The Locarno Industry Academy opens in Latin and North America
- “We want to create a community of future key players in the sector that can develop new concepts to promote independent film,” says Nadia Dresti
After a good result at last year’s edition of the Locarno Film Festival, registration is now open for the Locarno Industry Academy 2016, an initiative of the Locarno Summer Academy created with the aim of offering young film industry professionals ongoing training in the sales, marketing and distribution, during which young people can broaden their network of contacts in Europe and all over the world.
“After this first experience in 2015, we realised that all countries share a common problem: the distribution of arthouse film,” says Nadia Dresti, who is in charge of the artistic direction and international aspects of the Festival. “With digital technology we’ve seen an increase in production, whilst the number of people going to the cinema has drastically fallen. Digital distribution has still not managed to find a sufficiently large audience to make up for the loss of viewers in cinemas. By developing international bridges we want to create a community of future key players in the sector that can reflect on and develop new concepts to promote independent film.”
With the collaboration of important international partners, the first pilot phase of the Locarno Industry Academy International was set up, comprising three events held in Mexico, during the Morelia Festival in October 2015, in Brazil in cooperation with Cinema do Brasil in December 2015, and last week in New York in cooperation with the Film Society of Lincoln Center during the New Directors New Films Festival.
After the success of the last event of the Locarno Industry Academy International in New York, the result of a long and fruitful collaboration between the various partners involved and the Locarno Film Festival, the initiative is renewing and strengthening its drive to involve the new generation of film industry professionals by opening the four Academies to participants from Latin America, North America, Europe and Switzerland.
The initiative, which was developed and is managed by project manager Marion Klotz, is supported by the Federal Office of Culture – MEDIA compensatory measures and the cooperation of three Pan-European organisations (Europa Cinemas, Europa Distribution and Europa International).
(Translated from Italian)
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