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Issue 1775 May 2014

The first dance Cannes 2014 world premieres

â&#x2013; Northern Ireland territory focus â&#x2013; Future leaders in sales and distribution

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International Film Finance Forum on May 16, 2014 at the Intercontinental Carlton Hotel in Cannes. Our half-day program will address international issues such as worldwide sales and distribution strategies; global film finance resources; risk mitigation across borders; fighting for a new French cinema; and bracing for technology impact.

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Agents of change

UK office MBI, Zetland House 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ Tel: +44 (0) 20 3033 4267 US office 8581 Santa Monica Blvd, #707, West Hollywood, CA 90069 E-mail: firstname.lastname@screendaily.com (unless stated) Editorial Editor Wendy Mitchell +44 (0) 20 3033 2816 US editor Jeremy Kay +1 310 922 5908 jeremykay67@gmail.com News editor Michael Rosser +44 (0) 20 3033 2720 Chief critic and reviews editor Mark Adams +44 7841 527 505 Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray +44 (0) 20 3033 2817 Group art director, MBI Peter Gingell +44 (0) 20 3033 4203 peter.gingell@mb-insight.com Chief reporter Andreas Wiseman +44 (0) 20 3033 2848 Asia editor Liz Shackleton, lizshackleton@gmail.com Contributing editors Sarah Cooper, Leon Forde, John Hazelton, Louise Tutt Contributing reporter Ian Sandwell Advertising and publishing Commercial director Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 Sales manager Scott Benfold +44 (0) 20 3638 5050 Sales manager Nadia Romdhani (maternity leave) UK, South Africa, Middle East Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 France, Spain, Portugal, Latin America, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Scott Benfold +44 (0) 20 3638 5050 Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux, Eastern Europe Gunter Zerbich +44 (0) 20 3033 2930 Italy, Asia, India Ingrid Hammond +39 05 7829 8768 ingridhammond@libero.it VP business development, North America Nigel Daly +1 323 654 2301 / 213 447 5120 nigeldalymail@gmail.com Production manager Jonathon Cooke +44 (0) 20 3033 4296 jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com Group commercial director, MBI Alison Pitchford +44 (0) 20 3033 2949 alison.pitchford@mb-insight.com Subscription customer service +44 (0) 1604 828 706 help@subscribe.screendaily.com Festival and events manager Mai Le +44 (0) 20 3033 2950 mai.le@mb-insight.com Sales administrator Justyna Zieba +44 (0) 20 3033 2694 justyna.zieba@mb-insight.com Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam +44 (0) 20 3033 2717 conor.dignam@mb-insight.com Screen International is part of Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI), also publisher of Broadcast and shots

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WENDY MITCHELL EDITOR

few years ago I started editing nearly every reference Screen writes about sellers, changing ‘sales agent’ to ‘sales company’ or ‘sales executive’. That’s because in the past decade or so it’s become clear that anyone smart working in sales isn’t just the old-fashioned ‘sales agent’ of yore who comes on board a finished film and contacts a few buyers and moves on to the next one. Sales executives today often get involved so early in a film’s inception that they are de facto development executives, executive producers… or sometimes more like guardian angels. They aren’t used-car salesmen. Speaking to many top film sellers, you realise quite a few of them are longtime passionate cinephiles as well. And they’re involved long after a deal memo is signed — not only dealing with materials for theatrical releases but also now navigating the tricky world of VoD platforms and complicated digital releases. As HanWay’s Chiara Gelardin says, “I’ve learnt that this job is not just about the sales, but also finessing and nurturing the whole life of the film.” In this issue we once again profile the young executives we consider to be the future leaders in sales and distribution. It wasn’t just a chance to showcase them to the industry, but also to talk to them about their concerns for the future. They worry about a glut of product in the market, the struggles to sell straightforward dramas, tough times for art-

house cinema at the box office across the world, the unpredictability of audiences, the lack of diversity on screen, and the competition from exceptional television. There is even political unrest to deal with. More than ever sales executives have to understand the changing markets and how film lovers want to consume movies across the world. They need to think about not just the distributors they sell to, but also the end consumers those distributors are trying to reach. Imagina’s Guillermina Ortega says, “The most important thing is to listen a lot to your customer and know exactly what they’re looking for… I think that every film has a potential audience and my job is to find it.” Tania Sarra from Carnaby International adds, “You must approach each film like a buyer; whether that be a client distributor or the end consumer.” And ARRI’s Moritz Hemminger says, “It’s important to establish healthy client relationships, to increase loyalty and to build long-term value with producers and distributors… this is by far the better strategy than going for the quickest deal to simply cash in.” It’s that long-term approach that is essential for these future leaders building strong careers in the decades to come. In the middle of all their wheeling and dealing, networking and screenings, we look forward to celebrating with these dynamic industry games changers in Cannes. ■

Going west Ahead of Cannes, I spoke to Denmark-born, London-based director Kristian Levring about The Salvation, his western that premieres as a Midnight Screening at the festival. The Dogme veteran sounded like an excited young boy telling me about this “Danish western” (it feels more like a straight American western, even though Mads Mikkelsen does indeed play a Danish settler in 1870s America). Levring grew up in Denmark watching black-and-white cowboy films on Saturday afternoons, so making his own, he says, “is a childhood dream come true... It’s like playing again, being a boy.” The men on the set — Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mikael Persbrandt and Eric Cantona — also seemed to relive their own childhood cowboy fantasies. “They loved all the boots and guns,” Levring says, with a laugh. “One actor — I won’t say which one — said, ‘Now I understand why America won’t get rid of its gun laws.” The director has worked with a lot of animals on commercials shoots, but found The Salvation’s equine stars challenging. Not to mention the difficulties getting a diverse cast to ride. “They did their own riding. Some were better than others,” he adds with a laugh. ■ The full interview will run in Screen’s Cannes dailies.

The Salvation

May 2014 Screen International 1

CONTENTS

May 2014 cover image Cannes Competition title Jimmy’s Hall. Cannes festival focus, from page 21

International correspondents Asia

Liz Shackleton lizshackleton@gmail.com Australia Sandy George +61 2 9557 7425 sandy.george@me.com Balkan region Vladan Petkovic +381 64 1948 948 vladan.petkovic@gmail.com Brazil Elaine Guerini +55 11 97659915 elaineguerini@terra.com.br France Melanie Goodfellow +33 6 21 45 80 27 melanie.goodfellow@btinternet.com Germany Martin Blaney +49 30 318 063 91

screen.berlin@googlemail.com Greece Alexis Grivas +30 210 64 25 261 alexisgrivas@yahoo.com Israel Edna Fainaru +972 3 5286 591

May 2014

dfainaru@netvision.net.il Korea/deputy Asia editor Jean Noh +82 10 4205 0318 hjnoh2007@gmail.com Nordic territories Jorn Rossing Jensen +45 202 333 04 jornrossing@aol.com Scotland Allan Hunter +44 (0) 7904 698 848 allan@alhunter.myzen.co.uk Spain

Analysis

People

Territory focus

4 IS FRANCE STILL A CINEPHILE NATION?

6 AN EPIC ADVENTURE

48 THE GAME CHANGER

Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson on how Epic Pictures builds a diverse slate on the back of undead beavers and giant spiders

Screen looks at how Northern Ireland is continuing to grow its infrastructure and crews, while building up its local film-making industry

8 RATCHETING UP SALES

50 PREPARED FOR BATTLE

Cinema Management Group’s Ed Noeltner tells Screen about the company’s evolution and its success with independent animations

Northern Ireland Screen plans to place the territory at the forefront of the UK industry

14 CROISETTE COMEBACK

Northern Ireland offers low costs, studio space and great locations — and that’s before the expansion of Titanic Studios

France has long been a model of cinema-going culture. But with a box-office drop in 2013, a dip in local production and cinema audiences getting older, Screen looks at the future of film culture in the digital age

Juan Sarda +34 646 440 357 jsardafr@hotmail.com UK Geoffrey Macnab +44 (0) 20 7226 0516 geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk Subscriptions Screen International Subscriptions Department, 3 Queensbridge, The Lakes, Northampton NN4 7BF Tel +44 1604 828 706 E-mail help@subscribe.screendaily.com Screen International ISSN 0307 4617 All currencies in this issue converted according to exchange rates that applied in May 2014

2 Screen International May 2014

10 THE STAGE IS SET Malaysia’s burgeoning film industry gets a huge boost with next month’s opening of Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios

21 CANNES FESTIVAL FOCUS Previews of the world premieres across the 2014 Cannes Film Festival

35 FUTURE LEADERS: SALES AND DISTRIBUTION The dynamic, inspiring executives who will be driving the sector in exciting times ahead

Former Gaumont and EuropaCorp exec Pierre-Ange Le Pogam is in Cannes with his fledgling company Stone Angels and opening night film Grace Of Monaco

16 THE FRENCH COLLECTION Despite increasing pressures on the funding of their films, France’s producers are bringing an exciting selection of projects to Cannes

52 THE NEXT STAGE

54 THE TALENT POOL Some of Northern Ireland’s hottest creative film talents tell Screen about their latest projects

Regulars 56 REVIEWS

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IN FOCUS FRENCH CINEMA

Is France still a cinephile nation? France has long been a model of cinema-going culture. But with a box-office drop in 2013, a dip in local production and cinema audiences getting older, Melanie Goodfellow looks at the future of film culture in the digital age When news of the plan broke in France some commentators said it sounded the death knell for the country’s media chronology legislation, which is one of the cornerstones of its envied film finance and distribution system.

Gaspar Noé

bel Ferrara’s Welcome To New York — starring Gérard Depardieu in a role inspired by the downfall of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn — is one of the most anticipated films of the year in France. Yet this buzz won’t be building in cinemas. Wild Bunch announced in April it will premiere the film on VoD in France. The move challenges the territory’s media chronology law that demands a four-month window between cinema and VoD release (and 36 months between theatrical and SVoD). It also means the picture won’t be in cinemas. “France is one of the only countries in the world where it’s against the law to show it on VoD and in the cinema at the same time,” says Wild Bunch co-chief Vincent Maraval. “The French media chronology laws are idiotic. They were created prior to the internet age and are anachronistic.” The company plans a $1m promotional campaign, kicking off with an event on the fringes of Cannes Film Festival attended by Ferrara and Depardieu, followed by the VoD release in France and across Europe. “We have the biggest cinema theatre in the world, it’s called the internet,” says Maraval.

‘The French media chronology laws are idiotic. They were created prior to the internet age and are anachronistic’ Vincent Maraval, Wild Bunch

FRANCE’S BOX-OFFICE REBOUND After a difficult year at the French box office in 2013, in which audiences fell by 10 million, or 5.3%, the market appears to be on the rebound. National Cinema Centre (CNC) figures for the first three months of the year showed an 18.6% increase at the box office for the January 1 to March 31 period year-on-year for a total of 56.3 million admissions. But perhaps the most encouraging news for the French film industry is that the local share of the market came in at an estimated 46.7% in the first quarter of the year, against 40.5% over the same period in 2013. The overall share of the market for French films fell to 33.3% in 2013 against 40.3% in 2012 and 40.9% in 2011. The rebound in the French share of the market has been spurred by a series of successful local comedies, led by Dany Boon’s Superchondriac, in which the star plays a fortysomething hypochondriac. The film drew more than 5 million spectators and marks a comeback for the star after the disappointing performance of his last picture, Eyjafjallajokull, in 2013. Other French films drawing local audiences included multiculturalism comedy Serial (Bad) Weddings (Qu’est-ce Qu’on A Fait Au Bon Dieu? ), The Date Coach (Fiston), starring Kev Adams and Franck Dubosc, and The Three Brothers Are Back (Les Trois Freres, Le Retour), a sequel to the 1995 hit The Three Brothers.

4 Screen International May 2014

Other challenges But the move comes at a tough time for the French film industry on a number of fronts. “The cinema industry is always going through change and you just have to keep adapting but there’s been a perfect storm of two economic factors and one structural one over the last 12 months,” says producer Marie Masmonteil of Paris-based Elzevir, who is also president of France’s Syndicate of Independent Producers (SPI). The economic challenges, she says, comprise last year’s 10 million dip in spectators at the box office, to 192.8 million from 203.6 Welcome To New York million, and the introduction of a collective labour accord for crew that has upped proSVoD. We’re lobbying hard for the duction costs at a time when funding is tight. 36-month window to be retained, rather “A number of commercial French films than reduced to 18 or 24 months as some flopped last year, which has made distribuare suggesting,” she says. “It’s vital the tors wary of investing in local productions,” broadcasters come before the streaming says Masmonteil, noting the French share of services.” Not least, she notes, because paythe market fell to some 31% in 2013 against TV operator Canal Plus, state channels and 41% the year before. private stations such as TF1 and M6 pro“Added to this the ‘collective convention’ vide some $485.5m (¤350m) worth of has bumped up costs on lower-budget films finance, while the likes of Netflix and Amaby $278,000 (¤200,000) to $416,000 zon put nothing into French content. (¤300,000). It’s unlikely we would have green-lit any of our recent films under the Cinema’s draw new accord,” adds Masmonteil, who proVeteran distributor and producer Jean duced Un Certain Regard opener Party Labadie of Paris-based Le Pacte, meanGirl alongside Elzevir partner Denis while, doubts Wild Bunch’s initiaCarot. tive will radically change media French production is down by chronology. 50% year on year, adds Masmon“It works for that film teil, who predicts there are 180 to because it’s a very particular 200 local films to be made this case and doesn’t involve any year against some 270 in 2013. French broadcasters,” he Media chronology is also says of Welcome To New York, an issue, although she notes it which is produced out of the is not so much VoD as SVoD, US. which is her syndicate’s chief He also holds that the concern. French still love to see films in “We’re not so worried about Superchondriac theatres. “Yes, last year the boxtransactional VoD but rather

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office figures were bad but this year they’ve come back. You only need to look at the annual box office which regularly comes close to 200 million spectators to understand we still love cinema,” he says. French cinema has already bounced back this year with a series of hit comedies including Dany Boon’s Superchondriac, which drew more than 5 million spectators, rom-com Serial (Bad) Weddings (Qu’est-ce Qu’on A Fait Au Bon Dieu?), revolving around the theme of multicultural marriages, and found-footage caper Babysitting, which has sold more than 1 million tickets after a slow start. “It’s a $5.5m (¤4m) film that will make $27.7m (¤20m) and we’ve also managed to sell it in a number of territories,” says Olivier Albou of Paris-based sales company Other Angle, which is handling the latter title internationally. “It’s an example of a small, sincere film that has captured the audience’s imagination.” A bigger cause for concern, says Labadie, is that younger generations are less likely to go to the cinema than they were a decade ago. Studies by the National Cinema Centre (CNC) on audience evolution show cinemagoing in the under-24-year-old demo-

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graphic is on the wane. In 2012, the six to 10-year-old age bracket went to the cinema on average 3.1 times in the year, against 3.5 in 2011 — this compared with a national average of 5.4 times. Under-25s accounted for 31.5% of the market in 2012, against 43.9% in 1993. The 50-plus demographic increased its share of the market in the same period to 33.2% from 18.2%. “The cinema audience is an increasingly

greying one,” says Labadie. “The real challenge for the industry today is how to get younger audiences into the theatre. There are so many distractions. How do we get their attention?” It is a complicated issue to address. The French government recently introduced a scheme fixing ticket prices for children at $5.50 (¤4), against a previous tariff of $8 (¤6) to $11 (¤8). Early CNC figures suggest 2.5 million more youngsters went to the cinema in January and February, against the same period in previous years. But the scheme angered distributors, who say it eats into their profits while exhibitors only stand to gain through increased concession sales. “The tariff has helped temporarily but once people get used to it and the novelty is over, its impact will plateau and in the meantime it’s having a big impact on distributors and producers,” says Labadie, who says in the long run it could well discourage the production of lower budget, independent family fare. Ironically, as France’s 120-year passion for the moving image is undergoing one of its biggest mutations in decades, its famed Cinématheque Francaise is hosting an exhibition marking the centenary of its late creator Henri Langlois, a founding father of French cinéphilia. The Cinématheque’s current chief Serge Toubiana is philosophical about the changes afoot. “Whenever we do retrospectives, young people flock to the screenings to see classics they’ve already seen — on TV or their computer — on the big screen,” he says. “There’s still something sacrosanct about the cinema theatre — the atmosphere, the darkness, the thrill, the strangeness... The ritualistic aspect of seeing a film in a cinema.” He acknowledges, however, that the way people are consuming cinema on a day-today basis is changing. “Cinema technology has made films more accessible, more visible and given them a longer life,” he says. “Of course France is a cinephile country. I’m absolutely convinced of that. It’s just that the s way we watch cinema is changing.” n

‘Cinema technology has made films more accessible, more visible and given them a longer life’ Serge Toubiana, Cinématheque Francaise

Babysitting

May 2014 Screen International 5

INTERVIEW EPIC PICTURES

An Epic adventure Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson tell Jeremy Kay about the nimble manoeuvres of Epic Pictures, and how the company builds a diverse slate on the back of undead beavers and giant spiders

Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson

hen Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson launched the Renegade genre label at Crystal Sky in 2004, they started getting calls from buyers. “They told us we should go into business together,” says Ewald. The Epic Pictures CEO and his COO and co-founder Berenson took the advice, rallied a group of investors and launched Epic in 2007. Fast forward seven years to a mid-April Saturday night. A packed Tribeca Film Festival crowd is whooping in delight as the end credits roll on Zombeavers, which Epic introduced to buyers at Berlin’s European Film Market in February. The raucous response would seem to signal a strong endorsement of the path steered by Ewald and Berenson. Steady sales at market after market and a burgeoning production and financing profile have allowed the partners to expand their sphere of influence. They recently closed a credit facility for an undisclosed sum that provides what Ewald calls a “quick-reaction fund”, allowing Epic to take a variety of financing positions on projects. “We want to come in quickly with filmmakers we respect so we don’t have to spend so much time and energy running around the world finding random films,” says Ewald. “The goal is to become a mini-studio that can rely on our film-makers to create content.” They have not been idle. In recent years Epic has struck a joint financing multi-picture

6 Screen International May 2014

Zombeavers

‘The goal is to become a mini-studio that can rely on our film-makers to create content’ Patrick Ewald

Vikingdom

deal with Malaysia-based KRU Studios that has yielded three films and lined up a fourth. “We did world sales on Deadline and The Malay Chronicles and served as executive producer on and did sales on Vikingdom,” notes Ewald. The Viking fantasy tale aired on Syfy in late April after launching on 25 screens in the US through Epic Releasing, a distribution venture with its own marketing and sales team that sells directly to retailers and reaches Walmart, Redbox and iTunes. “It’s a fairly sizeable investment on our side,” says Ewald, who notes that the roster includes war film The Patrol, family title A Tiger’s Tale and Big Ass Spider, which recently averaged 1.3m viewers on Syfy. Beyond genre “People know us for genre films but forget one of our biggest franchises is Space Dogs,” says Berenson. “We’re going to be launching footage of the sequel in Cannes.” The ambition to expand horizons is something that crops up frequently in the partners’ conversation. They want to make good films regardless of genre. To this end they launched sales in Berlin on the family drama Louder Than Words. Furthermore, Berenson is forging strong ties with his native Israel, keen to play a part in nurturing a generation of emerging talent. “We’re establishing ourselves and taking more risks like on this monster film we’re doing in Israel. We’re also investing in some passion projects.” As far as Epic is concerned, good

films can still mean broadly appealing genre titles. They will reprise their role as sales agent on the popular V/H/S franchise and head for the Croisette with V/H/S Viral, produced by Brad Miska and Gary Binkow. “We just closed a slate deal with a producer in the US and closed a co-financing, co-producing deal on a French-Canadian/ New Zealand film called Turbo Kid [directed by the RKSS film collective],” adds Ewald. Epic will also produce, finance and sell Viking: Rise Of The Warrior, which involves Finnish executive producer Tero Kaukomaa of Iron Sky fame. “From a business perspective as producers and financiers, we have been focusing on forging relationships with film-makers and producer partners in a multi-picture way so we can focus on building slates, not just in North America but looking towards Asia and eastern Europe and Russia,” says Ewald. “In Russia we have a partnership with producer Vadim Sotskov and his company KinoAtis based on a franchise [Space Dogs]. We’re finishing the second film and we’re also finishing a two-season TV series. “We’ve been optioning books and European movies for remakes. People are talking about elevated genre and it’s great that we have done films like Big Ass Spider and Zombeavers. “But our long-term strategy,” continues Ewald, “is to make great movies. If it’s a thriller, great; a drama, great. We want to make films that can reach a global audience; films we’d be proud to take our moths ers to see.” ■

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Interview Ed Noeltner

and the Simon Wiesenthal Collection. But animation is never far from his thoughts. “My goal is to find properties that have IP value. One of the challenges with Adventures In Zambezia and Khumba is they were original IPs from a studio with a track record, although the properties themselves were not known.” Those films hailed from South Africa’s Triggerfish Animation and grossed more than $39m at the global box office combined. Khumba has taken more than $7m with most territories still to come.

