2 IS SU E
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 - MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 2016
AT THE ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL
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Execs hail opportunities despite market crush Christine Vachon
Gender gap brings high price BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW
Both Hollywood and the independent film world are missing a financial trick by failing to engage with female audiences, top sales agents, agents and producers warned at a panel on the economic impact of the gender gap in the film business at the Zurich Summit on Saturday. “There’s a lot of money left on the table when you’re leaving out certain audiences,” said agent Laura Lewis of Creative Artists Agency. Film sales supremo Kim Fox of MadRiver Pictures, noting the recent box-office success of US comedy Bad Moms, underlined the fact that women liked films capturing their realities. Top indie producer Christine Vachon said there was huge pressure to cast male stars to draw in financiers and distributors. “With Still Alice, there was a lot of pressure for us to cast up for the role of the husband and the running joke was that it wasn’t called Still Alice And John. We were lucky that Alec Baldwin didn’t have that ego a lot of male actors have that would have prevented him from being involved in a good movie.”
American Pastoral
NEWS Fighting for space Local distributors battle US-heavy market » Page 3
INTERVIEW Olivier Assayas The French film-maker on directing Kristen Stewart and writing for Polanski » Page 4
REVIEW American Pastoral
BY ANDREAS WISEMAN
“The business is in a better place than it has ever been,” according to Sony Picture Classics cofounder Michael Barker. Speaking on a heavyweight Zurich Summit panel about independent film financing and releasing, Barker expressed optimism about the large number of revenue streams currently available to film-makers and financiers. “Right now, we have to pay attention to every revenue stream,” he said. “Airlines are better, TV offers a different mosaic, there is DVD, streaming, international. There’s a big future in China.” Black Swan and Jackie producer Scott Franklin of Protozoa Pictures said he “saw more promise” in the market: “I see more pre-buys than a year ago. There is more competition. It’s promising and exciting.” However, Barker cautioned that the US market continues to suffer from saturation. “Audiences are overwhelmed by product,” he said. “The challenge of US distribution now is the glut of new material. Our job is to make films distinctive. It’s very difficult. But distribution is more creative than ever in the 35 years I’ve been doing this.” Cutting through to audiences requires distributors to rethink their release models. “We all have
TODAY
Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut finds a strong emotional core » Page 7
SCREENINGS Today and tomorrow’s line-up » Page 9
The Zurich Summit at the Dolder Grand
to make a decision when we do these films: what kind of release does this film deserve?” asked Barker. “Does it require theatrical, does it require day-and-date?” Lionsgate Motion Picture cochairman Patrick Wachsberger agreed, calling the US release calendar “a minefield”, which necessitates more day-and- date releasing. The executive said Lionsgate releases around 40 films day-and-date each year. SPC has never released a feature day-anddate but Barker admitted “it isn’t out of the realm of possibility”. The need for smart, early prebuys is greater than ever, the panel agreed. By example, Barker paid tribute to Lionsgate’s acquisition of awards favourite La La
Land: “It’s important to understand what Patrick [Wachsberger] did by committing to La La Land early. That was a huge risk and it paid off. I remember when the script was passed around. Everyone loved it but everyone was afraid because the budget was much higher. Patrick rose to the occasion.” CAA co-head of film finance Roeg Sutherland predicted a Best Picture win for the film and Wachsberger himself joked that his “tux was at the dry cleaners” in anticipation of a night at the Oscars. The panel also noted the crush of awards season, with Wachsberger revealing that Lionsgate can shell out up to $6m on an awards campaign.
Monday highlights
Oliver Stone slams Swiss surveillance charter
Ewan McGregor flies into Zurich on Monday for the special gala screening of his directorial debut American Pastoral. Also screening on Monday will be Egyptian director Mohamed Diab’s hard-hitting post-revolution drama Clash , which recently won the endorsement of Tom Hanks as a “must-see”.
US director Oliver Stone, at the Zurich Film Festival with his politically charged film Snowden, says he expects Swiss voters to back a new surveillance law in a national referendum on Sunday. Speaking at the Snowden press conference, the Oscar-winning director said a ‘yes’ vote was inevitable but warned against it
nonetheless. “Governments keep repeating it: ‘Terror, terrorism, fear, fear’ and how they need more laws to catch these people,” he said. “That’s not in evidence. The more information they get, the less they see.” The Swiss government claims the intelligence services need wider surveillance powers to
counter terror attacks. “Everyone will vote in the direction of more security which is insanity,” said Stone. “Don’t forget the Nazis offered the same deal in the 1930s. They said, ‘We need to protect you and in return…’ Well you saw what happened. You think you’re going to get more security but I don’t believe it.” Melanie Goodfellow
Oscar push for Aquarius’ Sonia Braga BY KALEEM AFTAB
Following Brazil’s controversial decision to select David Schurmann’s drama Little Secret to represent the country at the 89th Academy Awards, director Kleber Mendonca Filho has confirmed that his film’s US distributor Vitagraph Films will launch an Oscar campaign for Sonia Braga in the hopes of securing a Best Actress award.“They are going to try and push Sonia,” confirmed Mendonca Filho at the Zurich Film Festival. Aquarius opens in the US on October 14. Mendonca Filho revealed that the campaign will kick off in two weeks with a dinner in Los Angeles. This follows the controversy on the red carpet at Cannes, when the film-makers led a protest against the suspension of Brazil’s president Rousseff Dilma, who was dismissed on the same day that Aquarius was released in Brazil. Mendonca Filho is still upset by the nomination snub. “The only real bummer is the Oscar campaign. It’s almost like film criticism: it’s not about what is the best film, it’s about what film is the most prestigious. And Aquarius is Brazil’s most prestigious film for many years.”