Montreal: Paul Shapiro’s The Lotus Eaters was among the Canadian standouts at this year’s Montreal International Film, Television and Video Market. According to Marie-Claude Poulin, director of Malofilm International, the film’s international exporter, ‘There was big interest in the film from all major territories, including Germany, Australia, the U.S., Italy, Spain and Israel.

‘The film is refreshing, well written and directed, and it proves you don’t need violence or extreme sex to get good reviews,’ she says.

Poulin says she took calls from u.s. and other distributors, not present in Montreal, who urged her not to close deals for the film until they had a chance to meet in Toronto. Interest includes possible theatrical deals.

Toronto’s Norstar Entertainment had a kiosk at the market along with a film in the official competition, Howard Davies’ The Secret Rapture.

‘The market certainly wasn’t busy, but it wasn’t a waste of time,’ says John Fulton, Norstar’s director of international sales.

Fulton says he uses the Montreal market to ‘work out more complicated deals because people actually have the time to do some shopping. If this year’s market had attracted bigger sellers, bigger buyers would have attended.’

Market delegate Mario Fortin says well over 600 buyers, sellers, distributors, producers, and festival and television programmers registered at this year’s market, a slight increase over last year. During the six-day event, one of the Complex Desjardins cinemas adjacent to Meridien Hotel, where the Oct. 30-Sept. 4 market was held, was used exclusively for the screening of Canadian films.

Eight Ontario-based companies, including Charles Chaplin Enterprises, Sullivan Entertainment International, William F. Cooke, S.C. Entertainment, Doomsday Studios and Oasis Pictures, operated out of the Ontario Film Development Corporation’s kiosk, a smaller version than last year’s, says Kelley Alexander, the ofdc’s sales and distribution co-ordinator.

Alexander says independent producers found few takers for specialized short films, but most took advantage of publicity opportunities in preparation for mipcom.

Andre Bennett, president of Cinema Esperanca International, is a regular at the Montreal market. Bennett reports a good response for Lois Seigel’s Lip Gloss, which was screened at the festival. He says he used the market to discuss three or four coproduction deals – ‘Montreal is very good for coproduction’ – but adds he would like to see the press room, market area and hospitality suite combined into a single busy setup.

‘You just can’t sit around the market,’ he says. ‘You have to move around and find your buyers, at screenings, in the hotel or at the bar.’

Jan Rofekamp, president of Films Transit, Montreal, says he discovered something very disturbing at this year’s market: ‘Canadian film, in the main, is no longer sellable. Out of an average annual crop of 40 Canadian feature films, two are really sellable, five are reasonably sellable and the rest are a waste of time.’

By ‘really’ sellable, the export veteran says he means ‘sales to 20 countries within a year’, while ‘reasonable means sales to five to 15 markets, or any sales’.

Deciding film’s fate

Rofekamp says the marketing and export fate of Canadian films, that is, whether they should be sold directly to television, video, go to theatres and/or be promoted for foreign sales, should be determined only at the final edit stage.

‘At this point you make your decision as to which exporter should handle the film,’ he says. ‘The decision must be based on (the exporter’s) experience and a realistic marketing plan, not lies, and not just a cash handout to an exporter.’

Rofekamp says this year’s meet attracted ’40 to 50 serious buyers, maybe 20 of whom are interested in our product’. He says countries like Germany ‘were really well represented, but they are so demanding’.

Like others, Rofekamp says he would like to see the physical scale of the market ‘become more modest, a sort of sales salon, free for exporters, and it should last only four days’.

On the up side, he says, Montreal is the start of the international festival and market season, ‘and as such is a great testing ground’.

By previewing new product to buyers in publicly attended screenings, Rofekamp says, ‘I now know what some of my films are worth.’

Malofilm’s Poulin says many of her regular clients enjoy attending the festival, but ‘most foreign films with commercial potential (entered in the festival) had been bought’.

Poulin says sales would be easier if internationally recognized talent was used in some Canadian films. ‘I’m not saying we should hide the fact that these are Canadian films, only that it would increase the value decidedly, even for tv.’

Uphill ride

French-track telefilms generally face an uphill ride, says Poulin, adding she loses 75% of her potential market if the film is in French.

However, she says her company believes in ‘encouraging local production. We want a good mixture of both (French and English product). If you persist and pay the right price, things will go alright.’

Poulin says she met with about 20 non-American buyers and programmers this year, including representatives from bbc in the u.k. and rtl in France. Politics aside, she says she would like to see more of a ‘sales office’ format adapted for the Montreal market.

Alex Massis, vice-president, international affairs, Angelika Films International, New York, says screening films to buyers in a public audience setting ‘makes all the difference. Pictures in an empty hall don’t breathe,’ says Massis, a 13-year veteran of the Montreal market.

He says Angelika uses the Montreal market to sell films to Canadian distributors as well as make purchases. The company had two films in this year’s festival, David Jones’ The Trail and Oscar Jonasson’s Remote Control.

Massis, a real Montreal festival booster, says he would like to see more people invited to the Montreal market, although he kept himself busy meeting with some 40 buyers and sellers this year.

‘The mix of films (in the wff) is so diversified you always find something that’s important or educational,’ he says. ‘The organization here is far ahead of any festival in the world. Try to go see a movie at Cannes or at Berlin where the venues are spread over 10 kilometers.’