V I D E O • A G E Se p t e m b e r/ Oc t o b e r 2 0 0 9 22 BY LUCY COHEN BLATTER The fall season brings four major festivals in two countries. Beginning in late August and running through October, international film executives attend the 33rd Montreal World Film Festival (Aug. 27-Sept. 7), the 66th Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2-12), the 34th annual Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 10-19), and the fourth annual International Rome Film Festival (Oct. 15-23). These come in addition to second-tier festivals like the Cologne Film TV Festival (Sept. 30-Oct.4) in Germany, Antalya Golden Orange (Oct. 10-17) in Turkey and the Bucharest International Film Festival, recently renamed the Romania International Film Festival, held in Arad (Sept. 27-Oct. 4). And don’t forget the upcoming American Film Market (Nov. 4-11) in Santa Monica, California, which is associated with the AFI Fest being held in Los Angeles (Oct. 30-Nov. 7). But in such a depleted economic climate, the question remains: Is there a need for all of these? A survey of executives found that many are choosing one or two of the festivals to attend, as opposed to covering all ground. “We alternate,” said Caroline Stern, v.p. of International Distribution at Canada’s Cinemavault. “We send our acquisitions team to Montreal most years, and Rome is important in terms of Italian sales. But we only send representatives if we have a film there,” she added. “We’ll always do Toronto, and Venice if we have a film there, but otherwise we put a lot of time and money into Toronto.” Steve Arroyave, founder of Canadabased Arrow Entertainment, attended the festivals in both Toronto and Montreal looking for acquisitions, and concurred that Toronto has become the must-attend film event of the fall, despite the fact that it has no formal market. “It’s arguably number two behind Cannes,” he said. “A lot more distributors have been going there.” But, he was somewhat skeptical that attendance would be high at the various fall festivals. “Things have been incredibly slow the last six months or so. It’s probably been the worst I’ve seen it in the 20 years since I’ve been in the business. We’re having a hard time selling films. The video market has really gone down and in the past six months TV stations have not been buying as much.” But Arroyave pointed out that the slowing of sales could present an opportunity for those looking to acquire more titles. “A lot of sales agents are in trouble, so there might be better deals this time around.” Cinemavault’s Stern explained that she and her colleagues tend to use TIFF, which she described as “the first key market after the summer,” to follow up on talks that began earlier in the year. “Our strategy for sales has never been to compete with festival activity. Unlike in Cannes, Santa Monica’s AFM and Berlin, we don’t set up screenings. We use it as a place to follow up from Cannes,” she said. Speaking of the year’s crowded calendar, Stern pointed out that, “Every year, there seem to be more and more events and festivals that are extremely significant within their territories. It’s the same every season. We have to pick and choose based on which will have the best attendance and which will be most significant for local marketing possibilities.” According to a Toronto-based film and TV financier, “Toronto is much more important [than Montreal]. It is number two in the world after Cannes. Montreal is a niche event, and has had a volatile past.” AMontreal-based filmmaker provided the following assessment: “The Montreal World Film Festival is more or less the launching pad for new film makers as well as a high brow, intellectual festival. It is truly an international film fest as it showcases films from everywhere. A select few industry people go to Montreal, although it has a huge local consumer following. The market [side of the event] is focusing on the new ‘carriers’ rather than classic physical distribution. “Toronto is a business hub and the who’s who of the industry is present. “Montreal is more where you discover films and film makers while Toronto is where you make deals, meet the stars and enjoy big parties. “Montreal World Film Festival is the very personal vision of a film historian while Toronto is a Film Festival with a mercantile and cultural bottom line.” Another Toronto insider, who, like the other executives interviewed for this piece preferred not to be named, added: “Montreal is a small, part-time organization run by the difficult executive director Serge Losique, who has alienated all of Hollywood and many people in the Quebec film industry. Toronto is a massive organization whose programmers and management are respected the world over. Both organizations claim approximately the same attendance [roughly 350,000] but Montreal’s number includes nightly, free outdoor screenings in a public square. “Broadly speaking, Montreal is more of an ‘art film’ festival. These days it programs few, if any, studio films. Montreal has an official market, Toronto does not, but instead operates a sales office to match buyers and sellers on an as-needed basis. The volume of business done in Toronto can exceed C$100 million.” VideoAge asked Sesto Cifola, head of Cinema and TV Drama International Sales at Italy’s RaiTrade, to give an assessment of the two competing Italian film festivals. “This is the same question we’ve been hearing for the past four years,” he quipped. “Venice means tradition and artistic values. Rome has more of business nature, considering that it has the budget to invite buyers allexpenses paid. In addition, RaiTrade is one of International Rome Film Festival’s [IRFF] major sponsors because Rome is where we’re based, so it’s like a home play for us.” He then explained that “for us, they’re both important and for this reason we take different new titles [to each].” In addition to Venice and IRFF, RaiTrade has attended the Toronto Film Festival and will be participating without a stand (but sharing a room under the Italian Trade Commission umbrella) at the American Film Market in Santa Monica. “The AFM is important because of clients from Canada, the U.S., South America and the Far East,” said Cifola, “we certainly don’t go to the AFM looking for the Europeans we met in Venice and Rome.” The Business Street is the market side of IRFF and is held October 15-19 in two locations around Via Veneto: Hotel Majestic and Hotel Bernini Bristol. The latter venue also operates as the marketplace headquarters. “Venice has more value for producers,” commented a Rome-based Italian industry veteran. “Winning Venice’s Golden Lion is on par with, if not more prestigious than Cannes’ Golden Palm.” However, he continued, “Venice doesn’t have a market and for this reason its main competitor is Toronto, which, with its informal trade show, is in effect the number one fall event.” According to Paolo Di Maira, the editor of Italian film-TV trade publication Cinema & Video, “Italians always comment that Venice is an important showcase. However, with the exclusion of those producers who attend Venice with public money, many people actually dislike Venice because of its high costs and lack of business. Recently, festival director Marco Muller made it clear that Venice doesn’t want to develop a market. For these reasons, many Italian producers and distributors prefer Rome where business is not only done and encouraged, but the organization itself is betting on the business side.” Finally, Ron Moore, CEO of Toronto marketing firm SONARmediathink and executive producer of Los Angelesbased, internationally syndicated Red Carpet Diary, best summarized Canada’s two fests, commenting: “Toronto is a colossus that just keeps growing in scope and reputation. It’s not only one of the most well-run film festivals on the planet but among the best-run cultural events. Montreal just isn’t in that league any longer, but that’s not to say it doesn’t provide a great experience for cinephiles. It simply does not put Montreal on the map. But I would say that hands-down, Montreal has the best posters. They’re always extremely well designed, sometimes witty and very collectible.” F i l m F e s t s F e a s t Italy & Canada: Two Countries Divided by Four Festivals Cinemavault’s Caroline Stern Arrow Entertainment’s Steve Arroyave
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