Montreal: SODEC and its European marketing partner Linking Market Forces are calling for feature film and tv movie project submissions for the second edition of Contact, a feature film financing distribution and coproduction market slated for Berlin, Nov. 24-26.

Contact – Europe 2000 is an intensive, three-day conference where producers can pitch pre-selected movie projects to senior managers representing potential financing and/or distribution for their projects.

Only 10 North American and 10 European projects will be accepted. Deadline for submissions is Sept. 20. Final selections will be announced around Oct. 30. Only independent U.S. producers have been invited to participate, says Christian Verbert, sodec’s international affairs manager.

The Berlin feature financing mart is being hosted, and funded, by Berlin-Brandenburg Filmboard, with additional support from the European Union’s MEDIA Program.

Verbert says the German hosts are typically all-business (‘sont tres serieuses’) and this year’s $90,000 investment bodes well for Contact II.

At the financing mart, 20 selected production projects (‘project books’) will be pitched to 30 to 40 industry ‘decision-makers,’ including Canadian and European broadcasters, international distributors, commercial film financiers and public funding agencies.

sodec polled delegates following the inaugural edition of Contact in Montreal this past March, producing positive results, says Verbert. He says the poll showed 90% of participants were ‘satisfied with the event and the quality of contacts,’ 75% of projects captured interest from potential financing sources, and 25% of attending producers ‘found co-financing.’

Eligibility requirements for Contact II feature and tv movie projects include a minimum cdn$2,250,000 budget, with at least 30% of the financing in place. tv movies projects will be limited to 20% of all accepted projects.

‘What interests me in all this,’ says Verbert, ‘is the creation of a platform between America and Europe, which helps producers in Quebec and Canada meet Europeans outside forums like mipcom and mip-tv, or the festivals in Cannes or Berlin, when there is often very little time.’

Non-producing participants at the March session of Contact included fidec, Telefilm Canada, National Bank of Canada, Cofiloisirs of France, Grosvenor Park, Lions Gate Films, Remstar Distribution, Pathe in the u.k., Fu Works, cbc, TV5, Radio-Canada, rtbf in French-speaking Belgium, The Coproduction Office in Germany and La Sept arte.

Complete application information is available in French and English on the sodec website. *

Leo Rice-Barker

-www.sodec.gouv.qc.ca