The sales companies’ members of Europa International attended the 6th Europa International annual conference from the 24th to the 26th November in Bucharest, and for the 4th time in parallel of Europa Cinemas event.

New president and board

The event started with a general assembly and the new board of Europa International has been elected, with Jean-Christophe Simon (Films Boutique) as the new President, Susan Wendt (TrustNordisk), Sasha Wieser (EastWest), Jenny Walendy (The Match Factory), Frederic Corvez (Urban Distribution Intl), Jan Naszewski (New Europe Film Sales) and Vincenzo Mosca (TVCO) as board members, and Daniela (Doc & Film Intl) as treasurer. Europa International would like to thank Susan Wendt for her dedicated and great work as President for the last 4 years and wishes all the best to Jean-Christophe Simon as the new President.

Sexual harassment

Europa International is very concerned of any kind of sexual harassment its members might be victims and condemns all acts of such sort under all circumstances. In this context, a special time has been dedicated to the subject particularly, to guarantee to the future sales agents generation the best possible working environment and a protection for any kind of impropriate behavior sexual harassment.

A discussion between the members has been held on what can be done for the future, introducing the gender issues, and looking at concrete steps such as hotline for victims in the business, training and information within the business, and creation of common guidelines.

The conference “Set The Trend”

The conference “Set The Trend” has been focused on the promotion and marketing for the films’ distribution at digital age with an exchange of views between European and American professionals. High experts attended the event to explore new business models for promotion on theatrical and digital releases and to present experimentations on marketing strategies: Rémi Burah (Arte France Cinemas), Kim Foss (Camera Film), Josephine Letang (La Toile), Mirona Nicola (Gruvi), Sarah Rashidian (Spideo) and Roderik Smits (University of York) from the EU side, and Russ Collins (Art House Convergence) and Darcy Heusel (Neon), with Brian Newman (Subgenre) as the moderator from the US side.

The showcases

The showcases were the opportunity to learn more about various supports and projects regarding the sales and distribution such as ACM Distribution (CNC support for international distribution), EclairPlay (new all-in-one download platform connecting cinema exhibitors and content owners around the world developed by Ymagis, EI official sponsor), Eye on Films (Wide label dedicated to the circulation of 1st and 2nd European films).

Europa International and Europa Cinemas introduced “Europa Showcase” in line with EI conference and themes, to help the circulation and distribution of European films in the US. It consists of a program of 10 European films available in the US for theatrical direct distribution in venues equipped by EclairPlay.

Cinando team introduced “Cinando Subtitles”, a game-changing online tool, which will boost the appeal and distribution of European films by promoting and sharing available subtitles, allowing industry players to easily store, promote, browse, find, buy and reuse existing subtitles.

“Europa Showcase” and “Cinando Subtitles” are both funded by Creative Europe MEDIA programme.

Special thanks

Europa International would like to thank all our partners and sponsors, and especially Europa Cinemas for their help and support to organize its gathering among other activities, Creative Europe MEDIA programme for supporting “Set The Trend”, and Cinando for organizing a wonderful networking dinner which gathered all the sales agents, Europa Cinemas board members, the speakers and the guests of the event, and other European professionals.

 

Audio-Visual Production Grants (Announced on 9 November 2017)

BUCHAREST: The overwhelming majority of members of the Europa Cinemas network consider lack of finances as the biggest barrier to innovation, according to the survey The New Approaches to Audience Building – A Survey of Innovation in the Europa Cinemas Network, commissioned by Europa Cinemas and issued at the 20th EC Network Conference in Bucharest (24-26 November 2017).

 

This year sees the launch of Creative Gate - a platform designed to increase the visibility of the Estonian creative sector and help it explore new opportunities for growth and export.

A number of Estonian organisations in the field of film, culture, fashion, art and education have joined to create Creative Gate, whose main focus will be companies and professionals in production/post-production, film music, costume design, art direction, shorts/animation, casting and acting.  

Creative Gate will be presenting a number of events at this year’s Black Nights Film Festival and also provide year-round activities. Among the latter are the development of a new international brand platform for Estonian film based on a study conducted by Tallinn University, the website www.filminestonia.eu, and a project to promote Estonia as a location for recording film music using local sound studios, orchestras and choirs. Another priority is to support the companies in their international sales activity.

Tiina Lokk, Director of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival:
- Supporting the development of the wider audiovisual and creative industry is a key aim for us and we are excited to launch Creative Gate together with our partner organisations. With Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival now recognized as an A class festival we can offer a strong platform for new collaborations to emerge. The “gate” we envision opens in two directions – it will enable our talent to explore new markets, and make it easy for the international industry to discover the craftsmanship and creativity Estonia has to offer.  

Aivar Roop, Head of Creative Gate:
- Creative Gate is a recognition of the crucial roles music, cast, post production and other art department professions play for the creation of great films and we will be providing a wide range of initiatives to help develop and support them. The recent success and achievements of Estonian film makers put us in a great starting position. Many of our activities taking place after the festival are already fully booked, so we see a strong interest from the industry.

The partners of the project are Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival; Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School of Tallinn University; ShortEst Estonian Short Film Centre, Estonian Film Institute; Estonian Fashion Brands’ Association; Estonian Film Industry Export Union; Estonian Film Art Department and Film Artists’ Union.

The project is supported with the amount of 300 000 EUR from the European Regional Development Fund.

