Showing posts with label Special Screenings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Special Screenings. Show all posts

Saturday, April 10, 2010

The Newest in French Film Fashion Comes to LA: City of Lights, City of Angels: COL•COA


AN INDUSTRY SHOWCASE
Lucky LA!  We can now get an advance look on the current batch of French films which will be on offer at the Cannes Film Market.  Not only the distributors, but the public is able to see these April 20 to April 25.  And take in panels, meet the French film community, see the US distributors, catch the buzz.  I'll see you there!
A SHOWCASE FOR THE INDUSTRY

With 69% of its audience coming from the film industry in 2009, COL•COA is a unique showcase for French films in North America. COL•COA screenings offer exceptional exposure for French films and can generate a buzz among the industry and in the U.S. Both cultural and commercial dimensions of the event offer various reasons for all categories of professionals to attend.

DGA, WGAW and MPA Members

As their organization is a partner of the Franco American Cultural Fund, all members of the Directors Guild of America, The Writers Guild of America West, and The Motion Picture Association have been invited to the COL•COA screenings since the creation of the event. Therefore, they represent an important part of the audience. COL•COA gives them the opportunity to discover a selection of the newest French films and to exchange with French Filmmakers at The Happy Hour Talks, during the Q&A following screenings and events, or parties set up during the whole week.

Additionally, members of SAG, Women in Film, American Cinematheque, ICG, ASC and FILM INDEPENDENT can attend COL•COA at a discounted price.

Buyers

People in charge of acquisitions for U.S. Distributors or buyers for other territories (Asia, South America and Europe) who are based in Los Angeles can take advantage of the exclusive program offered. At least 30% of the films have been released after January in France and some of them have not been shown at the European Film Market in Berlin. Furthermore, they can see the films with an American audience and possibly decide to buy a film if it is still available.

An Eye to the Future,an exclusive presentation of trailers of upcoming French films is another reason to attend the showcase a few weeks before the Cannes Film Festival. Most of the films will premiere at Le Marché du Film in Cannes.

Distributors

COL•COA is now one of the most efficient platforms to promote a French film in Los Angeles. U.S. Distributors can use the event to have an official Premiere of their film before a release. It is also the best place to create a buzz a few months before a release, to show their film to the members of the HFPA for the next Golden Globe Awards, to promote the film to local exhibitors for a future release or test the film with our audience and build a marketing strategy.

Recent partners include: Film Movement, First Look Pictures, IFC Films, International Film Circuit, Koch Lorber, Liberation Entertainment, Lionsgate, Magnolia Pictures, Music Box Films, New Yorker, Red Envelope, Samuel Goldwyn, Strand releasing or Vivendi Entertainment.

Click here to download a detailed presentation of COL•COA for distributors

Exhibitors and Publicists

Exhibitors can discover new French Films and test them with an audience before booking them. They can mention their interest in a specific film to distributors even if the film is available for the market.

Publicists can work with our delegation of filmmakers to set up interviews with the press for a U.S. distributor when the film is already bought. Every year, a large number of journalists attend COL•COA and cover the event for local, national and international media (print, TV, radio and Internet).

Producers and Agents

New talent and remake opportunities are also a good reason for producers and agents to attend COL•COA. Each year, the selection offers an eclectic program that includes stories with a strong potential for remakes. Both programs of features and short films offer a chance to discover emerging filmmakers, actors or actresses from France. 

Monday, March 29, 2010

Cannes 2010 Cinefondation Announces its Lineup

Cannes's 6th Cinefondation Atelier has a lineup of directors which this year includes more known auteurs than previously. It has also joined with Mexico's Expresion den Corto for a summer residence program in Guanajuato, Mexico. Both programs include a dozen of the best young filmmakers in the world, offering them a platform designed to propel their careers with master's classes, workshops and meetings with public and private organizaitons to help obtain financing for their film projects.

The Cannes lineup of 15 films this year includes 4 films by first time directors one of whom is a woman and 2 Latino filmmakers.