Ratchet & Clank

Ratcheting up sales Cinema Management Group’s Ed Noeltner tells Jeremy Kay about the company’s evolution and its success with independent animations

he contours of the film business may shift as companies come and go, but Edward Noeltner’s Cinema Management Group is a survivor. A little over a decade since its inception, the Beverly Hills-based full-service sales company is thriving. “We just had our most successful first quarter in 10 years,” says Noeltner, who drummed up plenty of excitement in Berlin with the upcoming Rainmaker Films animation duo Sly Cooper and Ratchet & Clank. These two films mark the latest in a line of notable independent animated features handled by CMG. Noeltner’s catholic taste informs reliably varied slates, however, animation is a form he holds close to his heart. After fine-tuning his craft as president of Senator International in Berlin and more recently as senior vice-president of international sales and distribution at Miramax in New York and senior vice-president of Svensk, based in Paris and Stockholm, Noeltner knew it was time to branch out. “Ten years ago, I was in Berlin and didn’t find anything that got me excited to start the company with,” he says. “Then I saw a rough

8 Screen International May 2014

‘You try to find the psychology of the deal — one that makes sense for both parties. It’s how we’ve been selling movies recently’ Ed Noeltner, CMG

cut of [the animation] Hoodwinked. That’s how it all started.” He signed a deal to represent international sales and The Weinstein Company distributed Hoodwinked in the US. The film grossed $110m worldwide, of which $58m came from international, establishing CMG as a home for commercially viable titles. In the ensuing years, Noeltner has handled hit genre titles such as The Collector and The Collection, family films and drama, as well as documentaries including Good Hair

New investment When Noeltner sold a stake in his company to The Cleveland Family in 2009 it paved the way for a timely capital injection in the form of the CMG Film Fund, Dallas. The acquisitions fund enabled Noeltner to make successful bids for Rainmaker Entertainment and Blockade Entertainment’s Sly Cooper, as well as Brotherhood, The Perfect Host and Still Mine. Ratchet & Clank followed. “What makes Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper so exciting is that both are recognised franchises that have been hugely successful PlayStation games,” says Noeltner. “There’s a whole PlayStation network of 100 million users that we can access. “Rainmaker has done Escape From Planet Earth. RGH [the animation studio behind CMG’s in-production title The Santa Story] has Postman Pat, which is going to do very well for Icon in the UK.” In Cannes, part of the focus will be on building on the solid foundations established by the sales team in Berlin, where vice-president of sales Daniel Bort closed an all-rights deal with Imagem in Latin America for Sly Cooper, among others. “I couldn’t be happier,” says Noeltner, adding that his Paris-based Venezuelan colleague’s language skills “give buyers [in Latin America and Spain] that comfort level that they are speaking the same language”. Vice-president of sales and operations Dene Anderberg has been blazing her own trail. “Dene has been doing so well over the past four years and been really instrumental in opening up our Asian client list,” says Noeltner. “She goes to Filmart and Busan every year. We have a great sales team.” Regardless of the type of film at hand, Noeltner is always on the look-out for something different and wants to ensure his work adds value to his distributors’ businesses. “You try to find the psychology of the deal — one that makes sense for both parties. It’s how we’ve been selling movies recently, particularly the Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper films, where we have a base MG and performance bumpers.” Being able to cashflow advances as a result of the fund is part of CMG’s growing arsenal. Noeltner is betting that a productive Cannes will pave the way for the next step in his coms pany’s ongoing evolution. n

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www.efp-online.com

VANJA JAMBROVIĆ Restart Croatia

TOMÁŠ HRUBỲ nutprodukce Czech Republic

EVA JAKOBSEN Nimbus Film Denmark

MARK LWOFF Bufo Finland

MATHIAS RUBIN Récifilms France

TINATIN KAJRISHVILI Gemini Georgia

HENNING KAMM DETAiLFILM Germany

KONSTANTINOS KONTOVRAKIS Heretic – Greece

ESZTER GYÁRFÁS Proton Cinema Hungary

ÁRNI FILIPPUSSON Mystery Iceland

JOHN KEVILLE SP Films Ireland

OLIVIA MUSINI Cinemaundici Italy

OGNEN ANTOV Dream Factory Macedonia FYR of Macedonia

IVAN DJUROVIĆ Artikulacija Production Montenegro

DAVID BIJKER Bijker Film & TV The Netherlands

TERÉZ HOLLO-KLAUSEN Anna Kron Film – Norway

MIKOŁAJ POKROMSKI Pokromski Studio Poland

NUNO BERNARDO beActive Entertainment Portugal

MÁTYÁS PRIKLER MPhilms Slovak Republic

MARTA VELASCO Áralan Films Spain

PETTER LINDBLAD Snowcloud Films Sweden

ELODIE BRUNNER Box Productions Switzerland

TRISTAN GOLIGHER The Bureau Film Company United Kingdom

contact in Cannes +49 160 440 9595

Participating EFP members: British Council, Bulgarian National Film Centre, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Czech Film Center, Danish Film Institute, EYE International/Netherlands, Finnish Film Foundation, Georgian National Film Center, German Films, Greek Film Centre, ICA I.P./Portugal, ICAA/Spain, Icelandic Fim Centre, Irish Film Board, Istituto Luce-Cinecittà/Italy, Macedonian Film Agency, Magyar Filmunió/Hungarian National Film Fund, Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, Norwegian Film Institute, Polish Film Institute, Slovak Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute, Swiss Films, Unifrance films

European Film Promotion Friedensallee 14 – 16 22765 Hamburg, Germany info@efp-online.com

EFP is supported by

MAYA VITKOVA Viktoria Films Bulgaria

project partners

PRODUCTION FOCUS MALAYSIA

The stage is set Malaysia’s burgeoning film industry gets a huge boost with next month’s opening of Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios. Liz Shackleton reports

ust eight years ago, the region of Iskandar in southern Malaysia was best known for its oil and gas industries and as a shopping mecca for Singaporeans, who head en masse at the weekends to the hectic border town of Johor Bahru. But after being designated as a development region in 2006, Iskandar is now populated with swanky new leisure, retail and residential developments, universities and hospitals, a media village and the Asia Pacific region’s newest film studios — Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios (PIMS), which officially opens its doors in June. Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Nasional, struck a licensing and management deal with UK powerhouse Pinewood Shepperton back in 2009 to build the studios, pitching in most of the $120m (RM400m) construction and fit-out costs. In addition to five sound stages, with a total area of 100,000 sq ft, the site also houses two 12,000 sq ft HD-equipped TV studios, a

10 Screen International May 2014

green-screen water tank, backlots, digital post-production facilities and support services including production offices, catering, dressing rooms and workshops. Although the studio has yet to open officially, the sound stages are already full with historical drama Marco Polo, a Netflix original series produced by The Weinstein Company. “I’m a great believer in television when you’re starting a new facility or building an industry because of its ongoing nature — a big series can go on for four to five years,” says PIMS CEO Michael Lake. “I liken it to how Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules helped build the New Zealand industry before Peter Jackson came along with The Lord Of The Rings.” International draw Also driving interest in Malaysia as a shooting destination is the country’s 30% cash rebate on production and post-production spend, introduced at the beginning of 2013.

‘I am a great believer in television when you’re building an industry because of its ongoing nature’ Michael Lake, PIMS

Already tapped by Marco Polo and Michael Mann’s Cyber, which filmed in Kuala Lumpur last summer, the rebate is triggered by a minimum spend of $1.5m for foreign feature films and $118,000 per episode for TV. Lake says he has received a stream of calls from US and European producers who are interested in both the studios and the rebate. But while PIMS is working with the Pinewood network to bring in Western productions, the studios are also focused on the region, targeting countries with large local production industries, such as India, China, Korea and Japan. “A lot of Indian producers are making films in the $15m-$20m budget range, so it makes sense for them to come here,” Lake explains. “When the co-production treaty with Australia is signed, we see opportunity there as well.” Malaysia is a slightly more expensive country to film in than neighbouring Thailand or Indonesia, but Lake says it becomes cheaper when you factor in the new incen-

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tive, which its neighbours don’t offer. In addition the studios, inter-connected with fibre-optic cable and fitted out with the latest digital post-production technology, are marketing themselves on quality rather than cost. “We aim to have a situation where a producer can walk through the front door with a script and, if needed, could walk away with a product that is ready to go to broadcast TV or the cinema,” Lake adds. Outside of the studios, there are other advantages to shooting in Malaysia. The country boasts a wide range of rainforest, beach and modern cityscape locations and has a well-developed digital and logistics infrastructure. And while the Malaysian government may have been criticised by China for its handling of the Malaysia Airlines flight 370 tragedy (sadly a member of Marco Polo’s stunt team, Jun Kun, was on board the plane), the country is politically and economically stable.

ON THE HOP: LOCAL TITLES SET FOR AN INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE

Building infrastructure The missing link, which Lake speaks about frankly, is the country’s production infrastructure. Malaysia has a growing local production industry in the capital Kuala Lumpur (see sidebar), but there is no industry in Iskandar and the country as a whole is a relative newcomer at servicing international productions, which means a lack of experienced crew. In order to address the shortfall, PIMS has been working with the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) to run local training courses covering all aspects of production from wardrobe, make-up and set construction to location management and production accounting. The first batch of students have already graduated and PIMS has teamed with the UK’s Met Film School on the second batch of courses, which will turn out around 700 graduates later this year. “The international side won’t work unless we have a vibrant local industry,” Lake notes. Separately, Malaysia’s Multimedia University is working with the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts to develop a film degree course at its new campus in Iskandar. Meanwhile, local authorities have recognised the need to attract equipment and facilities companies, in addition to experienced crew. Attractive incentives, including a 10-year tax holiday on corporate profits, are among the factors that have persuaded Japanese post-production company Imagica Corp and Australian VFX outfit Absfx to set up companies in Iskandar. This drive towards developing the local industry should go some way to allaying fears, raised in some quarters, that the studios will raise costs and draw resources away from local production. “In the short term, it means we may have to juggle our production dates, but in two to three years there will be more experienced crew,” says local producer Nandita Solomon.

Malaysia’s box-office has more than doubled in recent years, cementing its place in the top 20 international territories. Liz Shackleton reports

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KRU International’s Ribbit has sold to more than 80 territories

Malaysia is growing as both a content producer and a box-office market. Rapid cinema development has resulted in box office more than doubling in five years to reach $211m in 2013, making Malaysia a top 20 international territory. In terms of local production, Malaysia produced 71 features grossing a combined $26.3m (RM85.3m) last year, accounting for a market share of 12%. In 2010, Malaysia produced only 39 features, but the higher production volume is not resulting in higher box office, which hit a high of $39m (RM126.5m) in

2011 and has been declining ever since. Ironically, this is because government funding and growing box office resulted in a glut of production, with an oversupply of low-quality comedies and horror movies. Malaysia also has a compulsory screening system, which requires cinemas to keep local movies on screens for at least two weeks. The scheme has not necessarily been effective in raising production standards or convincing Malaysian audiences to watch local films. Yet at the top end of the industry, Malaysia is producing some impressive hits and projects with the potential to travel. KRU International’s upcoming animated feature Ribbit, directed by Chuck Powers, has sold to more than 80 international territories. Earlier this year, Astro Shaw The Journey scored a major hit

In the meantime, foreign producers have the option of bringing in crew from Thailand, an experienced production hub, or even Australia, budget permitting. Local authorities are also examining how to develop the business side of Malaysia’s local film industry, including distribution, financing and international marketing. And in a move that should interest international producers, Khazanah has recently established a subsidiary, Rhizophora Capital, which will offer loans to cashflow the 30% rebate. The big question for any new studio is whether there will be enough production, either from the region or globally, to sustain it and whether producers shooting outside their own country want to film on location or

‘In the short term, we may have to juggle production dates, but in two to three years there’ll be more experienced crew’ Nandita Solomon, producer

with Chiu Keng Guan’s romantic family drama The Journey, which grossed $5.3m to become the highest-grossing local film of all time. Asia Tropical Films is another successful local producer creating hits such as The Wedding Diary franchise and co-productions with Singapore and Hong Kong. Malaysia also has a thriving arthouse scene with film-makers such as Liew Seng Tat, Tan Chui Mui, Ho Yuhang and Dain Said working in Chinese and Malay. Liew Seng Tat’s Men Who Saved The World, a co-production with the Netherlands, France and Germany, is nearing completion. Following its success with Bunohan, Said and producer Nandita Solomon’s Apparat is now working on two projects to be directed by Said — supernatural thriller Interchange and fantasy adventure Drakula: Journey To The East. Both projects are being co-produced with Primeworks, the film arm of Malaysian broadcaster Media Prima.

on a stage. Time will tell — but the combination of facilities and rebates has proven to be a successful formula in countries such as Canada, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Like those countries, Malaysia is an easy place to work; English is spoken widely, immigration and customs clearance is reasonably straightforward and Iskandar has remained a green and pleasant land thanks to careful development. “The first question everyone always asks me is where are the cast and crew are going to stay,” says Lake. “We already have plenty of options and there will be many more in five years’ time as this area is growing at an expos nential rate.” ■

May 2014 Screen International 11

Interview french producers

Pierre-Ange Le Pogam

Croisette F comeback When veteran producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam first came to Cannes in the 1970s, he slept in a tent. Some 40 years later, the former Gaumont and EuropaCorp exec is on the Croisette with his fledgling company Stone Angels and opening night film Grace Of Monaco. Melanie Goodfellow reports

14 Screen International May 2014

rench producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam may be a regular at red carpet premieres and private industry screenings, but his favourite place to watch a film is in a provincial cinema mingling with the public. “I like to sit in the seats by the staircase leading to the security exit, mixing in with the audience, and listen to what they say about the film as they leave,” he says. No such anonymity will be afforded him at the premiere of his latest production, Grace Of Monaco, which opens Cannes on May 14. As he steps onto the red carpet alongside director Olivier Dahan and star Nicole Kidman, it will be a defining moment in his 40-year career. The $30m feature is his most ambitious project since his acrimonious split in January 2011 from Luc Besson and EuropaCorp, the company they built together over a decade. Le Pogam admits the rupture left him reeling. “In 2009 and 2010, I had absolutely no idea that our discussions would take such a violent turn,” he says. He started working on Grace Of Monaco

within months of leaving the company. “I’d heard that Arash [Amel] was writing a script on spec and got in touch via agents. “I was immediately struck by the quality of the writing and the unusual way he looked at Grace Kelly’s life, as a woman with difficult choices to make,” said Le Pogam, who first read the script in July 2011. Set in 1962, the film follows Kelly as her outwardly fairy-tale marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco and life at the palace begins to unravel. “I was more at ease with the idea of a European director rather than a US one — I was worried an American take might be a bit cliché-ridden — and suggested Olivier to Arash,” says Le Pogam. They auditioned more than a dozen actresses in the “search for Grace” until a “miraculous meeting” between Kidman and Dahan. “By Cannes 2012, I had the principal cast and director and was looking to shoot in September. I was able to start talking to international buyers, which I did with Lotus, or Inferno as it was called back then,” says

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Interview french producers

Pierre-Ange Le Pogam

Croisette F comeback When veteran producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam first came to Cannes in the 1970s, he slept in a tent. Some 40 years later, the former Gaumont and EuropaCorp exec is in Cannes with his fledgling company Stone Angels and opening night film Grace Of Monaco. Melanie Goodfellow reports

14 Screen International May 2014

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Le Pogam (right) talks to director Olivier Dahan on the set of Grace Of Monaco

coming zombie picture Maggie, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin, brought to the company via Lotus and Swiss financier Silver Reel — which also collaborated on Grace Of Monaco. For the time being, Le Pogam has suspended attempts to break into distribution, handing La Creme De La Creme to Wild Bunch Distribution and Grace Of Monaco to Gaumont. “We’re a small structure of just six people. I’m in the process of setting something up which is more structured, more industrial. But in my immediate post-Europa life, I wanted to take a more hands-on approach,” he says. “We’ve got a lot of projects in development and are about to go into another important phase of production,” adds Le Pogam, who will not reveal further details except that the projects are “more international than French” and include a trio of co-productions with Chinese media mogul Bruno Wu.

FACTFILE PIERRE-ANGE LE POGAM ■ 1975 Le Pogam breaks into

the industry as manager of La Clef cinema in Paris. ■ 1976 He brieﬂy manages

Marin Karmitz’s ﬂagship 14 Juillet-Bastille cinema before going to work with arthouse distributor Tony Moliere. ■ 1981 Heads to Gaumont as

head of programming. ■ 1985 Promoted to head of

Gaumont’s distribution arm, in charge of acquisitions, marketing and distribution. ■ 1992 Masterminds a

distribution joint venture between Gaumont and Buena Vista International and becomes president of international and marketing. ■ 2000 Le Pogam leaves

Gaumont to set up EuropaCorp with Luc Besson. ■ January 2011 After

Le Pogam, referring to Jim Seibel and Bill Johnson’s Los Angeles-based company. Cannes regulars might recall seeing Le Pogam that year ensconced in the alcove just to the right of the Majestic Hotel bar, locked in meetings. Actor and producer Uday Chopra boarded a little later, under the Yash Raj Films Entertainment banner, the Los Angeles-based English-language focused offshoot of his family’s Yash Raj Films in India. “I didn’t want to sell the film to the US on the basis of the script and Uday’s involvement helped close the US gap,” says Le Pogam. The Weinstein Company acquired the US rights in March 2013, after the late 2012 shoot. A hands-on approach In the meantime, Le Pogam had also launched his Paris-based production and distribution company Stone Angels in early 2011. Productions and acquisitions to date have included Nabil Ayouch’s Morocco-set God’s Horses, David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, Comme Des Freres by Hugo Gélin, Kim Chapiron’s La Creme De La Creme and the forth-

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royal connections The opening night screening of Grace Of Monaco on May 14 comes 59 years after Kelly hit the Croisette as the head of a US delegation at the 1955 edition of Cannes. It was during this trip that she met Prince Rainier III at a photo shoot at the Palace of Monaco. The French press have reported that Kelly’s son Prince Albert is furious about the film and the Monaco royal family is boycotting the opening night. “I read that story, too, but Monaco’s royal family doesn’t traditionally come to Cannes,” says Le Pogam. “They’ve never asked to see the film so I’ve never been in a position to refuse it.” The other talking point for the premiere is which version of the film will screen. Dahan’s public outburst in French newspaper Liberation earlier this year, in which he intimated that Harvey Weinstein was trying to force a re-cut, has lead to speculation there are two versions. “There never were two versions,” says Le Pogam. “Like all ambitious produc-

months of wrangling, he leaves the company. ■ March 2011 Le Pogam

launches Stone Angels.

Grace Of Monaco

tions, there were discussions and arguments and at a certain point Olivier panicked thinking he was going to be dispossessed of his film, but there was never a question of cutting any version other than his.” Grace Of Monaco will be released in France and a number of international territories during Cannes; by the end of April there was no word yet when it will hit US screens. “I don’t have an answer to that,” says Le Pogam. “Harvey abandoned his original release date, which I think is normal given the film is opening Cannes. I guess he’s waiting to see how it goes down in France.” This, meanwhile, will be Le Pogam’s 40th Cannes. “My first Cannes was in 1975. I slept in a tent in a friend’s garden in Antibes and devoured five or six films a day. When you see that many films over a 10-day period, you get to a point where you’re physically sick.” The 19-year-old Le Pogam was manager of La Clef cinema in Paris’s Latin Quarter at the time, having arrived in the capital from his native Brittany a year earlier. “I grew up in the countryside by the sea and I was going to become a veterinarian, but I also had a passion for theatre and one of my drama teachers advised me to go to Paris,” recalls Le Pogam. “It was then I discovered cinema. I must have watched 500 films that first year, easily. I spent a lot of time at La Clef and when the manager left, I suggested as a joke to the owner that he should put me in charge and he did. I was there 18 hours a day.” Le Pogam later joined distributor Tony Moliere in 1976, handling classics such as Andrzej Wajda’s The Promised Land, Carlos Saura’s Cria Cuervos and Wim Wenders’ The American Friend, before heading to French major Gaumont in 1981, staying there until 2000 when he left to set up EuropaCorp. Some 30 years after his time at Les Films Moliere and his early years as head of programming at Gaumont, Le Pogam says he still loves to spend time in France’s provincial cinemas. “I know them all, one by one. I have less time these days, but whenever I get the opportunity I like to see films outside Paris. France is very centralised, but the capital accounts for one fifth of the box office and real French life isn’t in Paris, it’s in the provinces.” Looking to the future and plans for Stone Angels, Le Pogam says he does not intend to replicate what he achieved at EuropaCorp. “I still have huge affection for EuropaCorp, even though it’s changed. I loved the fact that in a relatively short space of time we were able to create a name, a mark and a place where films were welcome — both French and international,” he says. “But I’m not into structure for structure’s sake, but rather creating a place where film-makers can feel at home s and evolve.” n

May 2014 Screen International 15

IntervIew french producers

The French collection Despite increasing pressures on the funding of French film, local producers are bringing an exciting selection of projects to Cannes. Interviews by Melanie Goodfellow

Marie Masmonteil (left) and Denis Carot (second from right) with Party Girl directors Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, Samuel Theis and Claire Burger

TRAINING FOR MENTORS PROJECTS & PROCESS Workshop for professionals working in the field of script and story development, such as screenwriters, developers, editors, producers, commissioning editors, trainers, and decision makers. Three-day session, round-off after a three-month coaching period.

Marie Masmonteil and Denis Carot Elzévir Films In Cannes with… Un Certain Regard opener Party Girl and Directors’ Fortnight selection Gett, The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem. History Marie Masmonteil, who is also president of France’s Independent Producers Syndicate (SPI), and Denis Carot have been collaborating for 20 years. “We’re on our 20th feature. Projects come to us through our network but sometimes out of chance meetings. I met Radu Mihaileanu during a Unifrance trip to Acapulco,” says Masmonteil of the Romanian director, whose Live And Become and The Source Elzévir produced. Masmonteil came across Party Girl codirector Claire Burger while sitting in on an exam at La Fémis film school. “She had such presence, she stuck in my mind,” she says. Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz’s drama Gett was brought in by Sandrine Brauer, who recently joined the company’s Elzévir & Co banner. They found German co-producer Michael Eckelt of Riva Film during Unifrance’s Franco-German co-production meeting in 2012. “He’d done films with Eran Riklis

The future of French cinema? “A number of French commercial films ﬂopped last year, which has made distributors hesitant about boarding local films,” says Masmonteil. The other big challenge, she says, is the introduction of a new labour deal for crew members that has bumped up production costs. “Some 50% fewer films have been produced since January. We wouldn’t have made Party Girl under the new convention. There will be less than 200 French films made this year, against some 250 in 2013,” predicts Masmonteil, adding the new terms would have added $415,000 (¤300,000) to Party Girl’s $1.8m (¤1.3m) budget. “The convention risks destroying an already fragile equilibrium,” adds Carot.

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16 Screen International May 2014

Upcoming productions In the pipeline are Jean-Jacques Zilbermann’s Auschwitz-Les-Bains (working title) based on his mother’s holidays with former deathcamp inmates; Camille Fontaine’s thriller Par Accident, starring Emilie Dequenne and Hafsia Herzi; Gérard Pautonnier’s Grand Froid about two hearse drivers who discover their charge is still alive; and Philippe Aractingi’s The Eagle And The Butterﬂy.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP

APPLICATION DATE 1ST JUNE 2014 for the workshop in Amsterdam| Netherlands, 4TH–8TH November 2014

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and we thought he was good fit,” says Carot.

23.04.14 17:00

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Denis Freyd Archipel 35

idea for a film that we started developing together some four, five years ago,” he says.

Denis Freyd

In Cannes with… Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Palme d’Or contender Two Days, One Night (Deux Jours, Une Nuit) and Pascale Ferran’s Bird People in Un Certain Regard. History Denis Freyd, co-producer on the Dardennes’ most recent five films, started out at the National Audiovisual Institute (INA), producing experimental films by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard and Raul Ruiz. “That’s where I first came across the Dardennes,” says Freyd. “They were working for [French film-maker] Armand Gatti — Luc as assistant director and Jean-Pierre as assistant cameraman.” It was after a chance meeting some two decades later at a screening of Archipel 35’s first feature Saint-Cyr in Brussels in 2000, that Freyd started producing for the brothers. “They had just won the Palme d’Or for Rosetta and were preparing The Son,” he recalls. (Right) Two Days, One Night

Upcoming productions Projects include an ambitious $55.3m (¤40m), two-part project by Pierre Schoeller about the French Revolution, that The Minister director is writing; double César-winning actress Sara Forestier’s directorial debut M, starring Adele Exarchopoulos as a stuttering introvert who falls for a risk-taking daredevil; and Camille de Casabianca’s La Vie En Bleu about a female police officer whose new relationship makes her question the law. Today, he works closely with Belgian producer Delphine Tomson at the brothers’ Les Films du Fleuve. “I handle French finance and throughout the process I’m the interlocutor on the script, the set, the costumes, I watch the rushes, follow the edit — there’s a real artistic complicity and friendship.” Freyd, who produces one to two projects a year, met Ferran through Club des 13, a film industry think-tank she set up alongside Jacques Audiard and the late Claude Miller. “She had an

If you’re going to Cannes this year, join us at the UK Film Centre Pavilion 119, International Village Visit weareukfilm.com for full events listings Follow us @weareukfilm for updates

‘France’s system of film financing is threatened because the mainstream broadcasters are under pressure’ Denis Freyd, Archipel 35

The future of French cinema? There are lots of elements in play at the moment, says Freyd. “France’s system of film financing is threatened because the mainstream broadcasters are under pressure,” he says, adding that it also remains to be seen how Canal Plus, a major financier of French cinema, will weather competition from outside players such as the Al Jazeera-backed sports channel BeIN and Netﬂix. It is too early, however, to declare that the French are abandoning cinema. “Cinema audiences are up again after last year’s disastrous results,” says Freyd. “There is still a » strong interest and curiosity in cinema.”

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Pride Directed by Matthew Warchus

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May 2014 Screen International 17

Interview french producers

Isabelle Madelaine Dharamsala In Cannes with… Cyprien Vial’s Bébé Tigre, about an Indian minor in the care of the French state, will be sold in the market by Films Distribution; the film is now destined for a summer festival, along with Dharamsala’s other recent production L’Oranais by Lyes Salem.

Bénédicte Couvreur

Girlhood

Bénédicte Couvreur Hold-Up Films In Cannes with… Directors’ Fortnight opener Girlhood (Bande De Filles), directed by Céline Sciamma, about an urban girl gang. It is the film-maker’s latest work after Tomboy. History Bénédicte Couvreur first met Sciamma on her 2007 film Water Lilies, while working with Jérome Dopffer at Les Productions Balthazar.

