As the world slowly recovers from the coronavirus crisis and theaters start reopening, sales agents and distributors, whose business traditionally drives the independent film sector, are facing an uncertain future while trying to make the best of this year’s abbreviated festival circuit. The Cannes Marché du Film, along with a sales initiative led by Hollywood agencies, will be hosting the first major virtual market since the start of pandemic, starting on June 22.
Antonio Saura, executive director of Madrid-based Latido Films, says, “Online markets [are taking] place in extraordinarily adverse circumstances: Production stoppages, a distribution bottleneck and little visibility over future cinema theater attendance.” UniFrance, the French film promotion organization, is working with French sales agents to organize invite-only screenings for local films that are not part of the Official Selection, and publicity events to create buzz around Cannes labeled films that aren’t screening.
The situation is similar with Eric Lagesse at Pyramide Intl., who is selling Danielle Arbid’s “Passion Simple” and Marie Castille Mention-Schaar’s “A Good Man,” which both have the Cannes 2020 label and have a chance of getting into Toronto. Lagesse says he was waiting for an answer from Toronto to decide on whether to screen the film for buyers at the virtual market.
Susan Wendt, the managing director of Scandinavian sales banner TrustNordisk, which is handling Vinterberg’s “Another Round,” says she’s also confident that some deals will get made at the virtual Cannes market on either the big titles from high-profile auteurs or the platform-driven movies that don’t need to open in theaters. “We may not have meetings booked every 15 minutes like in Cannes, but we have one or two meetings per hour which is good,” says Wendt.
Ultimately, the reopening of theaters, which will be key to jump-starting the business, will happen around the Cannes market in many countries across Europe and in some U.S. states. After reopening first in Norway in May, and then in Germany and Austria earlier this month, theaters will reopen in Italy on June 15, in France on June 24 and in Belgium in July 1. Spain’s theaters will also soon reopen.
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