sotomayor. “My idea is to meet creative co-producers, to involve people in a project that is still at early script stage. The idea is to make the project a little bit more real and to find the reaction of the people and to see if there is something concrete I can react to in turn. It is essential to feel the feedback at CineMart.” Money on the table

The Art:Film programme (see page 3), co-initiated with the Danish CPH:DOX is designed to marry radical art house cinema and artists’ films with the money. “Of course, over the past few years we have had projects by artists making their first feature, but we needed to get more financial partners to the table”, explains CineMart manager Jacobine van der Vloed. “Last year, we had a big art film panel but at a certain point you are done with the talking and you need to be more practical.” Easy access

In recent years, there has also been a lot of talk also on the subject of transmedia, but this year there are no such projects in CineMart selection. “The stories and the experts and the issues (within transmedia) are the

INTERNATIONAL film festival rotterdam

same and we still remain open to these sort of projects, but I don’t think their content really always reflects the festival’s profile”, Van den Elshout comments. Way forward

Van den Elshout instead emphasises that programmes like Boost! and Art:Film are the way forward and serve to re-enforce the connection with other parts of IFFR, such as the HBF and the programme sections. And of course, the networking possibilities offered by CineMart and IFFR remain a key benefit for attendees, she adds. “We work a lot on making connections within at the festival – the Rotterdam Lab, the consultancy meetings, the Film Office panel programmes that connect the filmmakers in the festival – and in doing so, we try to add value to the films premiering here, and the projects presented at CineMart.” “People come to Rotterdam with an agenda to find new stuff, new films, new installations and new filmmakers to work with and that will always remain the same”, she concludes. “We are a festival that is easy to navigate and where professionals are very accessible. Everything takes place in one building, so CineMart remains an economically interesting way to meet with as many people in as short an amount of time as possible.”


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