DIVING INTO THE MARCHE DU FILM
May 14, 2015
Hammad Zaidi
Welcome to Going Bionic #266, coming to you live from the Marche du Film, otherwise known as the Cannes Film Market. My company, Lonely Seal Releasing, has held a booth here since 2006, so I’ve watched this market grow steadily over the years. While certain editions are more robust that others, due to the occasionally melting economies of the world and jarring political strife, the Cannes Film Market always positions itself as “the” place to initiate, close, and finance films. Thus, today I’m going to give you a quick glimpse into the planet’s most significant film market.
By the Numbers
The 2015 edition of the Cannes Film Market had already registered a record, 11,000+ attendees by the end of the first day. The largest contingent of attendees is producers, who make up 29%, followed by distributors at 24% and sales agents account for 11% of attendees.
3,300 films will be on sale, with 950 of them being screened for buyers. Of the films being screened, 80% of them are market premieres.
Inviting the World
This year’s market has 117 countries participating, giving it the widest global reach in history, and breaking their own record from last year, when 108 countries attended. New attendees include Nepal, Albania, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
What’s Hot With Buyers
Regarding independent cinema, family content is currently quite a healthy genre for films without well-known talent. More specifically, stories involving tweens or teenage characters with animals are the easiest genre to close a deal on. While the offers on these films tend to be in the spectrum between better than marginal to solid, they may not change anyone’s tax bracket (unless they crank out a slew of them per year). Furthermore, as always, action pictures with sellable names are always good, as are thrillers with names.
What’s NOT Hot With Buyers
Coming of age films, dramas, most comedies and romantic comedies, which are void of A-list talent. Of course, this is nothing new, and these genres have not been in favor for many years. Should you be wondering how long, just know that several American Presidents have served in the White House since the last time these genres thrived internationally without being injected with star power.
Temperature at the Market in the First Two Days
Film buyers are taking a healthy amount meetings so far, but it seems like we’re still in the calm before the storm. However, I fully expect the market to be buzzing within 24-hours, so stay tuned for future updates.
As always, I thank you for lending me your eyes, and I look forward to borrowing them again. Until then, I can be reached @Lonelyseal on Twitter.