“We were putting together these textbook auteur productions using the CNC’s advance against receipts, tax incentives, regional funds and broadcasters,” says Couvreur, who cut her teeth on Delphine Gleize’s Carnage (2002). “I decided I wanted to work within a micro-structure where I could be at the heart of every project,” she says. “I love to accompany talent, working closely with the film-makers on the script. I don’t get a lot of pleasure out of the financing side.” In 2008, Couvreur took over documentary boutique Hold-Up Films where,

“Having worked almost exclusively at 3 Mills for the last decade I can recommend the experience to anyone.” Danny Boyle, Director, Trance

parallel to working at Balthazar, she had been producing non-fiction works such as Olivier Meyrou’s Beyond Hatred (AuDela De La Haine), about parents dealing with the murder of their gay son. Sciamma’s Tomboy, which sold to 35 territories, was Couvreur’s first feature under the Hold-Up banner. “Girlhood is harder as a film but it’s a true auteur film. Céline and I are always looking at how we can do things differently,” she says. Upcoming productions The slate includes Sylvie Verheyde’s Dans Tes Yeux based on an idea by actress Mylene Jampanoi (Verheyde’s last film Confession Of A Child Of The Century, starring Pete Doherty, premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2012), Dorothée Sebbagh’s Grosse Patate about a chubby girl who wants to become a stand-up comic (Sebbagh has just finished shooting Divorce A La Francaise for UGC) and Meyrou’s debut fiction, the subject of which is under wraps. Future of French cinema? “The new collective convention is proving to be disastrous… France was already expensive as a place to shoot,” says Couvreur. She adds, however: “It’s not politically correct, but the economic reality might also prompt a bit of spring-cleaning and make producers think more carefully about the projects they’re taking on.”

TRAN CE Co urtesy of 20

th Cen tury F ox

History Isabelle Madelaine set up Dharamsala in 2001, focusing on short films, working with half a dozen young directors who are now embarking on their first and second features, including Salem, Alice Winocour and duo Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq and Claire Burger, co-directors of Un Certain Regard opener Party Girl. “The shorts have been pretty successful, picking up a number of prizes, including three Césars and we’ve slowly segued into features,” says Madelaine. Features to date include Salem’s Mascarades, Gérald Hustache-Mathieu’s Poupoupidou and Winocour’s Augustine, which premiered as a special screening in Critics’ Week in 2012. Upcoming productions On the way are Winocour’s psychological thriller La Nuit S’En Va, about a former special-forces officer hired to protect the family of a Middle East businessman; Réparer Les Vivants, the debut feature from actor Guillaume Gouix, known for his role as Serge in Haut et Court’s The Returned (Les Revenants); and Hustache-Mathieu’s offbeat superhero project Catman. Future of French cinema? Madelaine is concerned about the impact of the new labour accord for crew. “I’ve yet to make a film under the accord. Bébé Tigre wrapped just before it came into force but it looks complicated. There’s less money but costs have been pushed up,” she says. Beyond this, pressure on France’s media chronology laws that are the basis for s French film finance is also a worry. n

and P athé P roduc tions

OWN THE STAGE A UNIQUE ISLAND OF CREATIVITY +44 (0)20 8215 3330

info@3mills.com

www.3mills.com Isabelle Madelaine

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Interview french producers

Bénédicte Couvreur

Girlhood

“Having worked almost exclusively at 3 Mills for the last decade I can recommend the experience to anyone.” Danny Boyle, Director, Trance

TRAN CE Co urtesy of 20

th Cen tury F ox

and P athé P roduc tions

OWN THE STAGE A UNIQUE ISLAND OF CREATIVITY +44 (0)20 8215 3330

info@3mills.com

www.3mills.com Isabelle Madelaine

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10-20/7/14

CanneS FeStiVaL FoCuS n COMPETITION n OUT OF COMPETITION n MIDNIGHT n SPECIAL SCREENINGS n UN CERTAIN REGARD n DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT n CRITICS’ WEEK n CANNES CLASSICS

ALL MAPPED OUT

David Cronenberg’s Maps To The Stars

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River in Un Certain Regard. There is also terrific buzz around Daniel Wolfe’s debut feature Catch Me Daddy in Directors’ Fortnight. I love the excitement of previewing all these world premieres, not knowing which will emerge as films of the year and which will be the disappointments. By May 25 we’ll all recognise the hits, the misses, the rising stars and the almost-rans. So before the lights go down in the Palais, here is Screen’s guide to what we know so far about Cannes 2014’s selections. Bonne projection! Wendy Mitchell, editor

Proﬁles by Mark Adams, Tim Grierson, Jeremy Kay, Geoffrey Macnab, Lee Marshall, Wendy Mitchell, Jonathan Romney, Michael Rosser and Andreas Wiseman

he day of Cannes’ line-up announcement feels a bit like Christmas for cinephiles — except with a few more surprises. Of course there were Cannes regulars we knew to expect — such as Ken Loach with Jimmy’s Hall, David Cronenberg with Maps To The Stars and the Dardennes with Two Days, One Night. Some younger film-makers will be making their debut in Competition, such as Alice Rohrwacher, Damian Szifron and Xavier Dolan. And the film world waits with much anticipation the directorial debut of Cannes regular Ryan Gosling, Lost

May 2014 Screen International 21

Cannes world premieres

Foxcatcher

The Captive

Grace Of Monaco (US-Fr) Opening film

Dir Olivier Dahan Nicole Kidman will bring star power to the red carpet on opening night, supporting her role as Grace Kelly in Dahan’s biopic, which screens out of competition. The film had been originally slated for a late 2013 launch by The Weinstein Company in the US, but was held back for a summer launch after opening Cannes this year. Tim Roth plays Prince Rainier III. Producers include French stalwart (and former EuropaCorp co-founder) Pierre-Ange Le Pogam of Stone Angels. Dahan, who makes his first appearance in Cannes, landed Marion Cotillard an Oscar with his last biopic, La Vie En Rose. Gaumont will release in France. Contact Lotus Entertainment info@lotusentertainment.com

Goodbye To Language 3D

Competition The Captive (Can) Dir Atom Egoyan In a mighty year for Canada, Egoyan makes his seventh visit to the Croisette with this psychological thriller about a man’s search for his missing daughter. Egoyan needs a return to form after Devil’s Knot underwhelmed at the box office and was a no-show during last year’s awards season. Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman and Rosario Dawson star in the film previously known as Queen Of The Night. Egoyan won the Grand Jury Prize and Fipresci prize in 1997 with The Sweet Hereafter and won the Fipresci prize in 1994 for Exotica. Contact eOne Films International cvanweede@entonegroup.com

Clouds Of Sils Maria (Ger-Fr-Switz)

Dir Olivier Assayas

Mommy

22 Screen International May 2014

With shades of All About Eve and Black Swan, the French director’s first film since spirit-of-’68 saga Something In The Air — which premiered at Venice in 2012 — stars Juliette Binoche as a theatre actress whose world is shaken when a young starlet (Chloe Grace Moretz) is cast in a role she had made her own some 20 years earlier. Kristen Stewart co-stars as the PA forced to accompany the older actress on retreat to the Swiss Alps. One

Clouds Of Sils Maria

of the last films to be co-produced by the late Karl Baumgartner, Clouds Of Sils Maria brings Assayas back to the Cannes’ Official Selection for the first time since Carlos (2010), and is his first Competition contender since Clean (2004). Contact MK2 mk2.com

juliette.schrameck@

Foxcatcher (US) Dir Bennett Miller Only three narrative films into his career and Miller — the director of Capote and Moneyball — has developed a formidable track record in awards season. He leaves little to chance, famously pulling Foxcatcher from AFI Fest in 2013 and by extension last year’s awards season when he felt the bizarre true-life tale of death and Olympic wrestling champi-

ons was not ready. It will be intriguing to see what the international jury makes of the director’s first foray to Cannes. Whatever the outcome, he has gone two for two so far with lead actor Oscar nominations. No pressure then, Steve Carell and Channing Tatum. Contact Panorama filmpanorama.com

kimf@

Goodbye To Language 3D (Fr)

Dir Jean-Luc Godard After omnibus film 3x3D, cinema icon Godard returns to the Croisette and the 3D format with drama Goodbye To Language. The official and cryptic plot for the New Wave legend’s 39th film gives little away: “A married woman and a single man meet./ They love, they argue,

www.screendaily.com

Jimmy’s Hall

received 2011 Directors’ Fortnight entry Corpo Celeste. But in The Wonders (Le Meraviglie), the director draws on her own past. Rohrwacher, like her heroine, grew up in the Tuscan countryside with a German beekeeper father and Italian mother (played, just to make things interesting, by Rohrwacher’s actress sister Alba). Produced by London-based Carlo Cresto-Dina, the film features a cameo by Monica Bellucci as a reality TV diva. Contact The Match Factory info@matchfactory.de The Homesman

Maps To The Stars (Can) Hall comes eight years after the director’s Ireland-set drama The Wind That Shakes The Barley scooped the Palme d’Or in 2006; he won the jury prize in 2012 for The Angels’ Share. Contact Wild Bunch obarbier@wildbunch.eu

Leviathan (Rus) Dir Andrey Zvyagintsev

Leviathan

fists fly./ A dog strays between town and country./ The seasons pass./ A second film begins…” The cast includes Héloise Godet, Jessica Erickson, Kamel Abdelli, Richard Chevallier and Zoé Bruneau. Fox tied up US rights soon after last year’s Cannes Marché. The master has never won the Palme d’Or. Contact Wild Bunch obarbier@wildbunch.eu

The Homesman (US) Dir Tommy Lee Jones The veteran actor’s directorial debut The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada announced a serious talent behind the camera, and also won him the best actor prize at Cannes in 2005. Jones will be looking to keep up appearances with another leftfield western about a lowlife

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who helps a pious spinster escort a trio of insane women to a church 400 miles away. He stars alongside Hilary Swank, Hailee Steinfeld and Meryl Streep. EuropaCorp financed and handles international sales. Contact EuropaCorp www.europacorp.com

Jimmy’s Hall (UK-Ire) Dir Ken Loach Cannes perennial Loach returns for a record 12th Competition berth with this period drama about political activist Jimmy Gralton, who was deported from Ireland during the country’s ‘Red Scare’ of the 1930s. Barry Ward stars as Gralton in the actor’s first lead film role alongside newcomer Simone Kirby and Sherlock actor Andrew Scott. Jimmy’s

A multi-character drama, Leviathan concerns the owner of a small-town auto shop coming into conflict with the mayor, who will stop at nothing to take possession of the man’s property and land. This is Russian director Zvyagintsev’s third film to launch at Cannes and his second in Competition. The Banishment won best actor for Konstantin Lavronenko in 2007, and Elena was awarded a special jury prize in Un Certain Regard four years later. Leviathan stars Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Aleksey Serebryakov and Elena star Elena Lyadova, and reunites Zvyagintsev with Elena and Banishment co-writer Oleg Negin. Contact Pyramide International lgarzon@pyramidefilms.com

The Wonders (It-Switz-Ger) Dir Alice Rohrwacher Italian director Rohrwacher once again channels a troubled coming-of-age story through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl, as she did in her feature debut, the well-

Dir David Cronenberg It is a boom time for Canadian auteur Cronenberg. He was recently the subject of a retrospective in Canada, is about to publish his first novel, Consumed, and returns to the Croisette for the fifth time — where he won the special jury prize in 1996 with Crash. After Cosmopolis failed to strike a chord in Competition in 2012, could this dark satire starring Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson and John Cusack be the one to restore the film-maker to his mid-2000s high of Eastern Promises and A History Of Violence? Contact eOne Films International cvanweede@entonegroup.com

Mommy (Can-Fr) Dir Xavier Dolan This is writer-director Dolan’s fourth film to grace the Croisette (at the tender age of 25) but his first in Competition. The drama stars three Dolan veterans — Anne Dorval, Antoine Olivier Pilon and Suzanne Clément — in the story of a mother struggling to raise a troubled son with ADHD, and the kindly neighbour who intercedes in their lives for reasons that may not be entirely altruistic. In 2009, Dolan made his Cannes debut with I Killed My Mother, which won three Directors’ Fortnight prizes. Sales Seville International apoirier@entonegroup.com

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cannes world premieres

Mr Turner (UK) Dir Mike Leigh

Contact Sunray Films cq@sunrayfilms.co.uk

Saint Laurent (Fr) Dir Bertrand Bonello Controversial French director Bonello was in Competition with Tiresia in 2003 and the brothel-set House Of Tolerance in 2011, while On War played in Directors’ Fortnight in 2008. His Saint Laurent is this year’s second biopic of the French fashion designer, following Jalil Lespert’s Yves Saint Laurent — although unlike Lespert’s film, Bonello has not had official approval from the late designer’s life and business partner Pierre Bergé. In Bonello’s version, produced by Mandarin Films’ Eric and Nicolas Altmayer, Gaspard Ulliel plays YSL and Jérémie Renier is Bergé, with Louis Garrel and Léa Seydoux contributing to the no-doubt edgy glamour. Contact EuropaCorp contact@europacorp.com

The Search (Fr) Dir Michel Hazanavicius Known for his light comedies, writerdirector Hazanavicius moves into potentially darker territory with this modern-day remake of Fred Zinne-

Timbuktu

Still The Water

mann’s 1948 post-Second World War drama, now chronicling the unlikely friendship between an NGO worker and a young boy in Chechnya. The Search is Hazanavicius’s first feature since Oscar winner The Artist, which debuted at Cannes in 2011 and won the best actor prize for Jean Dujardin. This new film stars his wife, Bérénice Bejo — who won the best actress prize at Cannes in 2013 for The Past — and Annette Bening. Contact Wild Bunch obarbier@wildbunch.eu

Still The Water (Fr-Jap) Dir Naomi Kawase Revered in France, which co-produces most of her films — including this one — but lesser-known elsewhere, Japanese auteur Kawase was the youngest winner of the Camera d’Or with Directors’ Fortnight selection Suzaku in 1997. Since then, two of her films have screened in Competition, including 2007 grand prix winner The Mourning Forest and Hanezu in 2011. To call this latest an adolescent detective story is probably to overstate the drama of a film set on the island of Amami Oshima, which looks set to mine familiar Kawase seams: the cycle of life, love and death, and the pressure that Japan’s mythic past exerts on its distracted present. Contact MK2 mk2.com

juliette.schrameck@

Timbuktu (Fr) Dir Abderrahmane Sissako

The Search

24 Screen International May 2014

Widely viewed as the most authoritative voice of contemporary African cinema, Mauritania-born, Mali-raised Sissako presented his feature Waiting For Happiness in Un Certain Regard in 2002, winning a Fipresci prize, and returned in 2006 with Bamako, which played out of competition. Certain to be one of the most politically charged films in Cannes this year, Timbuktu is inspired by the stoning of a young unmarried couple by Islamists in Mali in 2012. “In no way am

Mr Turner Nuri Bilge Ceylan

UK auteur Leigh returns to the Croisette with this biopic of famed Romantic painter JMW Turner — known as the ‘painter of light’ — four years after playing in Competition with comedy-drama Another Year. Returning Leigh regulars include actors Timothy Spall (as Turner) and Lesley Manville, producer Georgina Lowe, DoP Dick Pope and editor Jon Gregory. Sony Pictures Classics snapped up North American, Latin American and eastern European rights last year from the now-defunct Focus Features International. Leigh won the best director prize at Cannes in 1993 for Naked, and the Palme d’Or in 1996 for Secrets & Lies.

Winter Sleep

I looking to over-emotionalise these events,” Sissako has commented. “What I do want to do is bear witness as a filmmaker.”

is the only film from Latin America in the Competition. Ricardo Darin, Leonardo Sbaraglia and Dario Grandinetti lead the ensemble cast.

Contact Le Pacte

Contact Film Factory info@filmfactory.es

c.neel@le-pacte.com

Two Days, One Night (Bel-Fr-It)

Winter Sleep (Turk-Fr-Ger)

Dirs Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne

Dir Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Two Days, One Night continues the Dardenne brothers’ long association with Cannes, including two Palme d’Or wins for Rosetta (1999) and The Child (2005). Their last film, The Kid With A Bike, won the grand prix in 2011. Marion Cotillard stars as a woman who, with the help of her husband (Fabrizio Rongione), attempts to keep her job by persuading colleagues to give up their bonuses. Wild Bunch handles international sales, with a theatrical release planned for May 21 via Diaphana in France and Cinéart in Belgium. Sundance Selects has US rights. Contact Wild Bunch obarbier@wildbunch.eu

One of Europe’s most prestigious art-cinema auteurs, Turkey’s Ceylan has been a Cannes regular since his short Cocoon played in competition in 1995. Winter Sleep is his fifth consecutive Competition feature, with Distant and Once Upon A Time In Anatolia winning the grand prix in 2003 and 2011 respectively, and Three Monkeys winning the directing prize in 2008. Ceylan has been guarded about this new three-hour-plus drama, filmed in Cappadocia, and co-written with wife Ebru Ceylan — revealing only that it is a drama “about humans”. His fourth collaboration with producer Zeynep Ozbatur Atakan, Winter Sleep stars Haluk Bilginer from The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Wild Tales (Arg-Sp)

Contact Memento Films International sales@memento-films.com

Dir Damian Szifron This dark-comedy omnibus explores different characters all trying to maintain their sanity amid the madness of modern life. Argentinian director Szifron’s last feature, 2005’s action comedy On Probation, attracted the attention of Pedro and Agustin Almodovar, whose El Deseo produces Wild Tales. This is Szifron’s first trip to Cannes, and Wild Tales

Out Of Competition Coming Home (Ch) Dir Zhang Yimou A romantic drama set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, the film marks Zhang’s 12th collaboration with Gong Li, who starred in his previous Cannes Competition titles Shanghai

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The Salvation

The Rover

In The Name Of My Daughter

Coming Home

How To Train Your Dragon 2

Triad, Ju Dou and To Live (which won the grand jury prize in 1994). Le Vision Pictures will distribute Coming Home in China; Bill Kong’s Edko Films is handling Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia/ Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Sony Pictures Classics has all rights in North America, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. Contact Wild Bunch wildbunch.eu

Contact Fox

Dir Dean DeBlois This 3D CGI animation is the sequel to 2010 hit How To Train Your Dragon, which grossed $495m at the global box office. Set five years after the first film, it continues the story of Hiccup and dragon Toothless as they find themselves in a battle to maintain peace. It follows a string of DreamWorks Animation fea-

Midnight The Rover (Aus) Dir David Michod

foxmovies@fox.com

In The Name Of My Daughter (Fr) Dir André Téchiné

obarbier@

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (US)

www.screendaily.com

tures that have debuted at Cannes including Shrek, Shrek 2, Kung Fu Panda and last year’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.

The Target

The 71-year-old French director has been in the running for the Palme d’Or six times and while the big prize has eluded him, he won best director award in 1985 for erotic drama Rendez-Vous. In The Name Of My Daughter (L’Homme Que L’On Aimait Trop) stars Guillaume Canet, Catherine Deneuve and Adele Haenel in a drama inspired by the story of Agnes Le Roux, the heiress to a Riviera casino empire who disappeared in 1977. The case still makes headlines today. Cohen Media Group has US rights. Contact Elle Driver

sales@elledriver.eu

Set in the Australian desert in a dangerous and dysfunctional near future, Michod’s follow up to his lauded debut Animal Kingdom sees a loner track down the gang who stole his car ,with the forced assistance of a wounded gang member. Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson star in the thriller produced by Lava Bear’s David Linde, Australian producer Liz Watts and Michod, who is making his Cannes debut. A24 has US rights. Contact FilmNation Entertainment info@wearefilmnation.com

The Salvation (Den) Dir Kristian Levring Danish director Levring made his Cannes debut in 2000 with Dogme film The King

Is Alive in Un Certain Regard; he is back in 2014 with something completely different — a straightforward western. Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mikael Persbrandt, Eric Cantona and Eva Green lead the cast in the story of a Danish settler avenging his family’s deaths in the American Wild West of the 1870s. TrustNordisk has already sold to Jour2Fete and Chrysalis Films for France and to Madman for Australia and New Zealand, among other territories. Levring cowrote the script with Anders Thomas Jensen (In A Better World). Sisse Graum Jorgensen produces for Zentropa and Nordisk has Scandinavian rights. Contact TrustNordisk info@trustnordisk.com

The Target (S Kor) Dir Chang In this South Korean remake of Fred Cavayé’s 2010 thriller Point Blank, an innocent man must team up with an exmercenary to rescue his kidnapped wife. Yoon Hong-seung directs The Target under his pseudonym Chang as he did with his first feature, the 2008 horrorthriller Death Bell. This will be his first trip to the Croisette, where he will be joined by a cast that includes Ryu Seungryong, Lee Jin-wook and Cho Yeo-jeong. Producer Syd Lim of Barunson and Young Films previously produced Bong Joon-ho’s Mother, which screened at Cannes in 2009, and Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, the grand prix winner in 2004. Contact CJ Entertainment cjenm@ cj.net; Gaumont cgaget@gaumont.fr

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cannes world premieres

The Bridges Of Sarajevo Maidan

Aliya, who have to leave the city for a remote village. But the house their mother left them has a stubborn squatter. Yerzhanov was selected for Berlinale Talents earlier this year.

Special Screenings The Bridges Of Sarajevo (Port-Fr-Bos Herz-Ger)

Dirs Aida Begic, Leonardo di Costanzo, Jean-Luc Godard, Kamen Kalev, Isild Le Besco, Sergei Loznitsa, Vincenzo Marra, Ursula Meier, Vladimir Perisic, Cristi Puiu, Marc Recha, Angela Schanelec, Teresa Villaverde Omnibus feature The Bridges Of Sarajevo will mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, built around Sarajevo and what the city represents in Europe’s history. It comprises 14 short films of eight minutes each, directed by award-winning European film-makers. Godard and Loznitsa, who both contribute to the omnibus, also have features in Competition and Special Screenings respectively. French journalist Jean-Michel Frodon is the project’s artistic director. Contact Rezo com

worldsales@rezofilms.

Cartoonists, Foot Soldiers Of Democracy (Fr)

Dir Stéphanie Valloatto The Source and The Concert director Radu Mihaileanu teams up with veteran Le Monde cartoonist Plantu to tell the story of global cartoonists struggling for democracy and freedom of expression. Director Valloatto makes her feature debut with the French-language documentary produced by Mihaileanu and Cyrille Blanc of Cinextra. EuropaCorp will distribute in France. Contact Kinology kinology.eu

Contact Urban Distribution International contact@urbandistrib.com

Red Army (US-Rus)

Week in 2007 and whose second film La Sangre Brota screened in the same section in 2008 — returns with this Amazon-set adventure thriller. Gael Garcia Bernal, who serves on this year’s Competition jury, stars as a mysterious shaman who rescues a rancher’s daughter (Alice Braga) from mercenaries. The feature marks Participant Media’s first investment under its Participant PanAmerica initiative. Contact Bac

Dir Tony Gatlif Rising French actress Céline Sallette stars in Géronimo as a young teacher in the south of France who tries to mend relationships between German and Turkish families. Gatlif is a Cannes regular who won the best director prize in 2004 for Exiles and the Un Certain Regard prize for his 1993 Romany documentary Latcho Drom. A screening of Géronimo will

Acclaimed director Loznitsa’s films My Joy (2010) and In The Fog (2012) have screened in Competition at Cannes, with the latter winning the Fipresci prize. Loznitsa was brought up in Ukraine and returns to his documentary roots to examine the 2013-14 civil unrest in the Ukrainian capital’s central square.

Directed by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Polsky, the son of Russian immigrants, this documentary mixes politics and sport as it peeks behind the Iron Curtain of the 1970s and 1980s. It is told from the perspective of Slava Fetisov, who captained the Soviet Union’s famed Red Army icehockey team. Sony Pictures Classics has picked up North American, eastern European and Asian rights with Wild Bunch handling remaining international territories. Polsky is best known for producing Werner Herzog’s The Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call — New Orleans and directing Rome Film Festival winner The Motel Life. Herzog and Jerry Weintraub are on board as executive producers.

