After last year’s success, The Business Street, the market connected to the Rome Film Festival, returns with an extra day (18th “” 21st October).
500 professionals from a total of 250 accredited companies will be attending.
120 screenings will be held in 10 theaters around the capital.
The Via Veneto area will be the true heart of the event which will have two nerve centers: the Hotel Excelsior and the Hotel Bernini Bristol.
“The Business Street’s challenge” says director Giorgio Gosetti “is to join the broad river of change that has transformed the big theatrical Festivals: the success of lightweight business setups like ours and other big Festivals lies in the style, which can be defi ned as friendly, in the personal contact between operators and the programmed use of the advantages offered by technology.”
The people responsible for running The Business Street, as well as the true creative and organizational minds behind the event, are Diamara Parodi Delfino and Sylvain Auzou.
What is it like organizing the second edition of The Business Street after last year’s success?
It is a big responsibility: in addition to the extra day, we have a series of important proposals on a logistical level, as well as a number of extremely interesting international level meetings.
We intend to spoil our guests, not just to make them feel at ease but to give them a good time and “” above all “” to give them a chance to work in the best possible way.
We want them to come to Rome to do some really good business.
What is your philosophy?
Our approach is distinguished by a great humility: we are not competing with the American Film Market, Cannes or Berlin.
We are aiming more for quality than quantity, in the knowledge that there is a need for a European event during the fall.
The Business Street constitutes a “˜solid’ portion of the Festival: the future of the Rome Film Festival will also depend on your growing “˜stronger’ “¦
A Festival and its market travel in parallel.
Often if one is successful the same might not necessarily be true for the other.
We are doing our best: the important thing is that people say good things about us.
We don’t want visibility, we want to help others work successfully. Operators themselves prefer working in an environment which is detached from the Festival so that they can do their business in the maximum tranquillity and confidentiality.
We are at the service of the vendors and buyers.
Our ideal models are the markets in Toronto and Rotterdam.
We are not just aiming for sales and purchases, but also ideas and discussions about projects.
It is great that people are beginning to talk about ideas again. In the future, we hope to have more buyers from Latin America and the Far East although eleven operators from Japan have already been accredited this year.
Cinema&Video International n. 10-11 October/November 2007