40 The second edition of the Venice Film Market (VFM) welcomed 1,600 registered professionals, including 60 invited buyers and 40 invited producers. Themarket evolved from a rib of the Venice Film Festival, which took place August 28-September 7, and de facto replaced the market associated with the Rome Film Festival, to be held November 8-17, in direct competition with the much bigger American Film Market (AFM), held in Santa Monica, California, November 6-13. The majority of executives in attendance at VFM came from European countries, but invited professionals also included executives from other parts of the world. The number of exhibiting stands doubled from last year (from seven to 14), including Argentina’s INCAA (Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales) and Brazil’s Cinema Do Brasil. Russia’s Roskino stand was once again the most prominent this year. Roskino (jointly participating with Aeroflot) also sponsored a market party on the evening of August 30 and a seminar on “Russia andVoDdistribution in the context of BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India and China].” Asked about her decision to return to the market forasecondtime,Roskino’sEkaterinaMtsitouridze explained that in addition to the beautiful venue, she likes the timing of the market, conveniently placed between the Cannes Film Fest and AFM. Roskino— likemost of the other exhibitors—also attended the Toronto International Film Festival, held just after Venice. As usual, Italy’s Studio Universal, part of NBCUniversal (on the Mediaset Premium digital terrestrial platform) was present at the Festival, where it fully rebranded the Mojito (one of the traditional bars at the Lido) as Studio Universal Bar. Festival and market delegates were invited for free drinks to participate in a game to promote its suspense series. The Studio also screened at the Venice Classics program a documentary titled Great Women: Anna Magnani in Hollywood, produced by NBCUniversal Global Network Italia for its Diva Universal (channel 128 on Sky) and directed by Marco Spagnoli. In addition, Studio Universal brought alongontheVenetianLagoontheMinions Jerry and Jorge from the movie Despicable Me 2, soon to be released in Italy. Some market seminars at the VFM included: “The Role of Talent Agencies,” “European Films Shot in English,” “Production and Distribution with South America,” “Production and Distribution with the Middle East” and “European Companies and the Chinese Market,” among others. TheVFMexhibitionareawas once again located on the third floor of the Excelsior Hotel in Venice Lido (beach), close to the red carpet and main screenings venue of the Festival, both located at Palazzo del Cinema Convention Hall. In addition to the exhibition floor where the stands were located, the area in the hotel included a room for the digital video library, a conference room called “Spazio Incontri” (Meeting Area) where seminars were held, and a business lounge. For the second year in a row, Medusa (one of Italy’s major film producers and distributors and part of Mediaset’s Group) was missing from VFM andtheofficesofItalianfilmdistributioncompany RAI Cinema (part of Italy’s state broadcast organization, RAI) not only didn’t exhibit at the VFM but also moved out of the Excelsior Hotel altogether — where, for many years, it had maintained an office during the Festival. This year RAI Cinema rented Villa Miramare, a private house near Palazzo del Cinema, where it established its festival headquarters. Reportedly, RAI Cinema decided to move out of the Excelsior due to the large price increase demanded by the hotel for its traditional office suite. In an interview with VideoAge, VFM director Pascal Diot said he was satisfied with the growth of the market so far, detailing some new features he implemented this year. He secured the important Sala Pasinetti inside the Palazzo del Cinema and two other venues for the buyers’ screenings of titles entered in the official Festival selection, “Venice Days” and “Critics’ Week.” The former were created in 2004 as an event on the fringe of the Festival organized by ANAC—the association of Italian filmdirectors — and modeled after Cannes Film Festival’s “Directors Fortnight.” The latter was another event independent from the Festival that included a selection of first-time film directors’ full-length movies from all over the world. In contrast to the three screening rooms for buyers’ screenings this year, last year there was only one screening venue, in addition to the digital video library. However, Diot emphasized that VFM’s growth was not a big issue for him, since he doesn’t envision the market ever becoming a trade show with many exhibiting companies. His focus is mainly to create a productive networking environment that gives access to promotion as well as financingandco-productionopportunities to small and medium-sized projects. Also new this year was www.venicefilmmarket. com, an online business platform for movie executives that facilitated their access to VFM screenings, the industry club, the digital video library, as well as promo reels and seminars. Diot also mentioned that for the “Final Cut” project, which he inherited from the San Sebastian Film Festival when the Basque event ran out of money and asked Venice to take over, out of 12 works in progress submitted, three were selected and awarded 150,000 euro each from the Venice Biennale — the parent organization of the Festival — in order to be completed. “Final Cut” is a project in synergy with the Dubai Film Fest in the UAE (which Diot also directs), in the sense that films-in-progress that don’t make the “Final Cut” will become part of a circuit that could help them find money through Biennale’s affiliated organizations such as New York’s Independent Filmmaker Project and the Dubai Film Festival, among others. MG Venice Makes Gentle Push for Merchants with FilmMarket October 2013 Film Fest Report Pascal Diot, director of VFM Villa Miramare, RAI Cinema’s headquarters for both the Festival and VFM Studio Universal’s Minions Jerry and Jorge on the lagoon
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