Debuting directors:

Taiwan based former actress Show-Chun Lee from France, a protege of Claude Miller with Shanghai-Belleville

Karoly Ujj Meszaros from Hungary with Liza, the Fox-Fairy, a comedic serial killer nurse romp

Diego Quemada-Diez from Mexico with La Jaula de oro

Ruben Sierra Salles from Venezuela with Lucia

A third Latino filmmaker with his sophmore film is Argentina's Pablo Fendrik with The Ardor which was also presented in the Berlin CoProduction market about a minor Chinese mobster in Buenos Aires

Out of 15 films a total of 2 (13%) are by women including debuting Show-Chun Lee's Shanghai-Belleville and

The second film by Holland's Urszula Antoniak (Nothing Personal) Code Blue, about a nurse who practices euthanasia.  (Nurses seem to be becoming a trend.)

Shinji Aoyama's Decadent Sisters, winner of the Pusan Award and $20,000 at the Pusan Promotion Plan 2009 is the director's 15th feature. The subject is siblings who survive as prostitutes in Tokyo after WWII.

Dream and Silence is about spirituality in a postmodern age according to director Jaime Rosales whose 4th feature this is.

Les Etoiles de Sidi Moumen, also the 4th film by the leading Moroccan director of his generation -- Nabil Ayouch -- is based on the novel by Mahi Binebine about Casablanca's 2003 suicide bombings.

Cambodian director Rithy Panh (The Sea Wall) presents Gibier d'elevage.

Indonesia's Edwin, whose 2008 debut, Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly won a Fipresci Rotterdam fest award is presenting Postcards from the Zoo.

Bulgaria's Javor Gardel, who made B.O. hit Zift and was recognized as a "producer on the move" last Cannes by EFP presents his second film, Zincograph.

Turkey's Huseyin Karabey, helmer of Gitmek, My Marlon and Brando, a Tribeca best director winner has Come to My Voice.

Iran's Massoud Bakhshi ("Teheran Has No More Pomegranates") is attending with Khorramshahr.

Circles comes from Serbia's Sdran Golubovic, director of the Berlinale Forum's The Trap.


In 2009 the Festival de Cannes's various sections featured 10 feature films and two shorts by "alumni" of the Cinéfondation:

Official Selection:
Competition:
Face by Tsai Ming-Liang (Atelier 2007)
Spring Fever by Lou Ye in Competition, took part in the 2008 Atelier for his next project.

Un Certain Regard:

Los viajes del viento by Ciro Guerra (Atelier 2007
Skazka pro temnotu aka Tale in the Darkness by Nikolay Khomeriki (2nd prize Cinéfondation Selection 2005)Independencia by Raya Martin (Résidence of the Cinéfondation (2005/2006) 
Manila (co-direction by Raya Martin with Adolfo Alix Jr.
Police, Adjective by Corneliu Porumboiu (2nd prize Cinéfondation Selection 2004, Résidence 2005, Caméra d'Or 2006)
Morrer como un homen aka To Die Like a Man by João Pedro Rodrigues (Atelier 2007)
Eyes Wide Open by Haim Tabakman (Cinéfondation Selection 2003 and 2004)

Special Screening:
No meu Lugar aka Eye of the Storm by Eduardo Valente (1st prize Cinéfondation Selection 2002, Résidence 2005)

Directors' Fortnight:
Navidad by Sebastian Lelio Campos (Résidence of the Cinéfondation (2006/2007)

Critics' Week:
The Ordinary People by Vladimir Perisic (Cinéfondation Selection 2003, Résidence 2004)

Together (short film) by Eicke Bettinga (Cinéfondation Selection 2002)
C'est gratuit pour les filles (short film) by Claire Burger (2nd prize Cinéfondation Selection 2008)

Rotterdam Tiger Awards 2010:
The VPRO Tiger Awards, given last February,to Agua fría de mar by Paz Fábrega from Costa Rica, Mundane History by Anocha Suwichakornpong from Thailand and Alamar by Mexican director Pedro González-Rubio.


Two of these three filmmakers were spotted by the Cinéfondation. Paz Fabrega has attended the 19th session of the Residence where she has developed Todos Nosotros, her second feature film project.

Anocha Suwichakornpong had presented her short film Graceland at the Cinéfondation Selection in 2006.