A shared location for the two souls of the Rome film market is the main new feature of an eighth edition that appears to be a year of European consolidation and a renewed dialogue with the Chinese industry (with China Day).
As first-time “flatmates,” The Business Street (TBS) and New Cinema Network (NCN, until now at the Casa del Cinema) will be sharing the Hotel Bernini Bristol, where the event will take place from 13-17 November – expanding, as usual, into the neighbouring Barberini multiplex.
Organizers see this as a clear, added value, and not just from a logistical viewpoint, because everything will now be “concentrated in one venue”, says NCN coordinator Alexia De Vito.
“The network is being both simplified and broadened, extending the pool of participants of the respective programmes”. Whilst the number of participants for 2013 has been confirmed (roughly 700 accreditations, of which at least 300 buyers), there are some changes in their composition.
“The industry professionals come from 45 different countries.
There are returning participants as well as newcomers”, says Francesca Palleschi, who along with Markus Duffner coordinates TBS, which is spearheaded by Massimo Saidel. “In particular, there’s a strong Asian presence, which has clearly risen, in part due to the China Day project that follows last year’s focus on China. In recent years we’ve witnessed a growth trend, with figures stabilizing at upper levels. This is a victory for the formula we adopted, considering the changing dates in the last two years and the mushrooming of international film industry events”.
Events will start on 14 November, after opening day, with a conference at the Casa del Cinema on New Models of Distribution and Exhibition in the Digital Age, ranging from international prospects (e.g. the pros and cons of day-and-date, multi-platform and multi-territorial releases) to the Italian panorama, with a focus on the Video On Demand market and its potential in terms of revenue and visibility for indie films.
On the 14th there will also be a session of international meetings attended by publishers, literary agents and Italian producers as part of the Words on Screen (WOS) project, now in its third phase following its US launch.
Its an ideal follow-up to the past editions of Industry Books, which extended the TBS and NCN formula of meetings to literature and publishers, showing the Festival’s renewed dedication to intersections of cinema and literature.
“WOS, created in collaboration with ANICA and AIE, will be a window onto our publishing and cinemato- graphic scenes, focusing on the internationalization of and networking between the two industries”, explains De Vito.
Two of this year’s Italian NCN projects, first presented in New York last June, come from there: “La cospirazione delle colombe” by Marina Spada, based on a story by Vincenzo Latronico; and “Stupor Mundi”, based on the novel “Storia controversa dell’inarrestabile fortuna del vino Aglianico nel mondo” by Gaetano Cappelli and produced by Andrea Stucovitz.
The new EU financing opportunities for the audiovisual sector will be discussed on 15 November during European Day.
The subject of the TBS and MEDIA Desk Italia in-depth discussion will be the launch of the new, seven-year Creative Europe program (2014-2020), which will have an overall budget of €1.46 billion. The program will be presented at the Casa del Cinema by Michel Magnier, Director of Culture and Creativity at the Directorate-General for Education and Culture at the European Commission, and Silvia Costa, MEP and author of a report on the Creative Europe program.
The event will be mediated by Giuseppe Massaro, director of MEDIA Desk Italia.
In an effort to boost trade between Italy and China, in addition to celebrating Asia’s movies and movie industry, China Day, organized in collaboration with ANICA, will consist of two days of screenings and meetings, culminating in the world premiere of Benny Chan’s “The White Storm” (“Sou Duk/Saodu”), the Festival’s closing night film, on 17 November.
“China Day – an event that reinforces a dialogue with China, launched by ANICA as part of the MISE’s ‘Made in Italy’ project – is one example of the Festival’s continuing bond with the Market, with large, glamorous premieres on the one side and, on the other, pitching sessions and industry meetings”, explains Palleschi. “This year it will centre on co-productions between the two countries, investment in Italy and the circulation of Italian movies on the Asian continent”.
A novelty for this eighth edition is the remakes market Re-make It!, showcasing 21 projects from Italy and the world over that will be pre- sented in a special section of the TBS digital video library (which thisyear features 130 titles) presented to the buyers and producers in Rome.
“This is a pilot sidebar,” adds Palleschi, “that will be expanded and developed next year.
The Italian companies participating are Adriana Chiesa Enterprises, Cattleya, Fandango, IIF, Indigo and Intramov- ies. Companies from other countries include FilmSharks Int’l, Latido Films, Patagonik and Urban Distribution International.
The remake is a formula mainly used by American film studios – in Los Angeles there’s already a market dedicated exclusively to this type of product – but is less used in Europe. It’s another resource for finding stories with a strong appeal to present to new audiences”.
New Cinema Network (November 14-16), the branch of the market dedicated to developing co-productions, is this year presenting 24 projects from the world over (Latin America, India, the Middle East, Europe).
Seven of the selected titles are Italian and have “very varied flavours and diverse production models.
The estimated budgets range from €5m to €800,000.
There are no low-budget movies because these are all highly structured projects,” says De Vito.
She adds that this year’s selection process was particularly complex “because the demand was unprecedented. It’s a sign of recognition for our network, which has contributed to completing almost 50% of the projects selected so far (including Andrea Segre’s ‘Shun Li and the Poet’, Giorgio Diritti’s ‘The Man Who Will Come’ and ‘The Milk of Sorrow’ by Claudia Llosa)”.
Flanking the debut films – such as “Il Ballo” by Simone Gattoni, who after having produced documentaries (“S.B. Io lo conoscevo bene”) stepped behind the camera to adapt a novella by Iréne Nemirovsky, produced by Marco Bellocchio’s company – are projects by more established filmmakers such as Aureliano Amadei (“Il pendolo”), whose “20 Cigarettes” won the Controcampo Italiano sidebar of the 2010 Venice fest and was nominated for Best Debut Director at the 2011 Nastro d’Argento and David di Donatello awards.
Does a more established name help filmmakers during the selection process? “Not necessarily”, explains De Vito, “because our criteria go in other directions, plus part of the NCN’s mission is to discover new talent. First and foremost, we want a good story with international potential, which can be about small, local events that only on the surface don’t seem universal. A prime example is Fabio Mollo’s debut feature ‘The South is Nothing’, selected in last year’s NCN and screening this year in Alice in the City. It’s an Italian story that everyone really liked”.
ITALY AT THE NEW CINEMA NETWORK
At its seventh edition, the project workshop of the Rome Film Market features seven Italians titles (out of an overall 24), selected by a committee comprising Marco Müller, Marie-Pierre Duhamel, Sandra Hebron and the staff of the New Cinema Network.
The seven films are: Roberto De Paolis’ “La moglie di Lot”, produced by De Paolis and Carla Altieri; “Stupor mundi”, produced by Andrea Stucovitz; Aureliano Amadei’s “Il pendolo”, produced by Giorgio Ginori and Amadei; Fabrizio Cattani’s “Uomini e cani”, produced by Elisabetta Olmi; “Il vento e la luce” by Marco Dentici, produced by Gianluca Dentici; Simone Gattoni’s “Il ballo”, produced by Francesca Calvelli and Marco Bellocchio; and Marina Spada’s “La cospirazione delle colombe”, produced by Francesco Pamphili.
On November 16, one of the 24 projects will be presented with the Eurimages Co-production Development Award, a €30,000 development prize from the European Council to the best NCN project.