Contact Atoms & Void mail.ru

Contact Wild Bunch wildbunch.eu

also be organised for local high school students. Contact Les Films du Losange a.valentin@filmsdulosange.fr

Maidan (Ukr-Neth) Dir Sergei Loznitsa

maruskino@

Of Men And War (Fr-US) Dir Laurent Bécue-Renard This documentary by French director Bécue-Renard, charts the emotional turmoil of a squad of US combat veterans years after their return from the front. Bécue-Renard is the author of Chronicles Of Sarajevo, and his first documentary, De Guerre Lasses (2003), screened at more than 40 film festivals. Contact

eva.simonet@wanadoo.fr

The Owners (Kaz) Dir Adilkhan Yerzhanov

El Ardor (Arg-Fr-Bra-Mex) Dir Pablo Fendrik

26 Screen International May 2014

info@bacfilms.fr

Géronimo (Fr)

gmareschi@

Argentinian director Fendrik — whose debut El Asaltante screened in Critics’

Dir Gabe Polsky

Géronimo

El Ardor

Kazakh director Yerzhanov brings his debut feature, a black comedy about 25-year-old John, his teenage brother Erbol and their sickly 12-year-old sister

obarbier@

Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (Fr-Syr) Dirs Ossama Mohammed, Wiam Simav Bedirxan This doc offers a personal perspective on war-torn Syria inspired by an online correspondence between its two directors: Mohammed, a Syrian film-maker exiled in Paris, and Bedirxan, a Kurdish photographer living in Homs. Mohammed’s last film, the 2002 drama The Box Of Life, screened in Un Certain Regard, and at the 2011 festival he denounced the Syrian government’s repressive behaviour during the civil war, accusing those in power of killing civilians. The following year, he was fired by Syria’s Ministry of Culture. Contact Doc & Film International sales@docandfilm.com

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Charlie’s Country

has also been a regular on the Croisette as an actor. Contact Alfama Films orange.fr

alfamafilms@

Charlie’s Country (Aus) Dir Rolf de Heer

The Blue Room

Un Certain Regard Amour Fou (Aust-Lux-Ger) Dir Jessica Hausner The first historical drama from Austria’s Hausner, Amour Fou is inspired by the life and death of German Romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist, whose work was adapted in last year’s Competition entry Michael Kohlhaas. Amour Fou has the rare distinction of sharing its title with its long-established production company, and of having a DoP — Martin Gschlacht — who is also one of its producers. Other producers include Amour Fou’s Bady Minck, Coop 99’s Antonin Svoboda and The Coproduction Office’s Philippe Bober. This is Hausner’s third feature in Cannes, following Un Certain Regard entries Lovely Rita (2001) and Hotel (2004). Contact Coproduction Office olimpia@coproductionoffice.eu

Away From His Absence (Fr-Ger-Isr)

Dir Keren Yedaya Based on Efrat Yerushalmi’s novel, this drama examines an incestuous, seemingly loving relationship between a sexagenarian man and his twentysomething daughter. Both of director Yedaya’s previous features premiered at Cannes with her first, Or, snagging the Camera d’Or in 2004. Away From His Absence stars Tzahi Grad — who previously appeared in the 2009 Un Certain Regard entry

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Beautiful Youth

Eyes Wide Open — and newcomer Maayan Turgeman. The film also finds Yedaya reuniting with her Or cinematographer Laurent Brunet, who shot such Cannes notables as Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s 2010 jury prize-winner A Screaming Man. Contact Bizibi

eabizibi@free.fr

Beautiful Youth (Sp) Dir Jaime Rosales Barcelona-born minimalist Rosales — known for spare, tense films that are short on dialogue — returns to Un Certain Regard, which showed his Solitary Fragments in 2007, while his The Hours Of The Day and The Dream And The Silence were in Directors’ Fortnight in 2003 and 2012 respectively. Set in the Madrid district of Carabanchel, Beautiful Youth (Hermosa Juventud) — starring up-and-comer Ingrid Garcia Jonsson — is about a hard-up young couple who turn to amateur porn. The film reputedly mixes Rosales’ 16mm footage with digital material shot by the cast on cameras including smartphones. Contact Fresdeval Films fresdevalfilms@erermas.com

Bird People (Fr) Dir Pascale Ferran Eight years have passed since Ferran’s last film, the critical and cineaste hit Lady Chatterley, which itself came after a 10-year gap. Set in a Paris airport transit zone, Bird People is a drama with super-

Charlie’s Country is the third in de Heer’s trilogy of indigenous stories to feature acclaimed actor David Gulpilil, this time playing an elder who takes a stance on behalf of his community. De Heer’s previous films in the trilogy are The Tracker (2002) and Ten Canoes (2006), which also screened at Cannes in Un Certain Regard and took a special jury prize. Charlie’s Country marks de Heer’s fourth film to premiere at Cannes, with The Quiet Room (1996) and Dance To My Song (1998) showing in Competition. Contact Visit Films

Bird People

natural overtones about an American IT engineer (Josh Charles from TV hit The Good Wife) and a French hotel chambermaid (Anais Demoustier) whose lives are about to change radically. Tipped for the main Competition at an earlier point, this looks set to be one of the hotter titles on arthouse distributors’ mustsee lists. Contact Films Distribution info@filmsdistribution.com

The Blue Room (Fr) Dir Mathieu Amalric Amalric directs and stars — alongside Léa Drucker — in The Blue Room (La Chambre Bleue), an adaptation of a novel by Inspector Maigret creator Georges Simenon, about a couple’s on-and-off love affair that slowly grows into something more sinister. Amalric made his Cannes debut as a director in 2010 with On Tour (Tournée) — which screened in Competition and won the best director prize and the Fipresci prize — and he

rk@visitfilms.com

Fantasia (Chi-Fr) Dir Wang Chao Wang’s Fantasia is set against an austere psychological landscape as youngster Lin escapes into a fantasy to shut out the grim realities of his life. An ailing father, a despondent, overworked mother and a sister who has turned to prostitution lead the boy to an unusual friendship. Wang’s Luxury Car won the Prix Un Certain Regard in 2006. Contact Reboot Films olivier.aknin@rebootfilms.com

Force Majeure (Swe) Dir Ruben Ostlund Swedish director Ostlund returns to Cannes for the third time, after previous visits with Involuntary and Play. Force Majeure, previously titled Turist, sees the avid skier — and ski film-making veteran — return to the slopes for a story about a family on holiday at a ski resort, when an avalanche results in some unexpected dynamics between them. Johannes Bah Kuhnke and Lisa Loven Kongsli play the »

May 2014 Screen International 27

cannes world premieres

Snow In Paradise (UK) Dir Andrew Hulme Acclaimed editor Hulme, known for his work on Bafta-winning doc The Imposter and Anton Corbijn’s Control (a Cannes award winner in 2007) and The American, makes his feature directing debut with this true story of a London man’s journey to control his violence through religion. Newcomer Frederick Schmidt, Martin Askew and Aymen Hamdouchi star. Christine Alderson produces for Ipso Facto Films.

Lost River

father and mother. TriArt has Swedish rights.

Contact The Match Factory info@matchfactory.de

Contact The Coproduction Office info@coproductionoffice.eu

Titli (India)

A Girl At My Door (S Kor) Dir July Jung

Xenia

Jung’s feature debut A Girl At My Door (Dohee-Ya) stars Doona Bae (The Host, Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending) as a highflying police officer who is transferred to a seaside town after a misconduct charge. There she is drawn to help troubled teenager Dohee (Sae-ron Kim). Contact CJ Entertainment eunjikim1121@cj.net

Jauja (Arg-Mex-Den) Dir Lisandro Alonso Argentinian minimalist and Cannes regular Alonso declared after 2008 Directors’ Fortnight contender Liverpool that he was taking a few years off from filmmaking because he was wary of repeating himself. There is one novelty at least in Jauja for a director who generally works with non-professional actors: the presence of Viggo Mortensen in the lead role. Mortensen plays a Danish man searching for his eloped daughter in Patagonia during Argentina’s late 19th-century Conquest of the Desert military campaign. Mortensen also chipped in on the production side, in tandem with Carlos Reygadas’s Mantarraya Producciones. Contact NDM

Dir Kanu Behl

fm@mantarraya.com

Lost River (US) Dir Ryan Gosling Formerly known as How To Catch A Monster, Lost River is actor Gosling’s feature directorial debut. After becoming a regular for Nicolas Winding Refn in recent years, critics and buyers alike will want to know how much if any of the Dane’s distinctive style has rubbed off on Gosling. Warner Bros holds US rights to the dark fairy tale starring Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan and Iain De Caestecker. Contact Sierra/Affinity info@sierra-affinity.com

28 Screen International May 2014

The lone Indian entry this year, Delhi-set drama Titli concerns the travails of the titular young man, who yearns to free himself from his domineering brother and winds up in an arranged marriage to a woman also coping with unrealised dreams. Bollywood giant Yash Raj Films co-produces Titli, the first feature for director Behl, as well as co-producing the festival’s opening-night entry, Grace Of Monaco. Ranvir Shorey, Amit Sial and Shashank Arora head the cast.

Misunderstood (It-Fr) Dir Asia Argento Argento’s third film is about a precocious child star who only wants to be loved by her parents. Made without government cinema subsidies — as the daughter of Italian horror-maestro Dario has pointedly tweeted — this 1984-set drama stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as a mother in the throes of divorce, and Giulia Salerno as her ‘misunderstood’ nine-year-old daughter. Argento the actress has seen plenty of Cannes action, but this is her first directorial work in Official Selection, after the 2004 Directors’ Fortnight debut, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. Contact Paradis Films contact@paradisfilms.com

Party Girl (Fr) Opening film

Dirs Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis This directorial debut for all three codirectors will open Un Certain Regard. It centres on Angelique, a 60-year-old nightclub hostess who agrees impulsively to marry a regular client. The lead role is played by the real-life Angelique. The directing trio have made festival prizewinning shorts such as Forbach, which won the Cinéfondation second prize at Cannes in 2008 and It’s Free For Girls, which played in Critics’ Week in 2009. Contact Pyramide Films lgarzon@pyramidefilms.com

Run (Fr-Ivory Coast) Dir Philippe Lacote The debut feature by Ivory Coast-born director Lacote began life as a project that won first prize in the 2011-12 Jerusa-

Contact WestEnd Films info@westendfilms.com

Misunderstood

lem International Film Lab. Having made his name as director of a number of shorts and documentaries — notably Cairo Hours (2002) and Chronicles Of War In The Ivory Coast (2008) — Lacote turns to fiction with a story about a fugitive named Run, who disguises himself as a madman after killing his country’s prime minister. The cast is headed by Isaach de Bankolé, the Claire Denis regular who also starred in Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits Of Control. Contact Bac Films

sales@bacfilms.fr

White God (Hun-Ger-Swe) Dir Kornel Mundruczo Hungary’s Mundruczo returns to Cannes with White God (Feher Isten), a HungaryGermany-Sweden co-production that centres on a 12-year-old girl who runs away from home to search for her dog. The film-maker was in Competition in 2008 with Delta, which won the Fipresci prize, and in 2010 with Tender Son: The Frankenstein Project. His feature Johanna played in Un Certain Regard in 2005.

Salt Of The Earth (Fr)

Contact The Match Factory info@matchfactory.de

Dirs Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Wim Wenders

Xenia (Gr)

Cannes veteran Wenders, who won the Palme d’Or for Paris, Texas in 1984, returns to the Croisette with this documentary portrait of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, co-directed by his son Juliano. The film revolves around Salgado’s eight-year project Genesis, which captured parts of the world untouched by modern civilisation; it also shows father and son mending their relationship. Wenders is also in post on his next fictional feature, Every Thing Will Be Fine, starring James Franco. Contact Le Pacte

c.neel@le-pacte.com

Dir Panos H Koutras A drama about national identity, Xenia follows two brothers — born from an Albanian mother and a Greek father who they have never met — travelling to Thessaloniki to force their father to recognise them. The film is set against the backdrop of selection for cult TV show Greek Star. Koutras’s last film Strella (2009) screened at Berlin, and Xenia is his first film at Cannes (and a long way from his 1999 debut The Attack Of The Giant Moussaka). Contact Pyramide Films lgarzon@pyramidefilms.com

www.screendaily.com

Directors’ Fortnight Alleluia (Fr-Bel) Dir Fabrice du Welz Belgian genre and horror specialist du Welz made a big splash in Critics’ Week in 2004 with his debut feature Calvaire. Directors’ Fortnight entry Alleluia reunites him with that film’s lead Laurent Lucas, paired with Almodovar regular Lola Duenas in an Ardennes-set story of murderous amour fou based on the same US crime case that inspired Leonard Kastle’s 1969 film The Honeymoon Killers and Arturo Ripstein’s Deep Crimson. Producer Vincent Tavier also cowrote the script with du Welz. Contact SND

www.sndm6group.com

Catch Me Daddy (UK) Dir Daniel Wolfe Former Screen International Star of Tomorrow Wolfe garnered acclaim for music videos for The Shoes and Plan B. Here newcomer Sameena Jabeen Ahmed takes the lead in the director’s

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buzzy feature debut, co-written with his brother Matthew, about a couple on the run in the Yorkshire Moors. Mike Elliott produces the thriller for London-based Emu Films, with development and finance support coming from Film4, BFI, Screen Yorkshire and LipSync. StudioCanal distributes in the UK.

Gett, The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem (Fr-Ger-Isr)

Girlhood (Fr)

Dirs Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz

Dir Céline Sciamma

Coming-of-age road movie Eat Your Bones follows 15-year-old Jason Dorkel, who is part of a traveller community. As he sets off on a trip with his brothers to forage for copper, Jason must reconcile his religious beliefs with his criminal background. Writer-director Hue won rave reviews for his 2010 feature, La BM Du Seigneur, also about the Dorkel family. He has opted for a realist, documentary style approach with his new film, which is produced by Capricci Films.

Gett, The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem is a family affair. It is co-directed by Israeli sister and brother team, Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz. Ronit, an acclaimed actress and film-maker who has worked extensively in both Israeli and French cinema, also takes the lead role of Viviane Amsalem. The film is based on the true story of a woman’s five-year battle to obtain a divorce, a battle that takes her eventually to a rabbinical court. The Elkabetzes have enjoyed considerable success with their earlier films together, To Take A Wife and 7 Days. Ronit’s acting career in France has also flourished and she was recently the subject of Nir Bergman’s documentary A Stranger In Paris. Ronit has a strong connection with Cannes after appearing in award winner Or in 2004 and winning the France Culture Award at the 2010 festival.

Contact Capricci Films contact@capricci.fr

Contact Films Distribution info@filmsdistribution.com

Contact Altitude com

info@altitudefilment.

Eat Your Bones (Fr) Dir Jean-Charles Hue

Opening film

The opening film in Directors’ Fortnight (out of competition) comes from France’s Sciamma, whose debut feature Water Lilies played in Un Certain Regard in 2007. That film and Sciamma’s follow-up Tomboy — a Berlinale Teddy Award winner in 2011 — established her as a specialist in energetic, approachable dramas about young women coming to terms with their sexual identity. Girlhood (Bande De Filles), produced by Sciamma regular Bénédicte Couvreur, features a cast of young newcomers in a drama about a 16-yearold who joins a girl gang in Paris. Contact Films Distribution info@filmsdistribution.com

A Hard Day (S Kor) Dir Kim Seong-hun This Korean action thriller involves a detective who is desperate to hide his involvement in a fatal hit-and-run. »

May 2014 Screen International 29

cannes world premieres

Cannes debut with the road movie Refugiado. Julieta Diaz and Sebastian Molinaro star as a pregnant mother and her son who flee their home following a violent encounter. The film is produced by Argentina’s Campo Cine and co-produced by Poland, Colombia and France. Contact Memento Films memento-films.com

The Tale Of Princess Kaguya (Jap)

Li’l Quinquin

Dir Isao Takahata

A Hard Day will be Kim’s first trip to Cannes, but star Lee Sun-kyun has plenty of festival experience thanks to his work with acclaimed writer-director Hong Sang-soo. The film co-stars Cho Jin-woong, one of the leads in the thrillers Nameless Gangster: Rules Of The Time and Perfect Number. Contact Showbox yukyoung@showbox.co.kr

Li’l Quinquin (Fr) Dir Bruno Dumont French film-maker Dumont has been a frequent visitor to the Croisette since his 1997 debut The Life Of Jesus screened in Directors’ Fortnight — but his latest is his first television production. Li’l Quinquin (P’tit Quinquin) is a four-part miniseries clocking in at around 200 minutes that follows the comic exploits of a detective investigating strange crimes in a small French town. A twotime Grand Prix-winner in Competition (for Flandres and L’Humanité), Dumont is taking a break from his tradition of grim dramas with this lighter, albeit occasionally grisly opus. Li’l Quinquin does continue his habit of casting nonprofessional actors. It is presented as a special screening. Contact NDM

sales@

fm@mantarraya.com

Love At First Fight (Fr) Dir Thomas Cailley First-time feature director Cailley made a mark with his 2010 short Paris Shanghai. Now he makes his Cannes debut with Love At First Fight (Les Combattants), a drama about a teenager falling for a tough young woman who is fixated on preparing for a state of war. French cinephiles will be watching closely given the casting of rising star Adele Haenel — who impressed audiences last year with her role in Critics’ Week opener Suzanne — alongside another French up-and-comer, Kévin Azais. Pierre Guyard produces for Nord-Ouest Films. Contact Bac Films

info@bacfilms.fr

30 Screen International May 2014

Queen And Country

National Gallery (US-Fr) Dir Frederick Wiseman Veteran documentary film-maker Wiseman returns with a look at the employees and visitors at London’s National Gallery. The film was shot while the film-maker was in the midst of a mammoth 14-month edit on his previous film, At Berkeley, which premiered at Venice last year. Wiseman was last at Cannes in 2010 with Boxing Gym, which played in Directors’ Fortnight. Contact Doc & Film International sales@docandfilm.com

Next To Her (Isr) Dir Asaf Korman Israeli director Korman, whose credits as editor include 2013 genre hit Big Bad Wolves, explores the relationship between two sisters, one of them disabled, and a newcomer in their lives. Next To Her (At Li Layla) is Korman’s debut feature and it won a work-in-progress award at Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2013. Haim Mecklberg and Estee Yacov-Mecklberg produced the Hebrew-language feature. Liron Ben Shlush and Dana Ivgy star. Contact Films Boutique simon@filmsboutique.com

David Livingstone produces for Calamity Films while cinematography comes from ’71, The Shadow Line and Top Boy DoP Tat Radcliffe. Warchus’s credits include 1999 thriller Simpatico, which starred Nick Nolte and Sharon Stone. Contact Pathé International themba.bhebhe@pathe.com

Contact Wild Bunch obarbier@wildbunch.eu

Queen And Country (Ire-UK)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (US)

Dir John Boorman

Dir Tobe Hooper

Set in the 1950s, Queen And Country centres on a young Englishman who grew up in London during the Second World War and joins the military to fight in the Korean War. The drama, based on Boorman’s own military service, acts as a follow-up to his semi-autobiographical feature Hope And Glory. Boorman won the best director prize at Cannes for 1970’s Leo The Last and 1998’s The General. His 1981 Arthurian fantasy Excalibur and 1995’s Beyond Rangoon played in Cannes Competition.

When Hooper’s disruptive horror film tore onto the scene in 1974, nobody would have thought that 40 years later it would take its place among the movers and shakers of arthouse cinema on the Croisette. But so it has proved to be after original film elements were discovered in a paper bag at New Line Cinema. Preservation supervisor Todd Wieneke of Dark Sky Films oversaw a painstaking process of restoration and MPI will rerelease in the US through the Dark Sky label on June 20. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre plays as a special screening.

Contact Le Pacte

www.le-pacte.com

Refugiado (Arg-Pol-Col-Fr) Dir Diego Lerman The talented Argentinian director behind The Invisible Eye makes his

Pride (UK) Closing film

Dir Matthew Warchus Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West are among the experienced cast in acclaimed theatre director Warchus’s 1980s-set comedy about a group of gay and lesbian activists who raise money to support the families of striking coal miners. The film screens out of competition.

Takahata’s fifth film for Studio Ghibli — which he co-founded with Hayao Miyazaki — and his first in 14 years, The Tale Of Princess Kaguya is based on the classic Japanese folktale The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter. Grossing more than $20m in Japan since its release last November, it is the first appearance at Cannes for the animation studio since it teamed with Production I.G on Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence, which was in Competition in 2004.

Love At First Fight

Contact MPI

nicola@mpimedia.com

Tu Dors Nicole (Can) Dir Stéphane Lafleur Lafleur earned a Genie award in 2012 for editing Monsieur Lazhar and here makes his first appearance on the Croisette. Incendies and Monsieur Lazhar producers Luc Déry and Kim McCraw of micro_scope reunite with the promising director on the story about a young woman on the cusp of adulthood whose summer with her best friend does not pan out as intended. Julianne Coté, whose credits include Sarah Prefers To Run, stars. Contact Seville International apoirier@entonegroup.com

www.screendaily.com

Darker Than Midnight

CRITICS’ WEEK

Faire L’Amour (Fr) Opening film

Breathe (Fr)

Dir Djinn Carrénard

Dir Mélanie Laurent

Darker than Midnight (It)

Haiti-born, France-based auteur Carrénard’s second feature is billed as a “passionate love story” that follows the intense relationship between a musician and a young woman on home leave from prison. The CNC-backed drama, screening out of competition, is the follow-up to the director’s micro-budget debut feature Donoma, which also screened in Cannes and won the Louis Delluc prize. Faire L’Amour has a bigger budget and a major distributor behind it in the shape of Pathé. Grégory Bernard and Diane Jassem of Realitism Films produce.

Dir Sebastiano Riso

Contact Elle Driver

Darker Than Midnight (Piu Buio Di Mezzanotte) marks 30-year-old Sicilian director Riso’s debut feature. It is based on the teenage years of Italian drag queen Davide Cordova, aka Fuxia, who at the age of 14 ran away from home to a Catania public park frequented by the city’s demi-monde. Riso has had several stints as assistant director, working on Roberto Faenza’s historical drama The Viceroys and several episodes of the Inspector Montalbano TV series. Picked up by Rai Trade just after its inclusion in the Critics’ Week line-up, Riso’s debut is already being circled by “several buyers”, according to head of sales Mattia Oddone.

Gente De Bien (Col-Fr)

Best known for her roles in Now You See Me and Inglourious Basterds, Breathe marks the second film — after The Adopted — directed by French actress Laurent. It centres on a fragile teenager who decides to take revenge when the most popular girl in the class ends their friendship. It stars up-and-coming actresses Lou de Laage and Joséphine Japy. Breathe plays as a special screening out of competition. Contact Gaumont

Contact Rai Trade

www.gaumont.fr

info@raitrade.it

sales@elledriver.eu

Dir Franco Lolli Lolli’s feature debut Gente De Bien centres on the relationship between a 10-year-old boy and his estranged father. Lolli’s short Rodri was selected for Directors’ Fortnight in 2012, and the Colombian director wrote Gente De Bien at the Cinéfondation Residence in 2010. Having studied at La Fémis in Paris, Lolli’s graduate film Como Todo El Mundo won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at Clermont-Ferrand. Contact Versatile Films pboye@versatile-films.com

Hippocrate (Fr) Closing film

Dir Thomas Lilti

Breathe

www.screendaily.com

Writer-director Lilti’s second feature, Hippocrate, screens out of competition and is a Doctor In The House-style comedy drama is about a young man who has been groomed all his life to be a great medic, like his father before him. The hitch is that he is not sure he’s up to the task. Vincent Lacoste and Reda Kateb star. After his debut feature Les Yeux Bandés in 2007, Lilti has since »

May 2014 Screen International 31

cannes world premieres

Self-Made

It Follows

scripted films including Pirate TV and Welcome To Argentina. Contact Le Pacte

— who are accidentally misrouted at a checkpoint and consequently find themselves experiencing each other’s world. Geffen’s last feature Jellyfish, which she co-directed with her husband Etgar Keret, won the Camera d’Or when it played in Critics’ Week in 2007. SelfMade (Boreg) stars Jellyfish principal Sarah Adler and newcomer Samira Saraya.

c.neel@le-pacte.com

Hope (Fr) Dir Boris Lojkine This drama follows the journey of two strangers, a man from Cameroon and a woman from Nigeria, as they trek across the Sahara on their way to Europe. Hope is the fictional feature debut of writerdirector Lojkine, who previously made the documentaries Les Ames Errantes and Ceux Qui Restent. Producer Bruno Nahon was last at Cannes in 2012 with the documentary Les Invisibles, about ageing gay French men and women. Hope stars newcomers Justin Wang and Endurance Newton. Contact Pyramide International lgarzon@pyramidefilms.com

It Follows (US) Dir David Robert Mitchell Mitchell’s follow-up to the dreamy The Myth Of The American Sleepover marks the noted young US director’s second outing in Critics’ Week. Northern Lights and Animal Kingdom co-finance the story of a young woman’s bizarre sexual encounter that leads her to believe she is being pursued. Maika Monroe stars. Contact Visit Films

rk@visitfilms.com

The Kindergarten Teacher (Isr-Fr) Dir Nadav Lapid Israeli director Lapid’s Hebrew-language

32 Screen International May 2014

Contact WestEnd Films info@westendfilms.com

The Tribe (Ukr) Dir Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy The Tribe

drama follows a kindergarten teacher who nurtures the talents of a child with a gift for poetry. Sarit Larry and Avi Schnaidman co-star in the drama produced by Israel’s Pie Films and co-produced by France’s Haut Et Court and ARTE. Lapid’s 2011 festival favourite Policeman won awards at the Jerusalem and Locarno festivals and garnered seven Israeli Film Academy Awards nominations. The Kindergarten Teacher plays as a special screening out of competition. Contact Le Pacte com

contact@le-pacte.