Creative Gate events taking place during Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival:

Music Meets Film - Production Music Mentoring sessions - November 30 -December 1
In collaboration with Music Estonia, Music Meets Film offers a showcase of Estonian film music, masterclasses, concerts and mentoring sessions. Speakers include music supervisor Maggie Rodford (The King’s Speech, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), composer Tom Player (The Hobbit, Game of Thrones), music agent Nick Leonard and composer Chris Brown (House of Cards, Mad Men). The programme is curated by Estonian music editor Michael Pärt (The Danish Girl) who will also lead a session on “The How and the Why of Recording Your Next Score in Estonia”. Full programme: http://creativegate.ee/lahiaja/production-music-mentoring-sessions

Black Nights Catwalk - November 28
This evening event takes place in the black box of Kultuurikatel (Tallinn Creative Hub), and will bring together film music, fashion, and film art for an evening featuring a presentation of the new fashion umbrella brand “Northern Spirit”, the opening of a costume exhibition (see below), a presentation of Screen Stars Tallinn and Focus on Flanders, and much more.

Art Department Masterclass - November 28
Uli Hanisch, production designer and art director from Germany, whose credits include Babylon Berlin, Cloud Atlas and The Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, will give a master class for local film artists. In the afternoon, Hanisch will participate in a panel discussion – "International Co-production projects and travelling the world for film" – with production designer Markku Pätilä (The Man Without a Past, A Man’s Job) and costume designer Tiina Kaukanen (The Fencer, Frozen Land)

International Film Casting - How to Score the Roles You Dream About - November 28,
Meet the Screen Stars Tallinn mentors in a conversation about how to build an international career. Participants: Stephanie Holbrook, casting director (USA), Debbie McWilliams, casting director (UK), Beatrice Kruger, casting director (Italy), Molly Wansell, agent (UK), Georg Georgi, agent (Germany), Laura Munsterhjelm, agent (Finland), Deborah Kara Unger, actress (Canada) and Steven Bernstein, director (USA).

Costume Exhibition - November 28 - December 3
An exhibition of costumes and props used in Estonian films will open at the Black Nights Catwalk event, and be on display at Nordic Hotel Forum until the end of the festival.

In addition, there will be "FAM tours" – trips to potential film locations, with a focus on the company Nukufilm and the Estonian e-residency programme.

The programme is arranged with support from Max Factor, Flanders Film Fund and German Films.

For more information, please visit www.creativegate.ee and www.filminestonia.eu

 

These grants were announced by the State Cinematography Fund on 27 November 2017.

 

On 27 and 28 November, representatives of film and audiovisual field, experts, policymakers and visionaries will gather in Tallinn for the international visionary conference to discuss topical issues of the European media and film industry. The conference is organised within the framework of the Estonian Presidency of the EU Council, during the 21st Black Nights Film Festival and is opened by the Estonian Minister of Culture Indrek Saar.

The objective of the conference, organised by the Estonian Ministry of Culture at the Tallinn cinema Kino Kosmos IMAX  is to assess the impact of technological changes on the EU audiovisual landscape. Leading experts and visionaries from the audiovisual sector will discuss where the contemporary media and film industries are headed long-term and how the development of business models and analysing of big data affect the industry as well as culture more broadly. The conference will also focus on new technologies such as virtual and augmented reality which may significantly impact the functioning of the entire sector in the near future.
 
Just like Skype changed telecom, Uber the taxi and Spotify the music industry, the audiovisual sector will most likely experience an impact on the similar scale in the near future, Mati Kaalep, Adviser for Audiovisual issues at the Estonian Ministry of Culture and one of the organisers of the conference explained. „It is already apparent that we cannot proceed in the old way. This is clearly illustrated by the exceptional ease of piracy, which in turn, affects the functioning of the entire audiovisual sector. If a film is not released sufficiently quickly in a given country, the consumers will find the opportunity to access it illegally on the Internet, and the effective enforcement of copyrights on a large scale becomes extremely complicated ,“ Kaalep said.
 
He added that the mediation of audiovisual content is only one of the great changes accompanying technological advances – the changes occurring in the mediums that enable content consumption may be just as great, including data collection about people’s consumption habits.  „This , however, may be felt by the consumers as rather intrusive towards their rights.  Are such techniques acceptable in the European cultural space and will it also impact our behaviour, or the content that we are provided in the future? During the conference, these and many other questions will be addressed in our discussions,“ Kaalep explained.
 
The conference will present an impressive line-up of renowned speakers. One of the main keynote speeches will be presented by Jeremy Darroch, the CEO of Sky Group; Barak Berkowitz, Director of Operations and Strategy at the MIT Media Lab; Efe Cakarel, the founder and CEO of MUBI, a company focused on the streaming of art-house films. The participants in the subsequent discussions will include, among others, representatives from Google, Netflix, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), the European Commission and the European Film Agency Directors (EFADs). The conference will be closed with a keynote by Sir David Puttnam.

More information on the conference is available HERE.
Follow the live broadcast of the conference via the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union website HERE.

A visionary conference in audiovisual field entitled Pictured Futures: Connecting Content, Tech & Policy in Audiovisual Europe will take place on 27 and 28 Novemberas part of the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, at the initiative of the Estonian Ministry of Culture and in cooperation with the Black Nights Film Festival and the Estonian Film Institute, supported by the European Commission and Enterprise Estonia. #picturedfutures #EU2017EE