Operating parallel to the famous Cannes Film Festival, the Cannes International Film Market runs May 14-24. Canadian professionals attending the market call it the number-one film business event in the world.

The market attracts more than 7,000 participants from 70 countries, including 450 sales companies and 1,600 buyers housed in the Palais, the main pavilions, including the International Village, which hosts 26 national stands, and in scores of offices up and down the Croisette.

New this year, and a first at any market, are buyer-only individual VHS and DVD screening facilities for new productions.

‘As an independent distributor, Cannes is the most important market for theatrical films, much more so than Milano [MIFED] or the American Film Market,’ says Christian Larouche, president and CEO, Christal Films Distribution. ‘We have the chance to see all sorts of world cinema, whether in the official competition’ or any of the alternative progamming sections.

Larouche says ‘everybody is there for the 15 days’ and the market is also a prime venue for international coproduction.

Lea Pool’s The Blue Butterfly and William Phillips’ Foolproof are high on this year’s list of market priorities for Alliance Atlantis, says Charlotte Mickie, managing director, international motion picture sales, Entertainment Group.

‘With this final promo [reel] I think we have a very good shot at some serious [U.S.] interest’ for Blue Butterfly, says Mickie. Assuming a favorable response, Mickie says a film like Blue Butterfly can potentially generate ‘as much as 40% of the budget’ through international sales, or over $4.5 million.

Pierre Brousseau, EVP of Seville Pictures, will attend the market with co-CEO John Hamilton and Anick Poirier, VP international sales. Brousseau says with reconstruction underway in Iraq, the film industry may be ready to settle down and do some good business at the Cannes market, following an extended period of ‘uncertainty.’

‘Perhaps buyers haven’t had the guts or the deep pockets. Business has been getting more difficult and there has not been a plethora of product. There just haven’t been that many money-making films coming out of each market, but I believe the product will be there this year,’ adds Brousseau.

‘The Canadian spread throughout the festival is particularly interesting because it covers both confirmed directors and emerging directors and very different kinds of films,’ says Sheila de La Varende, director of Telefilm’s European office in Paris.

De La Varende says the European feature film market has changed significantly in the past year, with the stability of the late 1990s mostly gone. ‘I think we are in a new period [characterized by] a regeneration of new kinds of financing mechanisms,’ she says.

AAC reps Sundance winners

AAC is repping several high-profile Sundance festival winners in various international territories (mostly non-English-speaking) including David Gordon Green’s All the Real Girls, Tom McCarthy’s The Station Agent, the 2003 audience award winner, and Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity, the ’02 Grand Jury Prize winner.

AAC has world rights on Charles Biname’s Seraphin: Un homme et son peche. The film has topped the $8-million mark at the Quebec box office and will be screened at the Cannes market, following a screening in Paris for French distribs prior to the festival, adds Mickie. ‘I think we’ll make some sales. It’s a strong love story and very moving and could be very interesting for certain territories,’ she says.

Other new AAC titles at this year’s market include Sebastien Rose’s Comment ma mere…, Keith Behrman’s Flower & Garnet, Dylan Kidd’s Roger Dodger (Venice winner), Vikram Javanti’s feature doc Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine and Ricardo Trogi’s surprise ’02 hit Quebec-Montreal.

Mickie’s ’03 business travel agenda includes Rotterdam (‘beautifully run and very interesting’), Cannes, Sundance and Toronto for acquisitions and sales, Berlin, AFM and MIFED, later in the fall.

Opening night

Christal Films has already acquired Canadian rights to two commercial French films, Andre Techine’s Strayed and French director Gerard Krawczyk’s Fanfan La Tulipe, a remake of the original 1952 French classic and the festival’s opening-night film. The Canadian press will be invited to meet the film’s cast, he says.

Christal, which operates from both the Canada and SODEC-Quebec kiosks at Cannes, is the exporter on the Bernard Emond feature 20h17 rue Darling, an official selection, and is working with Cinema Vault on foreign sales of the Jean Beaudin thriller Le Collectionneur, Les Dangereux and Michel Jette’s Histoires de Pen (Inside).

Le Collectionneur sold to 15 territories at AFM, and Larouche hopes to add 10 more territories at Cannes. He says it has the upside potential for international sales of US$600,000.

Christal will also hold discussions on coproductions with potential U.K. and German partners, and with ‘French partners looking to produce in English for the international market,’ adds Larouche.

Avoid costly bidding

Seville Pictures is likely to benefit from several high-profile screenings at Cannes, while neatly sidestepping the costly bidding exercises, says Brousseau.

Seville had previously acquired Canadian rights to five films screening at Cannes, including three films entered in competition, instead buying on spec based on the script or on the basis of a filmmaker’s earlier efforts. ‘We don’t want to be involved in those stupid games where everybody loses except the seller,’ says Brousseau.

The Seville acquisitions competing at Cannes include Francois Ozon’s first English film, Swimming Pool; Lu Yee’s Purple Butterfly, a passionate love story set in occupied Shanghai circa 1930 and a likely high-profile entry at TIFF 2003; and Iranian director Samira Makmalbaf’s At Five in the Afternoon, the first feature film shot in post-Taliban Afghanistan. ‘These films are among the most sought-after art-house film titles in the world,’ says Brousseau.

At Cannes, Brousseau says he hopes to secure rights to the next Pedro Almodovar film following the success of Talk To Her, which has grossed $1 million in Quebec theatres since its release on 10 screens in late December.

Jeanne Ritter, president of Domino Film and Television International, will screen Jeff Erbach’s The Nature of Nicholas at the Cannes market.

‘A slice of Canadian gothic,’ Ritter says the film garnered three Blizzard Awards and has been featured in a dozen Canadian and international film festivals. It’s a coproduction between Critical Madness Productions and Full Stop Films, and will be released in Canadian theatres later this year.

Canada Pavilion

The Canada Pavilion is part of the International Village for a second consecutive year. The pavilion brings together a dozen national and provincial organizations and is hosting 25 companies, up from 15 last year.

Canada Pavilion events include Telefilm’s launch May 17 of Immersion Europe: 2003, a feature film networking conference which is being held in Paris, Nov. 17-20. Thirty positions are available to Canadians. Also on the slate, producer networking breakfasts with France (May 18) and Australia (May 20) and the by-invitation-only ‘Canadian Bash’ party (May 18).

-www.cannesmarket.com