Self-Made (Isr) Dir Shira Geffen From Israeli film-maker Geffen comes this story about two women — an artist from Jerusalem stricken with amnesia and a young Palestinian factory worker

The debut feature from Ukrainian writer-director Slaboshpytskiy pays dark tribute to silent cinema, telling the story of a boarding school for deaf students in which a newcomer’s love affair puts him at odds with a clique within the school. The Tribe (Plemya) represents Slaboshpytskiy’s first trip to Cannes, although two of his shorts (Deafness and Diagnosis) screened in Berlin, and his 2012 short Nuclear Waste won Locarno’s Silver Leopard. Contact Alpha Violet info@alphaviolet.com

When Animals Dream (Den)

Dir Jonas Alexander Arnby Commercials and shorts director Arnby, who is a veteran of Danish alternative film school Super16, makes his feature debut with this artistic coming-of-age/ horror story of a girl in a small Danish town who is hunted down because she

When Animals Dream

is a werewolf. Sonia Suhl, Lars Mikkelsen and Sonja Richter star. Gaumont has already enticed a number of buyers — including Radius-TWC in the US and Altitude in the UK — with its sexy teaser for the film, which was also presented in Goteborg’s Works In Progress. Contact Gaumont

abuhl@gaumont.fr

CANNES CLASSICS The Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films (Isr) Dir Hilla Medalia Producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus are already Cannes legends; now they get their own documentary and will be in town to present the screening. The two Israel-born cousins are among the most colourful figures in the film business, with more than 300 film credits including Delta Force, Breakin’, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace and Masters Of The Universe. Emmy-nominated producer/director Medalia previously worked on acclaimed titles such as Dancing In Jaffa, Web Junkie and To Die In Jerusalem. Contact Other Angle s gmail.com n

otheranglepics@

www.screendaily.com

The deadliest conspiracy of our time.

____________________ Tipped oﬀ about an imminent high-proole assassination a week before Diana’s death, British journalist Jon King sets out to uncover the truth about the Paris car crash … and nds himself at the centre of a deadly conspiracy.

Fundraising Pre-Sales Investment Sponsoring

Based on the bestselling novel

Directed by

JOHN BADHAM

www.thedianaconspiracy.com

by Jon King

Contact: susannematz925@gmail.com

FUTURE

LEADERS SALES AND DISTRIBUTION

creen started highlighting the Future Leaders in our Cannes issue two years ago, when we spotlighted emerging sales and acquisitions executives. Last year, we looked at the rising producers. For 2014, we’re back spotlighting sales and distribution; it’s a sign of the industry’s vitality that there were hundreds of possible candidates that have proven themselves as ‘ones to watch’ since our previous look two years ago. For this class of Future Leaders, we tried to introduce executives at a stage when they may be slightly less well known to the wider industry; they are not totally new to the sector and do have decision-making power, but are

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not yet in the top positions. So these are not generally the vice-presidents or CEOs unless they have split off into running their own boutique companies. The fast-changing worlds of sales and distribution will face enormous challenges in the coming years — from the rise of digital platforms to shrinking TV deals to a crowded release landscape. It’s good to meet those dynamic, inspiring future leaders who will be driving the sector in exciting times ahead. And we look forward to toasting them in Cannes at a reception in association with Cannes Marché’s Producers Network. Wendy Mitchell, editor

Profiles by Martin Blaney, Melanie Goodfellow, Jason Gray, Jeremy Kay, Geoffrey Macnab, Wendy Mitchell, Jean Noh, Juan Sarda, Liz Shackleton and Andreas Wiseman

FEATURE FOCUS

May 2014 Screen International 35

FUTURE LEADERS SALES & DISTRIBUTION

probably the best training ground there is for my current position”. He intends to stay in the world of acquisitions and production, searching for a breakout title and keeping his eyes opens. “There’s always another buyer,” he says.

Vicki Brown ■ International sales manager ■ Altitude Film Sales (UK) ■ vickibrown@altitudefilmsales.com

Kristians Alhimionoks

Kristians Alhimionoks ■ International sales and distribution

manager ■ Platforma Film (Lat) ■ kristians@platformafilm.com

After graduating in international media and entertainment management at the University of Breda, Kristians Alhimionoks landed an internship at Londonbased Kaleidoscope Film Distribution. “I gained essential exposure to how international sales and domestic distribution of feature films work,” he says about his time at Kaleidoscope. He regards Caroline Stern, Kaleidoscope’s director of international sales and distribution, as his “film-industry godmother”. He adds: “She directed me step by step and showed me how important attention to detail is in this business.” After Kaleidoscope, Alhimionoks was involved in the distribution and marketing of 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks films in Latvian cinemas. He then moved to Platforma Film to take over the management of international sales and distribution. Platforma Film, the owner of a studio with the biggest outdoor backlot in Northern Europe, has produced some of the most successful Latvian films of recent years such as Defenders Of Riga and Dream Team 1935. Alhimionoks is drawn to films “that entertain wide audiences around the world. Everyone who can create a product that works in most of the territories should be proud.” At the same time, he suggests one of the major challenges facing the industry today is the fact that “year by year, it’s getting more difficult to differentiate your product from others. It’s a greater challenge to sell a well-made quality drama than a mediocre genre film.”

36 Screen International May 2014

Sean Berney

Sean Berney ■ Manager of acquisitions ■ Sundance Selects/IFC Films/IFC

Midnight (US) ■ sean.berney@ifcfilms.com

The advantage of having Bob and Jeanne Berney as parents and role models is not lost on Sean Berney, yet few could accuse the youngster of draping himself languidly over the family laurels. Berney has always loved film, majoring in cinema studios and business at New York University. He took an internship at Magnolia Pictures, where he had his first glimpse of acquisitions and met an influential figure in the form of president Eamonn Bowles. “From there I worked as a consultant on the festival circuit for acquisitions teams at Apparition and Paramount Pictures International until joining Sundance Selects/IFC Films in 2012. “Jeff Deutchman, Arianna Bocco and Jonathan Sehring… have expanded the way I evaluate and view film in general and taught me the ins and outs of the buying game,” he says. The avowed fan of horror films says he truly cut his teeth in Cannes, “which is

Working at Altitude Film Sales offers the best of both worlds, Brown says — leadership from industry veterans such as Will Clarke and Mike Runagall, but with the everybody-pitches-in spirit of a smaller startup (the company launched in 2012). “I’m increasingly involved in a wide range of responsibilities,” Brown says. “It’s really exciting to be part of a young and dynamic company that has such great ambition.” The path that brought her to Altitude started at BFI London Film Festival and then a traineeship at Focus Features that led to a job on the international sales team. “It’s not an area I had considered, but I became fascinated by the nuances of different territories and discovering what kind of films work and where,” she recalls. Thanks to her background, she understands all the stages of a film’s journey and also the importance of relationships at every step. “The time you spend getting to know the buyers and film-makers is invaluable in helping you best understand their tastes and needs and identifying the right home for each film.” After learning the ropes from the likes of Runagall and former Focus executive Alison Thompson, the future excites Brown. “I hope to be able to capitalise on this ever-changing environment by finding new ways to adapt and broaden my knowledge. In the long term, I’d love to dip my toe into more creative aspects of film and become part of the inception process.”

Vicki Brown

Alexandra Burke

Alexandra Burke ■ Sales manager ■ LevelK (Den) ■ alex@levelk.dk

“Back in 2007, I arrived fresh off the boat from Australia and the charitable people at Nordisk Film International Sales kindly took me in, clothed and fed me,” Alexandra Burke jokingly recalls about her start in the international film business. Early on after her arrival in Denmark, she had a “short and sweet stint working in production with Carsten Holst at Zentropa”. When colleague Tine Klint divulged her plans to set up a new company, LevelK, in 2009, Burke jumped at the chance to work with both Klint and Natja Rosner. Burke’s 2007 degrees at the University of Sydney combined finance and film, and art history, which has proved a useful grounding for the world of international sales. As a sales agent, Burke sees the goal as “attaining the best possible positioning and revenues for our titles in the marketplace.” At a time when traditional distribution models are losing efficiency and new platforms are emerging, there are plenty of challenges. “We now consider ourselves at LevelK a worldwide distributor and have become a digital partner across numerous territories. This allows us the opportunity to work the rights and windows to their full potential.” Of her career, she says: “It has been a dream so far being a piece in the machine that allows audiences from across the globe to see another version of life. Whatever future career lies ahead, I want for it to be in the service of originality.”

www.screendaily.com

Andreas Degerhammar

Andreas Degerhammar ■ Distribution manager ■ TriArt Film (Swe) ■ andreas.degerhammar@triart.se

Andreas Degerhammar came to film distribution in a circuitous way. After earning a degree in film studies, he landed a job at Swedish Television as a reporter and film critic, before becoming head of the international programme at the influential Göteborg International Film Festival. He moved to TriArt in 2012. “I have worked in many different aspects of the industry and I believe they all pointed to a career in film distribution,” Degerhammar says. His festival film viewing and networking experience made the transition to distribution “quite natural”, even if there is a difference between programming or reviewing films and buying them. “Coming from the festival world, I thought the idea of the auteur had a great value. But no director is safe at the box office,” he says. Degerhammar pays tribute to his colleagues Eva Esseen Arndorff and Mattias Nohrborg, who brought him to TriArt. He shares their passion for arthouse cinema and “their crazy idea that it should work commercially”. Marketing auteur-driven arthouse films in an era when “Spielberg is the only director newsworthy for some of the largest Swedish media outlets” remains an obvious challenge. However, he is heartened by new Swedish films by the likes of Gabriela Pichler and Ruben Ostlund. As a “truly passionate distributor”, his ambition is to continue “the tradition of Triangelfilm and TriArt Film in bringing the best films from around the world to Sweden”.

Valeria Dobrolyubova ■ Sales manager ■ Bazelevs (Rus) ■ vd@bazelevs.ru

“My background as a fusion of international sales for the rights holder and acquisition for the distributor allows me

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Valeria Dobrolyubova

to work effectively in sales for both the local and international markets,” explains Valeria Dobrolyubova, head of sales at Russian distributor Bazelevs, founded by film-maker Timur Bekmambetov. She worked for five years as the international sales manager for Russian public broadcaster VGTRK Sovtelexport and regularly attended the MIP and DISCOP markets. Then she moved into acquisitions for distributor Total Content, negotiating deals between rights-holders and TV channels, DVD companies and VoD platforms. She joined Bazelevs in February 2013. Bazelevs’ line-up includes the highly successful Yolki New Year comedy franchise and the adventure-comedy Kiss Them All! (Gorko!) which took more than $37m at the Russian box office last year. “On the whole, Russian cinema is still very local in its mentality,” Dobrolyubova notes. “I wish our films were more cosmopolitan.”

Gary Farkas

Gary Farkas ■ International sales executive ■ Wild Bunch (Fr) ■ gfarkas@wildbunch.eu

An alumni of top business school ESCP Europe, Gary Farkas interned at a web agency, cosmetics company and managing consultancy firm before deciding to turn his passion for films into a career. “The internships were great, but I came to the realisation that I really wanted to follow my love of films,” says Farkas. “Prior to heading off on a sixmonth internship in Sweden, I stocked up on books on the film industry and took them with me.”

He started working for Wild Bunch as a marketing intern in 2010, assisting the sales team and also monitoring whether distributors were using the right marketing materials. “It could have been a tedious task, but rather than sending out e-mails, I would pick up the phone and talk to the distributors in person,” says Farkas. “I gained a real insight into how they all worked and what they were looking for.” Today, Farkas sells to Asia (bar Japan), Latin America and Spain. Like all Wild Bunch staff, he is encouraged by cofounder Vincent Maraval to read scripts and be on the look-out for projects. Those he has spotted to date include Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski, which screened in Un Certain Regard in 2013 and was sold by Wild Bunch associate company Elle Driver. Looking at the challenges facing sellers today, Farkas says it is a time of transition. “A film can’t break even through the box office alone these days. You have to explore every angle.”

Jennifer Fattell ■ International sales manager ■ Protagonist Pictures (UK) ■ jennifer@protagonistpictures.com

Antibes-born Jennifer Fattell finished her masters in production and distribution in Paris at ESG Management School and then worked with EuropaCorp’s sales team for eight months, before moving to Exclusive Media in London. She then moved on to TV sales at A+E Networks before returning to her first love — film — at Protagonist. The job was a perfect fit. “They were looking for someone with TV experience to be able to work on the Film4 library, but at the same time, with the possibility to handle all rights territories… and I really wanted to go back to films while still being able to use my TV experience.” One day she would like to start her own company but will settle in the short term for running her own team. “My wish is to continue working on films that captivate me. Big or small budget, it doesn’t matter.”

Jennifer Fattell

Her recent passions include favourites such as Blue Is The Warmest Colour. “Our job is, after all, to find these little gems that will stay in people’s minds for a long time and that will transport them in another life, another story.”

Nathan Fischer

Nathan Fischer ■ International sales and acquisition

agent ■ Other Angle (Fr) ■ nfischer.oap@gmail.com

After an internship at Wild Bunch in 2011, Lyon Business School graduate Nathan Fischer headed to Los Angeles for a year. There he gained experience with American Entertainment Investors, Voltage Pictures and Endgame Entertainment. “Being in LA as a French person and a junior was difficult, but I learnt a lot about the American way of doing things,” says Fischer. “I read so many scripts and analysed so many projects it gave me an edge in analysing US projects.” Fischer has also spent time in China and India. While in the US, he helped at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and through that became the Cannes coordinator for Anurag Kashyap’s AKFPL, assisting the director and producer Guneet Monga with the festival screenings of The Lunchbox and Ugly. Fischer cites Kashyap, alongside Wild Bunch co-founder Vincent Maraval, as the people from whom he has learned most. “He [Kashyap] is an underdog in India, but he keeps fighting… he is paving the way for independent Indian cinema,” says Fischer. “Vincent Maraval taught me you have to believe in your films, be passionate about them and take chances.” Returning to France in 2013, Fisher worked as acquisitions consultant for distributor Ad Vitam in Sundance and Berlin, identifying Jeff Gorin’s Whiplash as a strong acquisition. Fischer joined Paris-based Other Angle just prior to Cannes. “I am so excited about representing film for so many countries and can’t wait to meet as many distributors as I can in Cannes.” »

May 2014 Screen International 37

FUTURE LEADERS SALES & DISTRIBUTION

Chiara Gelardin

Caroline Habib

with stories I haven’t seen before, that push boundaries, but remain accessible. A film that makes me cry, or laugh until I cry, is always high on my list.”

Silje Glimsdal

■ Director of international sales ■ HanWay Films (UK) ■ cg@hanwayfilms.com

In keeping with a host of sales industry leaders, Chiara Gelardin hails from a legal background. After studying at Columbia University in New York, the French and Italian speaker moved to London where she qualified as a barrister. Starting in the legal department at Momentum Pictures, Gelardin joined the business affairs department at Jeremy Thomas’s Recorded Picture Company (RPC) in 2009. In 2011, she moved into sales at RPC’s sister company HanWay, working for veterans Thorsten Schumacher (whom she credits for the transition) and Claire Taylor. She has worked on titles including Lone Scherfig’s Posh, Todd Haynes’ Carol and John Crowley’s Brooklyn. Gelardin’s varied career informs a circumspect opinion of the challenges facing the industry: “VoD, changes in the TV world, shifting release windows, political unrest, ever-changing and unpredictable audience behaviour — these are all affecting people’s decisions and nerves.” She adds: “We’re all looking for rules and safety nets when really this is an industry that thrives on exceptions. I’ve also learnt that this job is not just about the sales, but about finessing and nurturing the whole life of the film.”

Silje Glimsdal ■ Sales manager

editing, producing or sales.” She credits TrustNordisk CEO Rikke Ennis with guiding her toward sales. “She really believed in me,” says Glimsdal. “She was the one headhunting me. I didn’t even know about the sales industry and said I was not going to be a sales agent. She said, ‘Oh yes you are. Some people are born to do that stuff.’” Glimsdal now handles eastern Europe with Russia, Latin America, Africa, Portugal and Greece for the company. One of the lessons she has learnt is to “be humble and be patient”. As for her own ambitions, Glimsdal aims to carry on in sales, get “better” at what she is doing and have the opportunity “to scout for talent and find good quality films, directors and talent”.

Deckter and executive vice-president of international sales Tatyana Joffe. Goldman’s overseas upbringing and her MBA bring “a perspective and an understanding of the industry on both a visceral and an intellectual level”. However, time in the trenches has brought its own rewards. “Being experienced in a fast-paced environment, being energised by it, and being able to multi-task in that environment is essential,” she says. As a champion of strong female characters, Goldman notes: “It’s a shame a group that makes up 52% of the population is the protagonist in only 15% of films. The upside is that those films make 20% more on average than films with a male protagonist, so I look forward to what the future brings.”

Talia Goldman

Caroline Habib

■ International sales manager

■ Manager of acquisitions and

■ IM Global (US) ■ talia_goldman@imglobalfilm.com

Talia Goldman was at Notre Dame’s business school when she caught the film bug. She did a Cannes internship with Lakeshore Entertainment, when the company was selling its Fame remake. “I was intrigued and exhilarated by it, to say the least,” she recalls. Goldman worked for W2 Media before arriving at IM Global, where she has enjoyed the mentorship of founder and CEO Stuart Ford, president Jonathan

■ TrustNordisk (Den) ■ silje@trustnordisk.com

When she was studying dramaturgy at university in Aarhus, Denmark, the Norway-born Silje Glimsdal little envisaged she would work in sales. Her starting point in the film business came five years ago after she was chosen for a Zentropa internship. “That is a three-year education within the film industry. When you are there, you can choose which way to go, whether

38 Screen International May 2014

Talia Goldman

broadcast sales ■ Mongrel Media (Can) ■ caroline@mongrelmedia.com

As a film student, Caroline Habib worked in a video store. She loved it and on graduating landed a job in acquisitions at Montreal-based Seville Pictures. From there she moved to Toronto in 2008 to work for Mongrel Media. Habib says: “I always wanted to bring quality films to people and distribution seemed the most effective way to do that.” She takes nothing for granted and believes studies, personal interest, experience and “plain old luck” got her where she is. “Taking risks when needed and keeping good relationships also help.” Speaking of which, both Mongrel Media president Hussain Amarshi and renowned industry veteran Charlotte Mickie have been influential to her career. “They are both examples of hard working, smart executives that continue to inspire me immensely.” Straddling the disciplines of buying and selling allows Habib to chase “films

Oli Harbottle ■ Head of distribution ■ Dogwoof (UK) ■ oli@dogwoof.com

Former Raindance Film Festival producer Harbottle joined Dogwoof in 2006. Under the tutelage of company cofounders Andy Whittaker and Anna Godas, he has worked on some of the UK’s most visible and hard-hitting recent documentary campaigns. The London-based executive acquired and oversaw innovative release strategies for Ken Loach’s documentary The Spirit Of ’45, acclaimed Bafta winner and Oscar nominee The Act Of Killing and international hit Blackfish. “Andy and Anna’s belief in the need to innovate and to make Dogwoof a customer-facing company rather than a traditional industry player has shaped the business and helped us see the significant growth we have experienced over recent years,” explains Harbottle about impressive outfit Dogwoof, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. “As an industry, we need to remain flexible in our approach and be constantly reactive to consumer needs,” he continues. “For any content-driven business, the digital age finally means the consumer really is king and we need to work with our audiences to deliver them what they want by whichever means.”

Oli Harbottle

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FUTURE LEADERS SALES & DISTRIBUTION

daily from chiefs Stephen Kelliher, Hilary Davis and Phil Hunt. “Bankside is a company that is going through a growth period and we have a huge opportunity to step up and start financing and selling some bigger and more prestigious titles. I think a natural part of that evolution will be working more closely with film-makers, getting involved earlier in the development process and possibly even collaborating on the production side. All of which is hugely exciting to me, as it’s a combination of all of those things I want to be doing as my career progresses.” Rouzie Hassanova

Clémentine Hugot Rouzie Hassanova

■ International sales executive

■ Vice-president, international licensing

■ c.hugot@bacfilms.fr

■ Bac Films (Fr)

and distribution ■ Mister Smith Entertainment (UK) ■ rhassanova@mistersmithent.com

Rouzir Hassanova moved to the UK from Bulgaria aged 18, and has made her mark at companies including Prime Focus (then VTR post-production), HanWay Films and now Mister Smith Entertainment. While at HanWay she rose to sales co-ordinator, shopping award-winning films including Shame, Kon-Tiki, Pina and A Dangerous Method. After briefly segueing into production, Hassanova could not resist the opportunity to join sales supremos David Garrett and Ralpho Borgos at Mister Smith, where she worked on films including Russell Crowe’s The Water Diviner and upcoming Jesse Owens biopic Race, as well as DreamWorks titles, selling to 16 markets. Her recent projects include a six-month analysis of the airline and ships market for DreamWorks, which informed the studio’s strategies for titles including The Fifth Estate, Delivery Man and Need For Speed. “I think the market is overwhelmed with material, where only a few independent productions stand out,” she says. “Of course cast, director, production team all count, but in the end it’s about the story and the quality of the execution.”

Moritz Hemminger ■ Acquisition and sales director ■ ARRI World Sales (Ger) ■ mhemminger@arri.de

After internships at Concorde Film and New Regency Productions, Moritz Hemminger joined Telepool’s Cinepool division as theatrical sales assistant in 2010, following his studies at film school in Munich.

40 Screen International May 2014

Patrick Howson

new ways of catching the buyer’s attention, and you basically have the same situation in the relationship with the local distributor and movie-goer.”

