BY LUCY COHEN BLATTER With over 300 film titles and 800 buyers i n t e r n a t i o n a l l y , CinemaVault Releasing is a fixture on the TV and film market scene, in addition to both the big and small screens worldwide. In 2008 alone, the company will attend 17 markets and festivals around the globe, one of which will be this month’s MIP-TV. “We go to MIP-TV to meet with the tremendous range of buyers that are present,” said Caroline Stern, a senior Sales executive at CinemaVault, pointing specifically to a “sizable number of video buyers” with whom she plans to meet. But, according to Stern, a worldwide collapse of the video market, in which “the volume of acquisitions in territories around the world is down,” has made TV sales increasingly important to the company. Ruby Rondina, Festivals and Publicity manager at CinemaVault, said she chooses to “attend the biggest and most important festivals — Cannes, Toronto, Berlin, Sundance — in order to acquire films.” But, she added, “we also attend festivals where our films are screening in order to push the films to buyers.” Luckily, the company has plenty of arthouse and commercial films with which to lure buyers. One of the newest theatrical features in the CinemaVault catalogue, entitled Blind Date , premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, and will be available at MIP-TV. The film, directed by Stanley Tucci, is the second part in a three-part series based on the films of controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, and has been co-financed by Cinemavault. The first film in the series, Interview, starring Sienna Miller and Steve Buscemi, has already been sold to Sony Pictures Classics, which released the film theatrically and on DVD in the U.S., and to various other buyers around the world, including Kinowelt in Germany and Diaphana in France. The third and final film in the series, 1-900, will be directed by John Turturro, and will begin production this spring. The company also owns rights to the original van Gogh films from which the new titles are adapted. Another new feature is Morgan Spurlock’s Confessions of a Superhero, a documentary by the director of Supersize Me , which chronicles the lives of three men and one woman making their livings as superheros on the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard. Arthouse films are strongly represented in CinemaVault’s catalogue, but titles range from commercial features to documentaries to family entertainment. When asked what he looks for in a film, the company’s CEO and founder, Nick Stiliadis, said simply, “quality. At the end of the day, it’s quality that will give our films longevity.” A 30-year veteran of the film business who has produced or executive produced over 30 feature films, Stiliadis previously ran a production company called S Entertainment. In 2000, he decided to concentrate on distribution, merging his production expertise with knowledge of sales to form CinemaVault Releasing. “One thing that makes us unique,” he said, “is our ability to deal with issues related to the entire process of making and marketing a film — from pre-production to distribution.” The company, which has 18 full-time employees, launched with a five-year business plan. Having exceeded expectations, the plan was revised for another five years in 2005. The company is a member of the Independent Film & Television Alliance (the organizers of AFM), the Canadian Film and Television Production Association and the Video Software Dealers Association. Though Stiliadis chose to keep the company’s base in Toronto, Canada, where he lives, aside from location, he says there’s nothing noticeably Canadian about the company. While CinemaVault does represent some Canadian titles, they’re not the company’s focus. Thanks to today’s technology, Stiliadis said, one can be a strong force in the entertainment business without being based in Los Angeles. And contrary to some reports, a company can also be a strong force without being a studio or a mini-major. “With a smaller company, you also have lower overhead, and get to try new things you wouldn’t be able to do as a larger company,” Stern said. “Plus, we have the opportunity to work with the studios,” she said, pointing specifically to a new comedy entitled Outsourced, which is described as a “comedy of cross-cultural differences with a touch of romance” and will be released by Twentieth Century Fox in Germany. “While it’s impossible to compete with the studios,” Stiliadis said, “we can augment what they’re bringing out there. For that reason, we’re always looking for real diamonds in the rough and for producers with unique visions. “Once we find them,” he said, “we work closely with them to make sure they get the maximum exposure.” V I D E O • A G E AP R I L 2 0 0 8 14 C o m p a n y P r o f i l e CinemaVault: A Small Company That’s Big in Film, TV Sales Nick Stiliadis, CEO and founder of Cinemavault Caroline Stern, senior Sales executive at Cinemavault Interviewwas sold to Sony Pictures Classics
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