Buyers and Sellers talks to national and international distributors about their acquisition and sales plans at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Haut et Court’s Carole Scotta and Caroline Benjo intend to make a beeline for Canadian directors at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Scotta, founder and producer at the six-year-old Paris-based film production and distribution company, and producer/distributor Benjo say they are particularly impressed with the works of Canadian directors Lynn Stopkewich, Don McKellar, Bruce McDonald and Jeremy Podeswa.

Though Scotta has not yet decided which Canadian films she’ll screen, she says the works of these directors are hot commodities. ‘We like eclectic films where the director’s vision is clear and crispÉthe films have an edginess, [they are] not the Armageddons or the Titanics of the world,’ says Scotta. ‘After seeing just one film by those directors, Caroline and I thought we’d really like to connect with them.’

Adds Benjo: ‘Canadian cinema has the edge and the guts American cinema often doesn’t have. When you see Don McKellar’s film Last Night you understand what we mean by that: it’s smart, sensitive, funny in a very deadpan way, dealing with serious issues [although] elegantly nonchalant about them, visually rich and beautifully acted. It’s a joy to work with him.’

The plan of attack Scotta prefers at tiff is this: wrestle through the throng at the festival and talk to the directors while they are developing the script.

In Scotta’s experience, it’s best to get onboard, because there are plenty of creative projects to pick from and the price is right. She adds that this is one of the company’s goals for this year’s festival.

Whether it’s fine French wine, brie or independent films you’re shopping for, money is always a factor, and by the time a film is finished there is inevitably a frantic sale where many distributors are clamoring for one film and the ‘price increases like crazy,’ notes Scotta.

So if a film is worth $150,000 (this is Haut et Court’s ceiling price), ‘we’d buy it if we really had a crush on it,’ says Scotta, but when the price soars to $600,000 because of demand, Haut et Court is out of the running.

Haut et Court releases up to six films a year (it has 40 in its library to date), of which two are typically produced in-house. Scotta says she’d like to acquire between three and five films at tiff for the territory of France, with a maximum price tag of $100,000.

In the past few years the company had great success in France with, for example, Patricia Rozema’s When Night is Falling. Released three years back, the film snagged 120,000 admissions, an admirable showing in a territory where 50,000 admissions is considered decent for a small indie.

But this year’s festival promises to be a little different for the nine-member film house that is used to its downtown Paris oasis with a lush garden and shady cherry tree.

After the stellar performance of Alain Berliner’s $3.5-million Ma Vie en Rose in 1997, which won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film this year, garnered 300,000 admissions in France and sold to 43 countries including the u.s., the company will probably be spending a lot of time in the spotlight.

On the agenda for this year’s festival is 2,000, Seen ByÉ, Benjo and Scotta’s first project together. It’s comprised of 10 films produced with La Sept Arte and nine coproduction companies, and brings 10 directors together from around the world including Toronto’s McKellar (Rhombus Media), Taiwan’s Tsai Ming Liang (Arc Light Films) and Spain’s Miguel Albaladejo (Alphaville).

All the films, whose budgets range from $400,000 to $2 million, deal with the birth of the new millennium. The project began four years ago, and. many films have already been sold to France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Mexico, Hungary and Australia, with Japan picking up two films. Scotta says Haut et Court hopes to crack the u.s. and Canadian markets at tiff.

Scotta’s hands, however, are full. While juggling these concerns, she’ll be working on a new project independently of Haut et Court that reunites her with director Alain Berliner.

So while Benjo will be in Toronto full-time for the festival, Scotta will be jetting back and forth between New York and Toronto, where shooting is scheduled to begin Sept. 24 on Passion of Mind starring Demi Moore. The script for Passion of Mind was written by Ron Bass.