Patrick Howson ■ Sales and acquisitions executive ■ Bankside Films (UK) ■ patrick@bankside-films.com

Moritz Hemminger

Two years ago, he joined ARRI World Sales as acquisitions and sales director with the goal of expanding international sales and production activities. “When working in this rather small international entertainment family, it’s important to establish healthy client relationships, to increase loyalty and to build long-term value with producers and distributors,” Hemminger says. “This is, in my opinion, by far the better strategy to succeed in this business in the long run than going for the quickest deal to simply cash in.” Citing Gravity and Drive as two films that greatly impressed him in recent years, Hemminger says he is “very passionate about films that transport a certain atmosphere to the audience. Only a few directors are capable of telling stories with reduced dialogue and manage this through an intense exchange of glances between two characters.” The rapid increase in the number of films being produced has made sales tougher. “A sales company has to find

Howson got his start on the production side of the business, working as assistant to veteran producer Paul Webster at Kudos Pictures, before being promoted to development executive when the company was renamed Shine Pictures under Ollie Madden. “I gained fantastic experience in development and production over the few years I spent there, but I was always keen to learn the sales and financing side of the industry. So when Bankside offered me a job, I had no hesitation in making the move and taking on a new challenge,” he recalls. Working in production was a good base of experience, Howson says. “I developed a strong passion for finding and championing really amazing stories and talent, that I think has stood me in very good stead. Having that kind of creative grounding gives you an insight and an understanding that really helps when you’re pitching to potential buyers, or when you’re competing to acquire projects from producers,” he says. It is an exciting time to be part of Bankside, where he says he learns things

Clémentine Hugot’s big break in film sales was with Loïc Magneron’s Parisbased Wide Management in 2009. “Loïc sent me everywhere and introduced me to everyone. He believed in me, pushed me,” says Hugot, adding with a laugh, “and taught me to ‘break balls’ and not expect it to just happen.” Prior to Wide, Sciences Po marketing graduate Hugot took a master’s degree in distribution at France’s La Fémis film school, interning at EuropaCorp and Memento, where Nicholas Kaiser gave her advice that she still uses to this day. She moved to Bac Films in 2013 just before producer David Grumbach acquired the company with the backing of a consortium of European investors. “It’s an exciting, dynamic time to have arrived at Bac,” says Hugot, citing sales chief Gilles Sousa and managing director Mathieu Robinet as mentors in this new phase of her career. Also, Hugot’s time at La Fémis is proving fruitful some five years on. “It gave me an amazing network. The people I met in the classroom, I now come across professionally,” she says. “Thomas Cailley, whose film Love At First Fight (Les Combattants) is on our slate, for example, was studying screenwriting in my year.”

Clémentine Hugot

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Nathalie Jeung

Nathalie Jeung ■ International sales ■ Le Pacte (Fr) ■ n.jeung@le-pacte.com

Nathalie Jeung joined Le Pacte as a sales assistant, having obtained an advanced masters in cinema, television and new media from Pantheon-Sorbonne University. “Jean Labadie had just launched Le Pacte [in 2007]. I’ve been there from the beginning,” says Jeung. The international sales team made its first outing at Cannes in 2008 with the documentary Young At Heart and Francois Ozon’s Ricky. Jeung became sales executive in 2010 and sells to Asia, eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal and Australia, reporting to head of sales Camille Neel. A literature graduate with a passion for the work of Guy de Maupassant, Jeung says it was a life-long love of cinema that drew her to the industry. “I’ve been a cinema lover since always and that’s all that matters,” she says. “You have to believe in what you do and keep your integrity but try not to take yourself too seriously either.” She cites Labadie, Memento Film International’s Nicholas Kaiser and Sebastien Chesneau of Rezo as mentors for “their talent, vision, passion and great sense of humour”. She interned for Kaiser and Chesneau at Rezo in 2007. Looking to future career moves, Jeung says: “For the moment, I really like what I’m doing. I guess sales could eventually lead to production and the desire to be more involved from the start of a project.”

learned to do deals,” says Joo, who is now in charge of Asian sales. She adds that her previous job pitching and setting up international university exchange programmes gave her a boost in presentation and marketing skills for sales, as well as in co-ordinating festival attendance with directors. “Not once have I thought the work was tedious or anything I didn’t want to do. Introducing Korean films overseas, getting them distributed and released, promoting Korea’s profile that way, is something I find fulfilling,” she says. Joo says she has learned a lot from M-Line CEO Michelle Son. “No matter what difficulties or stress you experience, you cope, communicate and find a balance so you can maintain good relationships. Fundamentally, it helps later when you’re selling different films,” she says.

Natalie Kampelmacher

Relationships matter, especially in a sector subject to the slings and arrows of current affairs. “We often forget how intertwined world events and politics are, and how they can change the climate of our business, sometimes overnight.”

Mette-Marie Katz ■ Manager of sales

Natalie Kampelmacher ■ Director, sales ■ Seville International (Can) ■ nkampelmacher@filmsseville.com

Five years before she joined eOne Films International, Natalie Kampelmacher started at Cinemavault where her employer threw her into the proving grounds of Cannes. “I’ve been lucky enough to have stayed within international sales since graduating university,” she says. “I’ve built relationships with distributors who I’m proud to call friends.” Kampelmacher owes a debt to “some very talented, intelligent women along the way”. They include the “icon” and former executive vice-president of eOne Films International, Charlotte Mickie. “Her taste for high-quality films and her nose for breakout gems is unparalleled.” Having hopped over to eOne’s boutique sales division Seville International, Kampelmacher is now working with vice-president of international sales Anick Poirier. “Her passion for clients, and the love they show her is enviable.”

Rachel Joo

■ XYZ Films (US) ■ mettemarie@xyzfilms.com

As routes to the business of film go, they don’t come much more circuitous than Mette-Marie Katz’s path. “Journalism, entertainment and film PR, and here’s the curve ball, contemporary dance and ballet,” she laughs. By her mid-20s the Danish executive decided it was time to choose a path. After graduating from the University of Copenhagen with a major in English and minor in film and TV, Katz worked on her husband EL Katz’s films before landing an internship at XYZ Films in Los

Mette-Marie Katz

Angeles. She was hired as a sales co-ordinator and moved up to manager of sales. Everyone at XYZ is a mentor and Nate Bolotin, a founding partner and head of sales, has taught Katz “how to keep a million balls in the air at once with both grace and confidence”. Katz relishes the daily demands of the job as she analyses the impact of digital distribution and uses her multilingual global perspective to build relationships and champion films such as The Raid 2. And her dance background is never far from her thoughts. “I understand the life of an artist and the art of storytelling, which makes me a strong advocate for a film-maker’s passion project,” she says.

Emico Kawai ■ International sales ■ Nikkatsu Corporation (Jap) ■ kawai@nikkatsu.co.jp

Japanese corporate employee rotation means dealing with people who may suddenly disappear elsewhere. In the case of Nikkatsu’s Emico Kawai, she has parlayed the skills gained in her previous positions at the legendary studio into a unique sales career that is here to stay. Kawai started interning at Desperado in 2006, where she met an important mentor in producer Yuji Ishida (Unforgiven, Confessions). “I learned all the basics about the film business from Mr Ishida,” she says. Through Ishida’s introduction, Kawai joined Nikkatsu in 2009. She first worked in domestic publicity and then production. Under veteran producer Yoshinori Chiba (Killers, Yatterman) Kawai was part of the team that set up the wild Sushi Typhoon genre label (Alien vs Ninja, Cold Fish). “Although I was in production, I also handled overseas PR and North American distribution deals for the Sushi Typhoon titles, working with my bosses Aki Sugihara and Tommy Tomita.” Kawai welcomes the challenge of working in an industry that can no longer survive on selling standard Japanese movies. “Rather than just selling films, I’d like to develop films with foreign partners in the future,” she says.

■ Sales manager ■ M-line Distribution (S Kor) ■ Rachel@mline-distribution.com

Rachel Joo left a job at Konkuk University’s international affairs department to pursue a career inspired by her love of films, starting at M-Line Distribution in 2010. “At first I didn’t know anything, so I started by learning materials shipping, and was the festival co-ordinator, and

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Rachel Joo

Emico Kawai

May 2014 Screen International 41

FUTURE LEADERS SALES & DISTRIBUTION

Justin Kim ■ Director of international sales for the

Americas and Europe ■ CJ Entertainment (S Kor) ■ justinkim@cj.net

Justin Kim started at CJ Entertainment as a summer intern in 2010. “I began with learning about international marketing and materials delivery, and have been handling sales for the Americas and Europe since 2012,” he says. “In university, I was an exchange student in Australia and saw how foreign friends reacted to films like Oldboy, Memories Of Murder and Taegukgi. I realised the potential of Korean films, and wanted more people to see and be moved by them. I think of myself as someone who spreads culture, and it’s something I can do well,” he says. Kim picks Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer and disaster film The Tower, both multiple-territory sellers, as his most memorable. “I get a sense of accomplishment when a film I’ve been working on through all the stages sells and then does well in a territory. The buyer makes a profit, and it’s win-win,” he says. “A seller is like a match-maker. You want the buyer and film to have the right kind of relationship. You have to be able to communicate and get along for business to go well. With a true relationship, you can end up doing things beyond your expectations,” says Kim.

Rasmus Krogh ■ Acquisition manager ■ Nordisk Film (Den) ■ rasmus.krogh@nordiskfilm.com

Rasmus Krogh joined Nordisk Film as an intern in 2008. With “the right combination of brains and a little bit of luck”,

Justin Kim

42 Screen International May 2014

Rasmus Krogh

he landed a job in the sales department. That put him in a good position two years later when Nordisk Film was looking for an acquisition manager for Scandinavian feature films and TV series. Krogh studied film arts at the University of Copenhagen and believes his academic analytical skills have helped him in his job. As to what makes a successful buyer, he suggests you need a mix of market savvy, experience and “a good portion of gut feeling”. Yes, the Nordisk executive acknowledges, “markets are changing rapidly” in the digital age. It is “extremely difficult” to predict the future windowing structure and value of each window. “Working within a time frame of two to three years into the future, this causes major challenges when estimating the potential of a film or TV series down the line.” Krogh’s own ambitions are straightforward. He aims “to get to the top” of the Scandinavian film business. “I love working with film and the business of film and, naturally, I see myself moving up the ranks within Nordisk Film,” he says.

Alex Lafuente

Mickie and senior vice-president of acquisitions Mark Slone, Kubacki has her eyes on the future. “I want to be in a position to help forge new models and creative approaches that help move the industry forward,” she says.

Alex Lafuente Christina Kubacki

■ CEO ■ Betta Pictures (Sp) ■ alex.lafuente@bettapictures.com

Christina Kubacki ■ Manager, acquisitions — Canada ■ Entertainment One (Can) ■ ckubacki@entonegroup.com

Christina Kubacki, a graduate of film studies from Columbia University in New York and York University in Toronto and an MBA from Schulich School of Business at York University, worked at eOne in sales for three years and changed roles to work at the parent company’s Canadian distribution team after it swallowed Alliance Films. For Kubacki, switching from international sales at eOne to buying specifically for Canada has been instructive. “The transition has provided me with a unique perspective on creative communities and audiences around the globe,” she says. “It’s been beneficial in everything from negotiations with sales agents and producers, to helping shepherd Canadian projects that we board at a very early stage. Kubacki’s work involves finding gems that might work beyond borders across the network of eOne territories. To better do this, she says: “Read and watch everything you can. And always pack your phone charger in your carry-on luggage.” Driven by the creative and commercial insights of former eOne Films International executive vice-president Charlotte

After finishing his audiovisual communication degree in Barcelona, Alex Lafuente went to Los Angeles to earn his Masters in distribution from UCLA. He stayed in the US for four extra years working at Alpha Media, a company that sells US films and TV shows to Asian territories. He says: “That’s when I visited my first markets and I saw the real business and people that work in this sector, and I fell in love with all of it.” After his US experience, Lafuente returned to Spain to work with veteran Adolfo Blanco at Notro Films, Vertice’s distribution division. It was a changing time in Spain with the economic crisis. He says: “I had to be very cautious and develop in a complicated market from day one. I learnt that you have to know the audience very well and to think in distribution at every level — cinemas, VoD platforms, TV broadcasting, DVD… we have to make it easy for everybody to choose the way they want to see films.” In 2012, Lafuente launched his own independent distribution company, Betta, which has worked on films including Enemy, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and A Hijacking. “It’s true the cinema audience is growing and we’re also interested in films for more mature people. But we believe there’s also a young, sophisticated and very demanding public, and that is our core interest,” he says.

www.screendaily.com

Josie Liang

Ben Luxford

Josie Liang ■ Manager of acquisitions ■ Focus Features (US) ■ josie.liang@focusfeatures.com

An internship with the acquisitions group at Sony led Josie Liang to management company Circle of Confusion before she returned to the studio as Peter Schlessel’s assistant. When FilmDistrict launched in 2010, she was promoted to acquisitions co-ordinator. This broad education has stood Liang in good stead. “It has made me a more well-rounded acquisitions executive in that I can appreciate the artistry of a film, as well as putting a value on it.” Inspired by “outside the box” thinkers such as Focus CEO Schlessel and president of acquisitions Lia Buman, Liang is drawn to films that resist easy definition. “As an executive, the films that walk the line between commerciality and prestige — such as Drive and Looper — are the most interesting.” Crime dramas are easier to categorise but equally absorbing given they have come under fire from the golden age of television. “We see less of these types of stories on the big screen unless there’s big, A-list talent involved.” Maybe Liang can change that as she aims to keep working on elevated projects with uniquely talented film-makers.

national distribution for Wanda Media. “I feel a shift is happening in China — production values are increasing and, while it’s difficult to sell domestic hits outside Asia, there’s an emerging wave of genre movies that are competing with films from Korea and Japan,” she says. Undaunted by the decline of traditional business models, Lin says she is looking forward to the industry re-aligning around digital technology. “It’s exciting to be outside the comfort zone — changes will trigger growth and creativity.” She counts Bober, Forum des Images’ Jeff Bledsoe and Wanda’s James Li as mentors and says she has learnt that “integrity and reliability are essential for long-term partnerships and a successful career”. She aims to work at a US or European studio and has a long-term goal of launching a sales and production company.

Celine Lin

Ben Luxford

■ International distribution director

■ Head of distribution

■ Wanda Media (China)

■ Koch Media UK (UK)

■ celine.lin.wanda@gmail.com

■ b.luxford@kochmedia.com

Born in China, Celine Lin grew up in France and studied cinema at Paris VII University and Beijing Film Academy, with stints working for Paris Cinema and Forum des Images. She then spent four years at Philippe Bober’s Coproduction Office, before moving to Beijing in 2012 to head inter-

Ben Luxford interned at Dan Films before working at Edinburgh International Film Festival and Optimum Releasing as theatrical sales assistant. His path led to UK arthouse kingpin Artificial Eye, where he rose to head of theatrical distribution and worked on the releases of more than 100 films, before

www.screendaily.com

Celine Lin

being hired by Koch Media. “Selling the likes of This Is England, Brick, Persepolis and Son Of Rambow into cinemas is something I’ll always cherish,” says Luxford, who went on to work on standout campaigns for the likes of Amour and Blue Is The Warmest Colour. Luxford has worked with some of the best minds in UK distribution. He says: “I was fortunate to work under Will Clarke and Danny Perkins at Optimum Releasing. They taught me how to compete and grow your business in a market that’s dominated by the studios. Working under Richard Napper at Artificial Eye was an eye-opener. His knowledge and passion was unwavering. I’ve picked up a fighting spirit from all parties.”

been able to jump in to draft complex clauses in agreements. With the changing landscape of digital distribution we have put together some sophisticated deals for TV in particular,” he says. Holding dear the teachings of Naish and fellow ex-pat Paul Davidge, Mehta has developed an empathetic style. “Understanding a buyer’s market and concerns goes a long way — even the most intimidating of buyers or sellers can be felled with a well-timed laugh.” Mehta’s eclectic film taste — recent favourites include The Lego Movie and Exclusive’s A Walk Among The Tombstones — will doubtless fuel his interest in producing and sourcing more Asian investment in commercial independent features.

Jan Naszewski

Jan Naszewski ■ CEO ■ New Europe Film Sales (Pol)

Akshay Mehta ■ Director, international sales and

distribution ■ Exclusive Media (US) ■ amehta@exclusivemedia.com

After finishing law school in London, Akshay Mehta cut his teeth at a large Indian corporate law firm. He returned to the UK to join Exclusive Media, working under Peter Naish in digital and traditional library distribution. Mehta relocated to Los Angeles in 2013 as manager of international sales and distribution and began to sell territories for president Alex Walton. His legal background helps. “I have

Akshay Mehta

■ jan@neweuropefilmsales.com

In 2003, Jan Naszewski started working at Poland’s biggest film event, New Horizons International Film Festival. From there, he opened his own sales company in early 2010. New Europe Film Sales started by focusing on short films, and expanded in 2012 to represent features. The company’s catalogue includes about 10 features (including Papusza, Violet and Summer Of Blood) and 40 shorts including Oscar nominated Do I Have To Take Care Of Everything?. “My career so far has been a combination of sales and festival work, which allowed me to gain experience and network with dual speed,” he says. Communication skills also help — he studied languages and EU studies in Edinburgh and speaks five languages including Swedish and German. Naszewski takes a collaborative, open approach with producers and directors. “In sales, I have not gone the classic route of working for a big company and then setting up my own boutique and adopting the workflow of my previous employer. I had to find my own ways of » working,” he says.

May 2014 Screen International 43

FUTURE LEADERS SALES & DISTRIBUTION

Guillermina Ortega ■ Sales executive ■ Imagina (Sp) ■ gortega@imagina.tv

Guillermina Ortega was a doctorate student working on a thesis on cinema theory when the opportunity to learn about a new area of her passion came along. In 2007, Imagina Sales was refounded with the merger of Globomedia and Mediapro and she joined the company working in marketing and publicity. Seven years later, Ortega is a sales executive working on the “easy” markets — she says ironically — Asia, Africa, Oceania and Scandinavia. “Those are not the most natural markets for European films and TV shows but that’s what makes it more exciting. As a seller, the most important thing is to listen a lot to your customers and know exactly what they are looking for. “There is something I have always enjoyed and it is to make commercial what might not seem commercial initially. I think that every film has a potential audience and my job is to find it,” she says. The drop in Spanish production has inevitably affected her work. “There are fewer films and the same number of sales agents. We look more for foreign films to sell and try to diversify our business which is also risky because it’s also good to have a stamp, you have to reach a balance,” she says.

Florencia Gasparini Rey

getting involved in the international sales business,” says Rey. “Lots of young people are making great films, but they cannot find screens outside the festivals. “They invest time and money that they don’t recoup unless they have someone specialised in marketing their films. And that’s where we come in.” Rey’s guiding light at FilmSharks has been founder and CEO Guido Rud. “He’s taught me everything about the sales business. He’s a very passionate hard worker and wants people in his team to share his feeling.” Rud’s example has rubbed off on Rey, who wants to champion new talent and build distribution models to support them. One day she would like to produce and sell her own films. “I hope they will be films that people can love, enjoy and remember forever, all over the world.”

Tobias Alexander Seiffert ■ Vice-president international acquisitions

■ Director of international sales

■ Senator Entertainment (Ger)

■ tania@carnabyinternational.com

After stints in PR and publishing, Canada-born Tania Sarra kicked off her film industry career at Arrow Entertainment before moving to the UK’s Stealth Media as vice-president of international sales. In 2013, the fast-rising executive joined London-based Carnaby International, where she has impressed buyers while Guillermina Ortega

Florencia Gasparini Rey ■ International sales executive ■ FilmSharks International (Arg) ■ florencia@filmsharks.com

44 Screen International May 2014

Tobias Alexander Seiffert

Tania Sarra ■ Carnaby International (UK)

University of Buenos Aires audiovisual design graduate Florencia Gasparini Rey worked as an assistant on films and commercials and has always loved cinema, so she sought out a way to communicate that passion. “I realised that the way to do it was by

working on the company’s first major acquisition, action thriller Panzer 88. “I’ve learned that in order to effectively generate profit and control profit margins, you must approach each film like a buyer; whether that be a client distributor or the end consumer,” says Sarra. The London-based executive has drawn inspiration from a variety of industry veterans during her fledgling career. She says: “I always remember Eric Welbers’ advice that ‘one’s network is one’s greatest asset’, and Harold Van Lier’s message to aim high and never stop dreaming big — he told me that I may not always win, that I may not always be right, but that the challenge is to make yourself and your films sustainable through the ups and the downs.”

Tania Sarra

and (co) productions/director sales ■ t.seiffert@senator.de

After studying production in the US and Germany, Tobias Alexander Seiffert wanted to follow a career in acquisitions and co-productions, but worked in marketing at different companies until a recent restructuring at Senator created a vacancy in acquisitions. “I owe a lot of the foundation I’m building on [to] Thorsten Ritter at Bavaria International, Brad Kembel at Summit, Michael Weber at The Match Factory, and Kalle Friz at StudioCanal,” he recalls. “But it truly was Helge Sasse, Peter Heinzemann and, most importantly, Milada Kolberg here at Senator who guided and let me piece together all my gathered experiences.” He adds: “Ultimately, it’s been my experience in marketing that brought me closer to understanding what makes a film work. Additionally, it helps to have a production background.” Starting at this year’s Berlinale, Seiffert was also given the opportunity to work on the production side at Senator.

“That makes sense when we as a company want to get on board projects earlier,” he explains. “It’s a new and exciting challenge for me and, given where and how I started out, this sort of thing brings me back to my roots. As cheesy as this may sound, I ultimately want to help bring good films to life and make them a success with audiences.”

Miyuki Takamatsu ■ CEO, international sales ■ Free Stone Productions (Jap) ■ info@freestone.jp

Miyuki Takamatsu has been a friendly face from Japan at international film markets over the past decade, driven by a desire to see Japanese cinema make its mark globally. “When I lived in the US during my college years I had difficulty seeing Japanese movies, though I recall some good films by Kitano, Miike and Kore-eda at the time. I’ve always wanted more Japanese films to cross borders, so I came back and started working in the industry. I began my sales career at Tokyo Broadcast System,” she remembers. After gaining experience at TBS, Takamatsu set up her own sales outfit, Free Stone Productions, in 2011. Free Stone has handled an impressive sales slate including high-profile titles such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Penance, Takahisa Zeze’s Heaven’s Story, Kaneto Shindo’s final film Postcard, as well as newcomer Ayumi Sakamoto’s multi-prize winning Forma. With Japan’s domestic market at a standstill, Takamatsu is poised to have a head start on the Japanese government’s recent initiatives to boost its content exports. “We need more people to go out and experience the international arena through festivals and markets. Free Stone would like to be a fresh and exciting hub for both Japanese and international film people,” she says.

Miyuki Takamatsu

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It is of course not all down to luck — it helps that she speaks Spanish, Catalan and English, for instance. Her taste leans towards “films that are really emotional and also those that challenge me”, and favourite directors include David Lynch, Darren Aronofsky, Julio Medem, Jacques Audiard, Quentin Tarantino and Pedro Almodovar. Villarino’s ambitions include setting out on her own. “I would love to run my own international sales and marketing company one day,” she says. Felipe Tewes

Felipe Tewes ■ Head of Latin America VoD ■ Under The Milky Way (US) ■ felipe.tewes@underthemilkyway.eu

Venezuela-born Felipe Tewes arrived at international digital aggregator Under The Milky Way after navigating a wide orbit through the industry. The Harvard graduate started out in the William Morris postroom, worked for James Schamus at the old Focus Features and bought mostly Latin American films for HBO. Tewes was educated by HBO in the nuances of the digital landscape and the importance of tech companies. “There is a growing need to adjust the strategy in managing VoD rights internationally… by managing [them] in a more centralised manner,” he says. The pay-TV giant also exposed him to “the talented, tight community in [Latin America] that is working hard to grow the industry.” Steeped in the films of Pablo Trapero, Pablo Larrain and Carlos Reygadas, Tewes is keen to help the region grow. “I want to work alongside the Latin American film community towards our shared goal of growing the influence of local distributors and producers, specifically by developing new ways for film from and in Latin America to be seen.”

Felix Tsang

“his sound judgment and international perspective”, offered him a full-time post in 2012. “I am a sucker for a great action movie, but it’s most important for a film to tell a powerful story with intriguing characters,” says Felix Tsang, who cites Golden Scene releases Rush and Her as recent personal favourites. “My mission is to bring as many good films as possible to Hong Kong audiences. The challenge is that at least six films are released every weekend and we don’t have enough screens. It’s difficult for smaller-scale movies to get a decent-sized release.” Despite the obstacles, Tsang says he has learned from his mentors, including Winnie Tsang and director Stanley Kwan, to pursue projects he believes in rather than simply crunching the numbers. Golden Scene recently produced and successfully released Adam Wong’s The Way We Dance and Fruit Chan’s The Midnight After, neither of which are obviously commercial films. Tsang helped out on the production and marketing of both titles.

