Cannes Marché Du Film To Launch Virtual Market

The film market of the Cannes Film Festival, Marché du Film, has announced that it will be running a virtual market alongside the physical event this year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both the online and physical market is scheduled to to be active from May 12 – 23. In the likely event that the physical market is cancelled the online market will still be going ahead. 

The viability of a virtual market will be interesting for many producers around the world, with the limited access to travel most countries are experiencing and the desire to make deals in a currently tough climate for the industry after a record breaking 2019.

The devil’s in the details 

Companies will be able to book slots for online screenings, at the same time as the physical screenings, for projects at different stages of completion. Meetings can then be set up using the markets Match&Meet app which has implemented Zoom conferencing technology to hopefully streamline the process of deal making.

The digital market is planned to run separately to the existing Cinando industry online platform set up by the event.

A regular Marché only badge currently costs €369 ($400) with its online counterpart set to be around €200 ($217) and would include a year’s subscription to Cinando and access to all screenings. 

Marché du Film chief Jérome Paillard stated that the potentially crucial initiative began development a few weeks ago with the threat of Covid-19 looming.

“Working on the hypothesis that the market will go ahead, we’ve been thinking of what we can do to support people who won’t be able to make it this year,” he said.

“Our aim is to help the industry to keep working at this difficult time when cinemas are closed and shoots have been shut down,” said Paillard. ”The market needs an event in spring and we’re trying to come up with solutions, even if they’re not perfect.” 

“We’ll use the experience and technology we’ve developed through Cinando but the screenings will run on a separate dedicated site. It will be called something like Marché du Film Online but that’s yet to confirmed,” said Paillard.

The economic effect on the town 

The recent history for Cannes has been tough with a number of major events cancelled. Mipim, an international real-estate market; MIP TV and Canneséries, both television events, which has caused a strain on the local economy.  Advertising event Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has also recently been postponed until October.

Hotels up and down the Croisette in Cannes are used as part of the festival for meetings and deal making. The event also makes up one of the busiest times of the year for local caterers. 

Will the physical event be cancelled

Though the Cannes Film Festival denied French media reports that it was cancelled over the weekend, France is currently (March 19) on the third day of a 15-day lockdown for its 66 million inhabitants that is being enforced by police. 

The lockdown could very well be extended beyond March 31. A final decision will be made on April 15 on the event’s potential cancellation, just before the festival’s annual news conference announcing the official selections. 

The festival is also not insured against the Coronavirus, therefore the decision to bring the event online for buyers and sellers could rescue a good slice of revenue for the institution. 

Competition

A group of independent Hollywood, French and UK companies and US agencies, led by CAA with Endeavor, ICM Partners and UTA also on board, are creating a free-to-access virtual market platform to also run alongside the market in case of a shut down.

Through the proposed initiative, participants will be able to present completed projects, promo reels and online talent presentations coupled with the subsequent prospect of multi-party video conferencing to allow efficient negotiations between parties. 

Notable sales company participants  in the ambitious new endeavor currently include: Altitude, Cornerstone Film, Film Constellation, FilmNation, Lionsgate, Mad River, Miramax, StudioCanal, STX Entertainment, Voltage Pictures, and Wild Bunch. 



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