A s it celebrated a half century supporting the film industry, Festival du nouveau cinéma wasn’t looking back but forward creating a new coproduction market – the first in North America to present fiction feature film and virtual reality projects in the development stage.

“I thought it was a great initiative, much more international than what I expected, and I look forward to future ones,” says Yanick Létourneau, co-founder and producer at Montréal-based Peripheria, which has a strong focus on international coproductions. “There were a lot of good quality people there, available online, from producers to distributors to sales agents … It’s great because it’s based in Montréal, Québec and there’s nothing else quite like it in Québec. At the TIFF, there’s the international co-pro meetings, a sidebar for the industry. We don’t have much of that in Canada, so having a second one at the FNC in Québec is great.”

The first edition of the online program was crafted a collaboration with the Luxembourg City Film Festival and CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. In total, 18 feature-length fiction and virtual reality projects participated from across North America, Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Hayet Benkara, head of market programming, hand-selected 12 features, specifically focusing on projects that did not yet have visibility and were at various stages of development, in collaboration with Anna Ciennik and Karim Aitouna. Four were first features directed by women.

“The calibre of projects in the inaugural year spoke to the necessity of a new market,” says Lauren Grant, of Clique Pictures.

Benkara – who has worked at the world’s most prestigious and influential film festivals including Berlinale, Cannes, Locarno and TIFF – earning a well-deserved reputation for the projects she chooses and initiatives to foster emerging talent.  But curating outside festivals to bring into the inaugural FNC was a first for the renowned French-born industry advisory.

“I could see that there was this appetite of people wanting to work with Canadians or wanting to work with Canada… how do you try to support this community? Who is still wanting to do these kind of films? How do you get people on board? They need the North American market, and the North American market, I think, needs them,” Benkara, tells Playback Daily from France.

Canadian features in the spotlight included Sofia Bohdanowic’s A Portrait (Greenground Productions), Meryam Joobeur’s Canada/Tunisia copro Motherhood (Midi La Nuit and Tanit Films) and Bretten Hannam’s Skite’kmujua’kik (Mazewalker Films). Sandra Rodriguez and Alexander Whitley’s Canada/U.K. copro Future Rites (Normal, Alexander Whitley Dance Company) is in the augmented and virtual reality stream.

Benkara – who spent 15 years at the Toronto International Film Festival – says multiple festivals to partner for the initiative. Some held back with a “wait-and-see” approach, but may board in future. In the end, partnering with CineMart and Luxembourg was a “really natural collaboration” that built off existing relationships.

“CineMart is one of those festivals in Europe that is in line with the FNC, in terms of the way they are supporting their directors. They’re really into curation. They’re really trying very hard to try to also take risks and be bold, to not be too safe in their choices.”

Rotterdam was home to the world’s first coproduction market, says Benkara, though Venice and Tribeca are making headway diving into in the VR and immersive space. “They did really an amazing work in putting projects together and professionals together, and also to curate and give visibility that a lot of festivals might not be giving.”

Luxembourg City Film Festival was chosen as it is also artistically aligned.

The decision to focus on VR was intentional. “This was also a way to say, ‘hey we’re not old-fashioned’ or lack an understanding of what’s going on. We were being a little bit like dreamers. It’s the same. It’s storytelling. It’s based on content, you have to have very strong creators. It’s not just technology. It’s really about emotions and how do you create those emotions?”

What’s her view on the future of filmmaking, and the role of film festivals?

“I think it’s going to surprise us. Hopefully. I do believe that people still need emotions and have a connection with visuals. Although, [director Jean Luc] Godard seemed to say that cinema was over. Which in a way probably is, a certain cinema maybe is. Maybe we will not consume cinema the same way, but still we’re still hungry for stories. We’re still hungry for images and connection with images. I think it’s part of our DNA. I don’t think we can take that away, but the question is: how will we do that?”  

The market was held Oct. 6 to 8, but the festival is online and available until Oct. 31.  

Photo: Montreal courtesy Unsplash