Felix Tsang ■ Acquisitions manager ■ Golden Scene (HK) ■ felix@goldenscene.com

Felix Tsang started out on summer internships in the Hong Kong film and music industries, while studying communications at Chicago’s Northwestern University. After graduating, he started working part time at Hong Kong distributor Golden Scene, founded by his aunt Winnie Tsang who, impressed by

www.screendaily.com

Maite Villarino

Maite Villarino ■ Licensing and marketing executive ■ Embankment Films (UK) ■ mv@embankmentfilms.com

Barcelona-born Maite Villarino got her break in sales thanks to the DIVA programme, backed by Creative Skillset, which got her a job in international sales and marketing at Icon Entertainment. This area of the industry is a perfect match for her educational background — she graduated with a BA in media communications from Barcelona’s Faculty of Communication Blanquerna followed by a Masters in international film distribution from the University of London. At Icon, she met Hugo Grumbar, who founded Embankment Films in 2012 with HanWay veteran Tim Haslam. “Since first meeting them, they have both shared so much of their expertise with me, as a team we’re very empowered — we also have great fun,” Villarino says. “I’ve also been lucky to have put myself in the right place at the right time, learning from the right people,” she says.

John Von Thaden

John Von Thaden ■ Director of acquisitions ■ Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing

(US) ■ jvt@magpictures.com

John Von Thaden started on an internship at New Line in Los Angeles and eventually made his way to New York by way of IFC Films before landing his job at Magnolia Pictures. Now his world is about cutting through the noise of the distribution arena to deliver stories to their rightful audiences. Von Thaden can call on a first-rate education at the hands of several veterans. “My first boss, Mark Ordesky [at New Line], taught a film-school kid how to work in this business, shared acquisitions war stories and gave me experience in processes from development to release,” says Von Thaden. “Ryan Werner and IFC gave me a great education in the tireless distribution world. Now I’m incredibly lucky to continue learning about modern distribution working with [president] Eamonn Bowles and the acquisitions team Dori Begley and Peter Van Steemburg.” If there is a common thread, it is to keep the passion for film alive. But that’s not all. “Work as hard as you can, treat others well, a sense of humour doesn’t hurt. It sounds clichéd, but it gets s results,” he says. ■

May 2014 Screen International 45

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NORTHERN IRELAND TERRITORY FOCUS ■ OVERVIEW ■ INVESTMENT STRATEGY ■ FACILITIES ■ HOT TALENT

POWER PLAYS t’s very telling that people like composer-film-maker David Holmes and rising writerdirector Stephen Fingleton are leaving bigger cities, like London and Los Angeles, to return to their native Belfast. The city is booming — along with the rest of Northern Ireland. Of course, Games Of Thrones is key to this renaissance: the HBO series is now planning to shoot its

fifth season in Belfast and regularly employs up to 400 crew. Yet this success is about so much more than Westeros and Essos. In this territory focus, we profile a slew of exciting talents making waves with their projects, from gaming company Iglu Media to producers such as Mark Huffam. Film agencies sometimes try to take too much credit for a region’s suc-

cess but in this case it’s obvious that Northern Ireland Screen is pivotal in supporting all this activity. After all, talent without support rarely gets a shot. Now Northern Ireland Screen’s new Opening Doors strategy, and its $72.3m (£42.8m) investment package, can keep the country’s creative boom continuing for years to come. Wendy Mitchell, editor

Robot Overlords, starring Gillian Anderson and Ben Kingsley, shot in Northern Ireland

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May 2014 Screen International 47

northern ireland OVERVIEW

The game changer Northern Ireland’s production scene has been expanding rapidly thanks to major projects such as Game Of Thrones. Sarah Cooper looks at how the territory is continuing to grow its infrastructure and crews, while building up its local film-making industry

t is testament to how far Northern Ireland has come as a filming location that last summer the territory not only played host to season four of HBO’s Game Of Thrones but also managed to accommodate a Bollywood feature, an indie sci-fi film, a BBC TV drama series and a large-scale Hollywood fantasy feature. “The fact they were able to survive alongside Game Of Thrones is a really big statement and evidence there is beginning to be a real depth of crew in Northern Ireland,” says producer Aidan Elliott of Belfast and London-based Generator Entertainment, which was set up by Mark Huffam and Simon Bosanquet in 2008 to produce a mix of international and local projects including Cherrybomb and Whole Lotta Sole. “It feels to me that outside of London this is the strongest film industry in the UK,” adds Elliott, who together with Huffam is teaming with Microsoft Entertainment and Scott Free Productions for Sepia (working title), a large-scale digital feature project based on Xbox’s videogame Halo, which will shoot in Belfast and the surrounding area this month, directed by Sergio MimicaGezzan. “We looked at shooting in New Zealand, Morocco and South Africa but when it came down to it, the best value for money is actually in Northern Ireland, where you can get the tax credit and funding from [regional agency] Northern Ireland Screen. I don’t think you can beat that anywhere else in the world for production value and making money stretch,” Elliott explains. Similarly, Universal had originally planned to shoot its epic fantasy feature Dracula Untold — starring Luke Evans and Dominic Cooper — in eastern Europe, before realising that, financially, it made more sense to come to Northern Ireland. “They sent me costs for Romania and I showed them that they could do it more effectively in Northern Ireland,” explains Huffam, who with his strong international connections has played a crucial part in attracting a string of large-scale productions to the region including Playtone’s City Of Ember, Universal’s Your Highness and HBO’s Game Of Thrones, which Sky Atlantic broadcasts in the UK. Tempo Productions’ Piers Tempest has

48 Screen International May 2014

regularly chosen to produce projects in Northern Ireland rather than mainland UK, including Killing Bono, Grabbers and most recently Jon Wright’s Robot Overlords, starring Gillian Anderson and Ben Kingsley, which shot in Northern Ireland last summer and is being sold by Embankment Films. The next instalment in Wright’s planned monster trilogy, Robot Warlords, will also shoot there in 2015. “You are always thinking about what’s going to produce the best production value for the budget, and a pound spent in Northern Ireland goes much further than elsewhere in the UK,” says Yorkshire-based Tempest, who admits that with the one-hour flight to Belfast from Leeds, “it’s quicker for me to get to Belfast than it is to London”. Growing infrastructure “There are very few high-end TV shows and films that don’t mention Belfast when they are talking about locations,” says Greg Darby, founder of post-production house Yellow Moon, which having worked on projects including Line Of Duty, Game Of Thrones and Dracula Untold is one of a number of local companies to benefit from the influx of productions to the territory. “We’ve just moved into our fourth building in five years,” says Darby, who is optimistic the growth in production activity will continue, especially with the recent enhancements to the film tax credit, which are expected to attract more international projects to come to the UK to carry out their post work. Until recently, one missing piece of the puzzle was the presence of a high-end VFX company in Northern Ireland but that gap has been filled by Soho-headquartered Nvizible’s Belfast office, which opened in April, after merging with local outfit Factory Pictures. “Northern Ireland could provide anything for high-end feature film and TV apart from digital effects, so that’s where we came in,” explains Victoria Farley, who heads Nvizible’s Belfast office, which currently consists of eight local VFX artists who are being trained up by the company’s Soho team. The territory’s ever-growing crew base is thanks partly to the consistent presence of Game Of Thrones, which employs up to 400 crew members per season, and as part of

‘There’s a reason why Northern Ireland has the most successful screen industry outside London — they were the first across the finishing line’ Mark Huffam, Generator Entertainment

Northern Ireland Screen’s paid-placement scheme, is obliged to take on a certain number of local trainees each year across its departments. “Big productions like Thrones and Dracula Untold have started to attract quality talent to Northern Ireland, which traditionally might have ventured to the UK or US. It means we can make the whole film there with really fantastic crews and great line producers,” explains London-based producer Wayne Marc Godfrey, who is working on two Northern Ireland-set projects, Stephen Fingleton’s The Survivalist and A Patch Of Fog, written by local writers Michael McCartney and John Cairns. Fingleton, a 2013 Screen International Star of Tomorrow, is one film-maker who has chosen to move back to Belfast from London to capitalise on the growing opportunities in the region. “You will find a lot more filmmakers and crew going to live in Northern Ireland to match the expansion and my advice to anyone looking to break into the industry would be to move to Belfast because there’s such a huge demand for people with a hunger to succeed,” says the director. Together with its focus on training and development, Northern Ireland Screen’s CEO Richard Williams sees “making marriages” with international companies as key to building up the territory’s indigenous

BBC drama The Fall recently shot a second season in Belfast

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Road

Shooting For Socrates

industry, as well as trying to entice producers and directors to set up in Belfast. Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn’s 2013 critically acclaimed punk biopic Good Vibrations, for example, was produced by Belfast-based Canderblinks alongside with London-based Revolution Films. As well as David Mackenzie’s Starred Up — which shot at Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast — this year will see the release of several high-profile projects out of the region, including Shooting For Socrates, about the Northern Ireland football team making it to the 1986 World Cup finals, written by awardwinning Northern Irish writer Marie Jones, directed by James Erskine and starring John Hannah (sold by Metro International); and Liv Ullmann’s period feature Miss Julie starring Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell, which shot in Northern Ireland last spring (sold by Wild Bunch).

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Also set for release is feature documentary Road, about motorbike racers Robert and Michael Dunlop, produced by local company DoubleBand Films and narrated by Liam Neeson. The film, which was backed by Northern Ireland Screen and the BBC, recently opened the 14th Belfast Film Festival. Road is DoubleBand’s first venture into the world of feature documentaries, having previously established itself as a TV documentary company — a move that illustrates the growing ambition among some of the local industry’s key players. “It’s a story set in our backyard but one that can also translate to an inter-

Starred Up

national audience,” explains DoubleBand’s Michael Hewitt of the project, which is being sold internationally by The Works International, and is being distributed in the UK and Ireland by Kaleidoscope. The company, which was set up by Hewitt and Dermot Lavery in 1988, is also on the point of acquiring rights to a book that centres around jazz music and the First World War that has “no connection to Northern Ireland in terms of subject matter”. “We are becoming increasingly internationally focused,” adds Hewitt. There has also been a recent swathe of high-end TV dramas shooting in Northern Ireland, including Belfast-set BBC series The Fall, which has just filmed a second series in the city, and hit BBC police drama Line Of Duty, as well as London-based Mammoth Screen’s PG Wodehouse period drama Blandings, which returned to shoot a second series at Crom Castle in County Fermanagh in November. Blandings is the third Northern Ireland-based production for Mammoth Screen, which set up an office in Belfast in 2009. Meanwhile, the territory continues to attract interest from large-scale US TV productions following the introduction of the UK’s high-end TV tax credit, which was, according to Huffam, “largely driven by the Game Of Thrones model”. “Westminster took the lead from here and there is a reason why Northern Ireland has the most successful screen industry outside London — because they were the first across the finishing line,” he says. With the global hit Game Of Thrones already confirmed to shoot season five in Belfast, it is only a matter of time before more productions come rolling into town. The question now is, can Northern Ireland keep up? Huffam thinks so: “There is still a great enthusiasm for the film industry here and a great energy. The infrastructure is growing all the time but there is still plenty of s room to get bigger.” ■

May 2014 Screen International 49

NORTHERN IRELAND STRATEGY

Prepared for battle Northern Ireland Screen plans to place the territory at the forefront of the UK industry thanks to an ambitious new investment plan. Sarah Cooper reports

Fund for growth When it comes to nurturing local talent, Northern Ireland Screen offers script development funding to local writers and production companies as well as slate funding (see box). The agency also invests in local-language projects via its Irish language broadcast fund and Ulster-Scots broadcast fund. Northern Ireland Screen’s production funding comes in the form of a recoupable loan, usually up to $1.4m (£800,000) for projects that have at least 65% of their budget

50 Screen International May 2014

HBO

“

e like to think we’re competing not with the UK but with the rest of the world,” says Richard Williams, CEO of regional agency Northern Ireland Screen, which has in recent years been instrumental in not only attracting productions such as HBO’s Game Of Thrones to the territory but in helping to create a sustainable indigenous industry. The scale of Northern Ireland Screen’s ambitions can be seen through its four-year strategy Opening Doors, a $72.3m (£42.8m) investment plan to boost production, development and training across film, TV, games and animation, with a view to making Northern Ireland the strongest screen industry outside of London in the UK and Ireland, a title to which the territory could already make claim thanks to Game Of Thrones. With backing from Northern Ireland’s government, the new strategy marks a significant increase in funding from Northern Ireland Screen’s previous four-year plan, Driving Global Growth, which saw $46m (£27.3m) being invested between 2010-14. While the previous strategy brought a return of $204m (£121m), it is hoped the new plan will generate $328m (£194m) worth of direct spend in Northern Ireland. “The whole point of this new strategy is, we need it all,” says Williams of the decision to focus on all sectors of the industry, from large-scale productions through to digital content and animation. “You can’t sustain the infrastructure you need for independent film just through independent film; it needs to be sitting on an economic platform that’s driven by the big stuff.” Still, growing the indie sector remains a key priority. “Good Vibrations was a critical success but we need that to translate into audience success. We need to get to that moment in indie film where Scotland had Trainspotting and Shallow Grave,” says Williams.

Game Of Thrones, broadcast in the UK on Sky Atlantic, has been instrumental in driving the growth of Northern Ireland’s production industry

‘We need to get to that moment in indie film where Scotland had Trainspotting and Shallow Grave’ Richard Williams, Northern Ireland Screen

in place, which will shoot partially in Northern Ireland and can show the potential for economic benefit to the region. It is a package that is proving popular with both international producers and the local industry. “Northern Ireland Screen has good recognition of major projects that help to put us on the map, while also being very attentive to the local sector,” says Michael Hewitt of Belfast-based production company DoubleBand Films, whose first feature documentary Road was funded by Northern Ireland Screen. “It’s a very intelligent approach, because it means that if you’re a production company with an independent film and you say you’re from Northern Ireland, people know the quality of material that can be generated from the region,” adds producer Mark Huffam. Northern Ireland Screen’s new strategy will see an increased focus on training and development, an area the agency already takes very seriously. As well as organising a series of paid placements across Northern Ireland Screen funded projects, it also helps a delegation of local film-makers to attend the Berlin and Cannes film festivals, as well as offer funding for vocational courses. Another area of potential growth, says Williams, is within the digital sector, with local companies such as 360 Production and Iglu Media already carving out a niche through Northern Ireland Screen schemes such as the Creative Industries Innovation Fund, CultureTECH and Digital Circle. Meanwhile, Northern Ireland Screen intends to cultivate Northern Ireland’s grow-

ing reputation as an animation hub thanks to the presence of award-winning animation companies such as Sixteen South. It could be argued, however, that the agency’s most important mission is to find the next Game Of Thrones, albeit this time with a Northern Irish twist. Says Williams: “Within our four-year strategy we aim to have a largescale project that has an intellectual property relationship to Northern Ireland. That’s a big s ambition going forward.” ■

FUNDING FACTS AT A GLANCE ■ Production funding —

a recoupable loan of usually up to $1.4m (£800,000), to a ceiling of 25% of the overall budget. ■ Script development funding — $3,800 (£2,250) for individuals and up to $68,000 (£40,000) for companies. ■ Slate funding — up to $169,000 (£100,000) is available to independent production companies based in Northern Ireland and European production companies that have an office and staff based in Northern Ireland. ■ Short Film Funding — via the New Entrants Award of $3,800 (£2,250) and Emerging Film-makers Award of $7,600 (£4,500). ■ Northern Ireland Screen offers funding to local-language projects through its Irish Language Broadcast Fund and Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund, both of which invest a maximum of $675,000 (£400,000) up to a ceiling of 75% of total production costs.

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NORTHERN IRELAND FACILITIES

‘The diversity and scale of locations, and the quality of the crews, now makes it a great place to film’ Piers Tempest, producer, Robot Overlords

The next stage Northern Ireland offers low costs, studio space and great locations — and that’s before the expansion of Titanic Studios. Sarah Cooper reports

ith its stunning locations, easy transport to London and low cost base, Northern Ireland has established itself as one of the go-to filming locations for international productions. And now the region’s capacity for such productions looks set to increase thanks to a series of expansion plans at Belfast’s Titanic Studios, located in the city’s shipbuilding quarter. Already consisting of the vast 90 ft high Paint Hall Studio (where Game Of Thrones and Your Highness shot) and the combined 42,000 sq ft Hurst and MacQuitty sound stages, which were built in 2012, Titanic Studios has just received the greenlight to add a further two stages, totalling more than 43,000 sq ft. Some 53,000 sq ft of production support space over two levels will also be added. “Almost as soon as we completed the Hurst and MacQuitty stages [named

after two prominent Northern Irish filmmakers] in 2012, HBO took them for Game Of Thrones, but the demand was still there and production seems to be ever increasing,” says Michael Graham, director of corporate real estate at the Titanic Quarter, of the decision to add two new stages, which will be in place by March 2015. The $233m (£14m) development, which is being modelled loosely on Steiner Studios in New York, looks set to include a film and television school. And final negotiations are underway for a major equipment supplier to base itself on site. Meanwhile, the BBC is eyeing the studios as a possible new base for its Northern Ireland outpost. “The idea is to create a media community. There’s no better place to put it than close to where all the action is happening,” says Graham. But Titanic Studios is not the only

A representation of Titanic Studios’ planned expansion

52 Screen International May 2014

solution for international productions looking to shoot in the region. When Universal was scouting build space for Dracula Untold last summer, it found the answer in the form of a former Britvic bottling plant two miles outside the city, while less than 30 minutes outside Belfast is The Linen Mill Studios, comprising 77,000 sq ft of internal build space. Unique locations Castle Coole, a stately home in Enniskillen, played host last spring to Liv Ullmann’s 19th century period feature Miss Julie about the daughter of an AngloIrish aristocrat and her valet, starring Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell. “We were always going to shoot exteriors in Northern Ireland but we were looking at studios in other countries. Then we found Castle Coole, which was from the right period, and we decided to shoot all the interiors there,” says Lon-

Miss Julie filmed at Castle Coole stately home in Enniskillen

don-based producer Teun Hilte of Apocalypse Films. “The house had never been used for filming before, but the National Trust [which owns the property] was very helpful. It was only an hour and half from Belfast, and it worked very well,” adds Hilte. Meanwhile, the proximity to Belfast of a range of stunning locations continues to draw large-scale productions. “It’s a small country, so you can very quickly get from Belfast into diverse countryside — an hour to the south you are into the forest and mountains, an hour to the north and you’ve got the Jurassic Coast,” says Catherine Geary, location manager on Universal’s Dracula Untold, which saw Northern Ireland doubling for medieval Transylvania on the film’s 20-week shoot. As well as shooting at Tollymore Forest and the Mourne Mountains, the production also spent a day shooting at Giant’s Causeway, a huge coastal rock formation that also happens to be the region’s most popular tourist destination. “We couldn’t have done it without the support of local agencies and the National Trust, who bent over backwards to facilitate what we needed to do,” Geary says. Currently in post, Jon Wright’s Robot Overlords also shot across various locations in the region last summer including the coastal town of Donaghadee and at Carrickfergus Castle in County Antrim. “The diversity and scale of locations, combined with the quality of the crews, now makes it a great place to film,” says Robot Overlords producer Piers Tempest, who previously produced Wright’s first monster movie Grabbers as well as Killing Bono, both in Belfast. For Generator Entertainment’s Aidan Elliott, one of the benefits of shooting in Northern Ireland is how easy it is to make things happen. “We plan to film Sepia [a large-scale feature based on the Xbox game Halo] in the Titanic Museum in Belfast, a brand new museum complex. In London it would be unthinkable. Because of the size of Northern Ireland and the political willpower, we’re able to s make it work.” ■

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NORTHERN IRELAND TALENT

The talent pool Some of Northern Ireland’s hottest creative film talents tell Sarah Cooper about their latest projects Gareth Gray and Jonny Kane

Stephen Fingleton on the set of his short film, Magpie

Gaming and transmedia, Iglu Media

David Holmes Composer-producer-director, Canderblinks With major composing credits to his name including Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11 and Haywire, David Holmes turned his hand to directing, completing his first short I Am Here through Canderblinks, the Belfast-based production company he set up with local directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn (Good Vibrations) and producer Chris Martin. Part funded by Channel 4 with backing from Northern Ireland Screen, the BFI and the Irish Tourist Board, I Am Here — a homage to Holmes’ brother who died in 2013 — stars Edward Hogg and Liam Cunningham, alongside newcomer Corey McKinley. It was shot by acclaimed cinematographer Christopher Doyle among the disused farmyards of County Fermanagh. Holmes, a musician and DJ, has also produced and composed the score for Mark Cousins’ I Am Belfast. Meanwhile Barros D’Sa and Leyburn also have several projects in development for Canderblinks including The Corpse Carriers (working title), set during the plague in 17th-century Venice and Canderblinks (the same name as the company), about two sisters who receive a visit from their childhood imaginary friend. Holmes moved to Los Angeles for 18 months but has since returned to his native Belfast. He says: “Belfast is a really exciting place to be right now and there are so many opportunities. It really suits me living in Europe. I have access to everywhere. I’ve got a great studio, I can be in London in under an hour and in Paris in an hour and 15 minutes.”

54 Screen International May 2014

STEPHEN FINGLETON writer-director Derry-born Fingleton is about to go into prep on his first feature, The Survivalist, a dystopian thriller about a man living on a remote farm who strikes an uneasy bargain with a mother and daughter looking for shelter after society has collapsed. The Survivalist topped the Brit List of best unproduced scripts in 2013 and also made it onto the US equivalent Black List before being picked up by Robert Jones and Wayne Marc Godfrey at The Fyzz Facility. Godfrey describes Fingleton, who has also directed short film Magpie as a precursor to The Survivalist, as “a real talent with a uniquely distinctive voice”. Developed through Northern Ireland Screen’s New Talent Focus scheme, with funding from the BFI, Fingleton describes the project as “very much Take Shelter territory about male isolation, prophecy and higher values than simply surviving”.

The talented director, who was chosen as a Screen International Star of Tomorrow in 2013, is also working on a science fiction/horror feature with Scott Free Productions, about a group of people trapped in a hospital as the city comes under the influence of a malevolent force. Also in development is a script for Working Title about an investigator who uncovers a scandal that reaches to the heart of the establishment, which Fingleton calls a “London Chinatown”. Having recently moved back to his native Northern Ireland from London, Fingleton has been impressed by the “small but very high calibre film-making community in Belfast”, backed up by “regional financiers very much focused on bringing the industry to Northern Ireland and creating film-makers who can be supported by the market”.

Former law student Gareth Gray and former Northern Ireland Screen executive Jonny Kane set up their transmedia company Iglu Media in January 2012 when they won backing from Northern Ireland Screen’s Game for Film scheme to create a game based on Jon Wright’s Grabbers. The company has since created game versions for Canadian feature Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal, Ripple World Picture’s Earthbound and Midsummer Films’ Legendary starring Dolph Lundgren, with more projects in negotiation. The pair are looking to create their own Belfast-based studio, bringing the design of their games in-house, with plans for three full-time staff by the end of this year. “It’s a growing industry. The universities are churning out artists and programmers, the workforce is there, and there are companies like ours going out and bringing the work in,” says Gray, who focuses on project management and game design, while Kane specialises in rights and finance. “A game is not just a marketing tool, it can also add to the story and increase the value of the property as a whole. For the same cost you wouldn’t be able to afford posters on the Tube,” Gray adds.

Gareth Gray

Jonny Kane

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CHRIS BAUGH AND BRENDAN MULLIN director and producer, Six Mile Hill

Chris Baugh Chris Baugh and Brendan Mullin set up Six Mile Hill to make short horror film The Boys From County Hell, written and directed by Baugh, which shot in Northern Ireland in 2012. After taking the film onto the festival circuit, where it won best Irish short at Kerry Film Festival, the pair are now heading into production on a feature version, having brought Dublin-based company Bl!nder Films on board as a coproduction partner. Baugh, who worked as a development producer at Belfast’s Sixteen South, describes the darkly comic film as a cross between The Guard and Dog Soldiers. The story centres around a small town in Northern Ireland that is said to have been the real inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Michael McCartney and John Cairns Scriptwriters Belfast-based writers Michael McCartney and John Cairns caught the attention of London producer Robert Jones when their quirky script A Patch Of Fog won Northern Ireland Screen’s New Talent Focus Competition, aimed at encouraging Northern Irish screenwriting talent. Jones is now producing the film, which centres around a university lecturer who is blackmailed into becoming best friends with a security guard after he is caught shoplifting. Described by McCartney as “The Cable Guy meets Misery meets Sleuth”, the comic psycho-drama, which is backed by the BFI, Film 4 and Northern

John Cairns and Michael McCartney

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Brendan Mullin Working primarily with local Northern Irish writers, the duo now have at least six projects on their slate, across film and TV, with plans to make at least one feature a year. “We want to make elevated genre, with strong characters and good scripts,” says Baugh, who also directed a one-off Halloween drama for BBC Northern Ireland last year, Stumpy’s Brae, which was nominated for a Celtic Media Award, with backing from Northern Ireland Screen’s Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund. “In the past, people thought Northern Ireland only had certain stories to tell. Our plan is to open up more commercially minded work — stories from here, based here but with universal appeal,” says Mullin, who worked in development at Mammoth Screen before setting up Six Mile Hill.

Ireland Screen, is being directed by Northern Irish film-maker and NFTS graduate Michael Lennox, whose short film Back Of Beyond was in competition at Locarno Film Festival in 2012 and was nominated for a European Film Award. Jones is also working with McCartney and Cairns — who have been writing together for six years — on their thriller Sterile and an homage to the portmanteau horror films of the 1970s, The Men In White Coats, which is at the treatment stage and has secured BFI development funding. “We grew up when the only films made here were about the Troubles; now there are lots of people who are making genre films. It’s a very hopeful time here,” says Cairns.

The Boys From County Hell

Stuart Graham

Paul Kennedy, Louise Gallagher and Stuart Graham Writer-director, producers, KGB Films The first feature from Belfast-based production company KGB Films is Made In Belfast, a micro-budget comedy about a novelist living in Paris who returns to his native Northern Ireland to build bridges with friends and family whose secrets he exposed in a novel. Written and directed by Paul Kennedy, the film is inspired by “French cinema of the last two decades”. Shot in Northern Ireland and Paris in July 2012,

Paul Kennedy

the film opened Belfast Film Festival in 2013 before being picked up by sales agent Robbie Little at The Little Film Company. Kennedy and producers Louise Gallagher and Stuart Graham now have a number of projects on the KGB slate — thanks to investment from Northern Ireland Screen — including a pilot for a horror film written by novelist Stuart Neville and a new script written by Kennedy. “There wasn’t a long-term plan but after we made the movie we had so much fun, we saw we could turn it into our day jobs,” says Gallagher, formerly of s the BBC. ■

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REVIEWS Highlights of the month’s new films in Review. For full reviews coverage, see Screendaily.com

Reviews in brief Transcendence Dir Wally Pfister. US. 2014. 119mins

Transcendence comes packaged as a cautionary scifi drama, warning us about the dangers of unchecked technological advancement. But for all its chilly declarations of doom, the directorial debut of Christopher Nolan’s cinematographer Pfister works better as a subtly mournful love story between co-stars Johnny Depp and Rebecca Hall. As a result, Transcendence is one of those rare cases where a film’s big, marketable hook is not really its selling point, the story’s grand themes not nearly as resonant as its more modest exploration of intimate emotional terrain. After three weeks in North America it had taken a measly $21.3m. Tim Grierson CONTACT DMG ENTERTAINMENT www.dmg-entertainment.com

Iceman Dir Law Wing Cheong. HK-China. 2014. 103mins

Law’s ambitious attempt to remake Clarence Fok’s 1989 Hong Kong martial-arts fantasy The Iceman Cometh is beset by problems that even the star presence of Donnie Yen cannot save. The star power of Yen (also the film’s action director) will doubtless attract domestic and international audiences to Iceman — shown in 3D — but with precious few opportunities to showcase his talents, a narrative that frequently loses its footing, and effects that fall well shy of cutting edge, the results might take time to thaw. The production’s ballooning price tag likely fuelled the decision to cut Iceman in half and release it as two separate films. James Marsh CONTACT PEGASUS MOTION PICTURE DISTRIBUTION pegasusmovie.com

Heaven Is For Real Dir Randall Wallace. US. 2014. 100mins

Delivering its religious message with a lighter hand than its title suggests, Heaven Is For Real uses the likeability of lead Greg Kinnear to spin out some sentimental family drama about the good Christian folk of a small Nebraska town. The resulting $65.5m after three weeks in North America suggests the film has tapped into the US faithbased audience, and it could see a better than average — for the genre — international showing. These prospects look best in regions such as southern Europe and Latin America, though the relatively subtle tone might sell the film in more casually religious territories. John Hazelton CONTACT SONY PICTURES

56 Screen International May 2014

The Other Woman Dir Nick Cassavetes. US. 2014. 109mins

The tension between a bittersweet character comedy of discovered infidelity and the more commercial-minded, studio-dictated instincts of raucous sisterhood are everpresent in The Other Woman. Connecting slightly more often than not, this film works best as a showcase for the talents of Leslie Mann, who can wring rueful laughter of identification out of humiliation and angst unlike few actresses working today. After two weeks it had taken a very solid $47.3m in North America. After a whirlwind two-month relationship that she thinks is exclusive, New York City lawyer Carly Whitten (Cameron Diaz) discovers her beau, Mark King (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is married. She immediately ceases communication with Mark, but his devoted, stay-athome wife, Kate (Mann), tracks down Carly, desperate to make sense of the sudden upheaval in her world. The insistence with which Kate forces her way into Carly’s life wears down the latter, and the two women become friends. When they discover another mistress, Amber (Kate Upton), they rope her into their club and begin to plot revenge. Not merely because of his independent roots, director Cassavetes is in many ways an unusual and awkward fit for this material. Most of his best work has an element of injected socioeconomic class if not social justice outright, and he often seems bored in The Other Woman, which is a movie divorced from financial complications. In its plotting, Melissa Stack’s screenplay feels torn between genuine character study and more low-hanging fruit — scenes seemingly designed to elicit clucking recognition. After some hijinks involving oestrogen,

laxatives and hair-removal cream, a more specific plot of revenge, involving Mark’s financial shenanigans, takes shape but it seems hazy and underfed. It is frustrating, too, that despite being a lawyer, the script contorts to necessitate Carly asking her oft-divorced father (Don Johnson) for professional advice. And scenes with Kate’s sympathetic brother Phil (Taylor Kinney), part of an effort to ‘redeem’ Carly and nudge the movie towards a pat social resting place for all, feel additionally contrived. The value added by the inclusion of Amber is marginal. Though it affords the chance for a few choice oneliners (“I feel like it’s good because she brings up our group average,” says Kate upon seeing her) and drives most of the third act, The Other Woman is at its best when it is simply assaying the cracked, unlikely friendship between Kate and Carly, and mining each woman’s recognisably human discombobulation, vulnerability and resolve. Thankfully, this is more than half the film. In Carly and especially Kate, Stack delivers two fleshed-out, engaging characters. She also admirably digs into Kate’s conflicted feelings about her husband’s philandering, showing there is probably a sincere partnership there, despite his serial betrayals. Mann and Diaz have a great rapport, jointly anchoring the film. Mann has, in a number of husband Judd Apatow’s films, shown an adept touch when locating the humour in emotional breakdown, and The Other Woman is to date her most fruitful vehicle in this regard. Brent Simon CONTACT 20th CENTURY FOX

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Dior and I

Every secret thing

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The House of Dior’s latest recruit takes his designs from concept to catwalk in this stylish documentary See page 58

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Reviews in brief Brick Mansions Dir Camille Delamarre. US-Fr-Can. 2013. 100mins

Always in motion, rarely entertaining, Brick Mansions is a silly, disposable action movie soured by the untimely death of star Paul Walker. This English-language remake of the fitfully gripping French film District B13 feels perfunctory in its tale of unlikely partners trying to take down a criminal mastermind. But Brick Mansions’ genre clichés pale in comparison to the film’s would-be bad-boy irreverence, which ends up seeming in poor taste in light of Walker’s death in a high-speed car crash. The film may spark some interest from genre buffs who want their action grittier than a Captain America flick, but with summer movie season imminent, this looks to be a marginal theatrical player. Tim Grierson CONTACT EUROPACORP

www.europacorp.com

Bears Dirs Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey. US. 2014. 78mins

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Dir Marc Webb. US. 2014. 142mins

The good-natured charm of the Spider-Man character and the delightful chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone combine to make superhero sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2 an enjoyable — if rather unwieldy at times — adventure romp. Its predecessor topped $750m at the worldwide box office, and the latest addition to the rebooted franchise looks likely to be a healthy spring hit for Sony. Opening weekend in North America was a solid $91.6m, in addition to an international figure of $277.5m after three weeks. UK actor Garfield has slipped nimbly into the Spidey suit, convincing as both troubled Peter Parker and as a genial, wisecracking superhero. His chemistry with the ever-delightful Stone — who sports a stylish series of coats for a presumably impoverished intern — is the glue that holds the film together. The action, effects, angst and destruction may be the movie gloss, but their relationship carries the picture. In the not-so-distant era of the Tobey Maguire/Sam Raimi Spider-Man, the initial stab at the franchise came unstuck with Spider-Man 3, which was over-laden with villains and lost the heart of the character. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes close to losing its way due to its overly plotted baddies and the need for spectacular pyrotechnics. While it recovers its momentum in the last third — and does a great job in setting up the next sequel — there is a rather unwieldy sense to its structure as characters slug it out for screen time. In fact the film’s opening — which tackles the backstory to Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s parents — is a case in point. Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz (in flash-

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back as the parents) get involved in one of those now rather familiar fights with a bad guy on board a private jet, resulting in an unnecessarily flashy action sequence that simply delays proceedings. But once we do get to see Spider-Man — the impressive POV web-swinging making the most of the 3D — as he takes on a band of thuggish robbers, there is the sense the film is at least heading in the right direction. Action scenes out of the way for a while, the film tackles the relationship between Peter and Gwen Stacy (Stone). The will-they-won’t-they nature of their romance is the spine of the film, and naturally enough there are plenty of hiccups along the way. These include Jamie Foxx’s Max Dillon, a Spidey fan with a comb-over and gappy teeth who works in the electrical department at Osborn Corporation (Oscorp). He is transformed into Electro after an accident sees him take a swim with some rather angry electric eels. An innocent who is driven mad, his newfound powers see him take on Spidey in a spectacular Times Square effects sequence. Garfield nails the blend of gawky charm and low-key sex appeal that defines Peter and while he delivers the expected Spider-Man quips with skill, he is always more interesting as the man rather than the superhero. His romance with Gwen is delightful, with Stone the dream girl for any mild-mannered photojournalist/web-slinging hero, and their relationship is a dose of honest tenderness in amid the grandstanding action. Mark Adams

Extraordinarily intimate and engaging throughout, co-directors Fothergill and Scholey’s stirringly captured wildlife movie leaves a sincere sense of awe and reverence within viewers’ hearts. Bears follows single mother Sky and her two cubs, Scout and Amber, over the course of a year as they emerge from hibernation. The animals make their way towards the streams and meadows that provide sustenance, and Sky’s cubs learn the world is exciting but also full of danger — even for animals as impressive as the grizzly bear. Brent Simon CONTACT WALT DISNEY STUDIOS

Draft Day Dir Ivan Reitman. US. 2014. 110mins

If Moneyball were about American football rather than baseball, and featured sitcom-like characters rather than sharp-edged protagonists, it would be Draft Day, a genial, saggy comedy-drama that coasts a long way on the reliable presence of Kevin Costner. Purporting to be an insider look at one of the biggest days on the National Football League calendar — the professional teams’ drafting of collegiate players — this film assumes you will not mind how preposterous it is, sacrificing authenticity whenever a feelgood moment or easy laugh can be had. Despite the NFL’s attempts to expand its brand into Europe, it seems doubtful that Draft Day will be a huge draw in overseas markets. Tim Grierson CONTACT SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT www.lionsgate.com

CONTACT SONY PICTURES

May 2014 Screen International 57

REVIEWS

Tribeca Reviews in brief 5 To 7 Dir/scr Victor Levin. US. 2014. 96mins

A lush cross-cultural romance set against the dreamy backdrop of Manhattan, writer-director Levin’s old-fashioned but witty film ticks all the right boxes when it comes to its literary tale of an unlikely romance between a wannabe writer and a sophisticated married French woman. While the story is rather safe and straightforward, it is carried along by the charisma of star Bérénice Marlohe. Anton Yelchin may be the supposed lead here, with the likes of Glenn Close and Frank Langella on board to rack up the class quota, but it is Marlohe (last seen as a doomed Bond girl in Skyfall, a film that did nothing to make use of her abilities) who lights up the screen and makes the rather inaccessibly titled 5 To 7 memorable. Mark Adams CONTACT WME www.wmeentertainment.com; CAA www.caa.com

Chef Dir/scr Jon Favreau. US. 2014. 115mins

There is life after caviar in Chef, Favreau’s food farce about a trendy cook being forced downmarket. The ensemble comedy, built around the actordirector as a celebrity chef done in by his restaurant owner (Dustin Hoffman) and a nasty food blogger (Oliver Platt), has so many possible marketing hooks that its audience won’t be limited to Favreau fans. The cast includes Sofia Vergara (as the chef ’s ex) and a brunette Scarlett Johansson (a restaurant hostess), plus a magnificently understated burlesque turn from Robert Downey Jr, playing an ex of Favreau’s ex. John Leguizamo and Bobby Cannavale as sous chefs round out the ensemble. Chef is harmless fun with a likeable cast, and enough food on the screen to boost sales at the concessions stand. The film won Tribeca’s audience award. David D’Arcy CONTACT ALDAMISA ENTERTAINMENT jhausfater@aldamisa.com

Gabriel Dir/scr Lou Howe. US. 2014. 88mins

Rory Culkin is mesmeric in writer-director Howe’s striking film about a mentally disturbed young man, and while the film may tread familiar downbeat territory at times, it is difficult to forget the impressive lead performance. It is a tough watch, but the gradual revelations of the character’s issues keep it intriguing and challenging. Hardly an easy sell commercially, it could well feature heavily on the festival circuit. Gabriel (Culkin) is released from an asylum where he has resided for the past year on the understanding that this is his last chance to prove he can function in the outside world. He has to keep on taking his medication and live with family, but Gabriel has other plans. Mark Adams CONTACT PREFERrED CONTENT www.preferredcontent.net

58 Screen International May 2014

Tribeca film festival

Dior And I Dir Frédéric Tcheng. Fr. 2014. 90mins

The venerable Parisian couture house Christian Dior gets a makeover in Dior And I, which follows a new design director’s rough journey to the runway. The documentary, by cinematographer Tcheng (Valentino: The Last Emperor, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel), will draw audiences for its rare glimpse behind the scenes in a domain where the public never ventures. Its elements are not the most charismatic or cinematic, yet it has style. Dior has consumers wherever people have money to shop, or just look — and so will this doc. Tcheng joins his subject just as the firm has taken on Belgium’s Raf Simons (from Jil Sander) as its new design director. Simons, who speaks little French — odd for a Belgian, crazy for the most French of fashion houses — is a professed minimalist tasked with taking into the future the brand known for sumptuousness and the New Look. How he gets there in his first show is the story. It is an odd fit, as Tcheng observes in Simons’ encounters with Dior’s long-standing staff (all Frenchspeaking), and in tight-lipped meetings with the company’s management, in the persons of Sidney Toledano and French LVMH luxury brands zillionaire Bernard Arnault. There is another presence here, the voice of Christian Dior, read from his memoir in sonorous French. Just as you won’t hear much that is critical of Arnault the businessman, you won’t hear anything unflattering about Dior himself, certainly not his role in dressing the wives of Nazi occupiers during the Second World War. Also left unmentioned is the anti-Semitic rant by Simons’ predecessor, the extravagant John Galliano, whose ousting as chief designer left a space for the new

man. These are major gaps in a film that purports to bring you fashion history. What Tcheng does give us is the fly-on-the-wall observation of how the tall, urbane, aloof and unexciting Simons rallies the house to show a new line. This is not a leader whom troops would follow up a hill under fire. Nor does he turn on the charm for the camera. Typically, a runway show is a sprint seen only by insiders. One public inspiration for new couture under Simons is Jeff Koons’ Puppy sculpture, a huge cartoonish creation made entirely of flowers. In the studio, the job of converting Koons into couture relies on gifted artisans who have never heard of the artist. Yet the film’s secret is Dior’s corps in the atelier: prodigious craftspeople and warm-hearted funny veterans of the shop floor with all the zest of Parisians out of Zola, René Clair or Jean Renoir. The women are loveable character actors in their first movie appearances, and they make the film more than an airbrushed, albeit entertaining, infomercial. You cannot get enough of them. Of course the show goes on, but only after Simons spray-paints a white jacket black (“bombing it”, as he calls it, using a graffiti artist’s term) with no room to move before showtime. Who knows whether Old Man Dior would have approved? Dior And I has high production values, befitting a doc about couture made by a cinematographer, although footage on the run conveys the rough pandemonium of what leads to beauty on display. Wondrous scenes of the actual making of garments remind you it is not all about the men at the top. David D’Arcy CONTACT SUBMARINE

josh@submarine.com

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Tribeca Reviews in brief In Your Eyes Dir Brin Hill. US. 2014. 105mins

A well-sustained fantasy romance about a mismatched couple who share a telepathic link, In Your Eyes is a story that could so easily have been mishandled, but as scripted by Joss Whedon it has the perfect balance of humour and tenderness, with just a dash of danger and even melodrama. While perhaps too quirkily low key to be a boxoffice smash (it went straight to VoD in the US after its Tribeca world premiere), In Your Eyes is driven by delightful central performances by Zoe Kazan and Michael Stahl-David, and as ever Whedon is terrific at warm, witty dialogue. There are a few moments of supposed ‘mild peril’ but it is a film resolute in its core notion that love will conquer all. Mark Adams CONTACT CAA

www.caa.com

The Newburgh Sting Dirs Kate Davis, David Heilbroner. US. 2014. 87mins Tribeca film festival

Every Secret Thing Dir Amy Berg. US. 2014. 93mins

An admirably grim and gritty crime story driven by a series of striking lead performances — particularly from the actresses on show here — the appropriately downbeat Every Secret Thing is a gripping and at times shocking story that should find an appreciative audience. The film, which had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, marks the fiction feature debut for acclaimed documentary maker Berg (who made West Of Memphis). Based on the novel by Laura Lippman — and working from a script by Nicole Holofcener — this is classic crime material, and while the film lacks an easy gun-toting action spin that would have made it an easier sell, its thoughtful and increasingly tense structure works in its favour, and allows its actors to gradually reveal their characters. While there are some strong male characters (well played by Common and Nate Parker), the film is essentially about how a series of different — and in some cases, very troubled — women deal with the concept of motherhood. Some of them in a very dark and troubling way. There is a similar tone at times to Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River — especially in terms of the bleak and matter-of-fact backdrops — as past and present collide and as childhood friends are forced to adjust to each other. Every Secret Thing is, however, very much its own film, with nuanced and complex characters destined to clash on their flawed journeys. Nearly a decade before the story starts, a quiet suburb on the outskirts of New York City was shocked when an infant was snatched from the porch of her home and found dead a few days later by young police officer Nancy Porter (Elizabeth Banks). It became even more shocking when two eight-year-old girls, Alice Manning

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and Ronnie Fuller, were convicted of the crime and sent to a juvenile detention facility. Now 18 years old and released from custody, Alice (Danielle Macdonald) and Ronnie (Dakota Fanning) return to their hometown. They have barely spoken to each other, and each seems eager to put the past behind them, though neither seems to have much of a future. When, a short time after their release, another toddler goes missing in similar circumstances — both missing children were girls of mixed-race parentage — police investigate and Porter, now a full detective, and her partner Jones (Parker), interview Alice and Ronnie to see if there is any connection. Ronnie seems troubled by what had happened to her, insisting the original crime had been Alice’s idea, while the plump and surly Alice, brought up alone by her cloying mother (Diane Lane) seems to live in her own world. She insists Ronnie must be the one behind the new crime, but as Porter races against time to solve the disappearance it becomes increasingly clear that things are far more complex than they appear on the surface. Secrets and dark truths are finally revealed. Every Secret Thing is littered with fine performances. Lane is wonderfully skittish as the blinkered mother; Banks is tough but compassionate as the cop — a nice change of pace against her recent comedy and fantasy roles; Fanning is impressive as the tormented teen; and Macdonald shines as the manipulative girl with serious issues. Mark Adams CONTACT HYDE PARK INTERNATIONAL www.hydeparkentertaiment.com

Four black Muslim men sit in federal prisons for plotting to blow up synagogues in the Bronx in 2009. This probing documentary says the FBI was the plot’s instigator and its smoking gun is the government’s own video. Rigorous and incendiary, The Newburgh Sting premiered at Tribeca soon after journalists received prizes for their coverage of the Snowden spying revelations and Boston mourns the first anniversary of the marathon bombing. The film should bring the media back to the 2009 case, thus ensuring a theatrical showing in the US before it airs on HBO. The elements of a classic frame-up — right out of 24, Homeland or Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line — won’t help rally Muslims or anyone else to the US’s side in the war on terror. David D’Arcy Contact Impact Partners dan@impactpartnersfilm.com

Time Is Illmatic Dir One9. US. 2014. 74mins

The 20th anniversary of New York rapper Nas’s acclaimed debut album Illmatic proves the perfect platform for this slight but thoughtfully structured documentary, offering both context of the cultural importance of hip-hop but also illuminating Nas’s influence and power of his words. Very much a New York film, this feature debut from multimedia artist One9 opened Tribeca Film Festival. While its core focus on the album itself does indicate there is a larger story to tell, it offers a fascinating and even moving account of a musician whose work is driven and influenced by his home environment. One9 does an impressive job of keeping it tight and never letting the film slip over into hero worship. Mark Adams CONTACT SUBMARINE ENTERTAINMENT dk@submarine.com

May 2014 Screen International 59

ASK THE EXPERTS

We ask film festival regulars

‘What are your Cannes rituals?’ “I go to Monoprix on the first day and meet all the industry people with their caddies full of bottles — like mine! It’s the best way to first see people. Once you’ve queued in a Monoprix with someone, you can’t pretend to ignore them on Montée des Marches later on.” Sylvain Auzou Deputy director, Venice Days

“On the days that my films premiere, I put on my right sock first. It’s like Zinedine Zidane before a football match. I wish I could drink chicken blood because I heard it brings luck — but it looks disgusting!” Pape Boye Managing director, Versatile Films

“On our first day, we will take a long, leisurely lunch at the beach. We have been doing that since time immemorial — it helps us prepare for the hectic frenzy to come.” Fred Tsui General manager, head of sales & international co-productions, Media Asia Film

“I book into Al Charq, the Lebanese restaurant. It was the first place I went to in my first year at Cannes 18 years ago. It struck me as odd in Cannes, where all the other restaurants seemed to be Italian. I’ve since become good friends with the owners, who try to get me drunk if I see them in La Chunga — another of my rituals.” Harrison Kordestani President, Main Street Films

AL MUNTEANU, CEO, SQUAREONE ENTERTAINMENT

“Over the past few years, Cannes has welcomed me with torrential rain. Hence, my first order of business is to put on my galoshes and to identify the most determined Senegalese umbrella sales guy. I allocate 15 minutes to negotiate, exchange arguments, re-negotiate. Once I have managed the umbrella acquisition with success and dignity, and am able to sell my new Senegalese friend on the concept of win-win, I truly feel ready to take on any film sales company on the Croisette.”

60 Screen International May 2014

“Listening to punk music gets me from the Martinez to the Majestic in five minutes — I have to get all medieval and go back to my youth when it comes to manoeuvring the Croisette. Circle Jerks, Fear, Minor Threat, Angry Samoans — music that gets me there faster.” Wendy Rutland President of film and TV investment, Da Vinci Media Ventures

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stop in toronto and start something big. TIFF Industry saw a 97% increase in attendance at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival Conference. To service this growth for 2014, we’ll expand our footprint in the Festival Village with: • a larger Conference venue • more meeting space in our Industry Centre • new outdoor promotional opportunities to support film sales • increased capacity for Press & Industry screenings Visit tiff.net/industry for more updates and to register today!