Frédéric Boyer • Artistic director, Les Arcs Film Festival
"These days, everyone is staking their bets on attention-grabbing films which can be highly profitable in the arthouse cinema sector"
- The Les Arcs Film Festival selector sheds light on the Work in Progress line-up which will be showcased on 15 December, and gives his opinion on the current state of European arthouse cinema
On the eve of the 16th edition of the Les Arcs Film Festival (read our article) and its associated Industry Village, which notably consists of an ever-popular Work in Progress (WiP) section, this year set to showcase 13 films (news), we met with the festival’s artistic director Frédéric Boyer (who holds the same post in Tribeca and Reykjavik).
Cineuropa: Eight first feature films and one second feature film figure among the 13 titles in the Work in Progress line-up. Is this propensity towards young filmmakers an editorial decision?
Frédéric Boyer: There’s always a correlation between the quality of a film and its compatibility with what we’re looking for. But if we can give young filmmakers an opportunity, with screenings of their first films, premieres, and a share in all the excitement, because they’re not used to being approached and they’re often surprised to be selected, then that’s brilliant, too.
How did the selection process unfold?
We received 150 films. We immediately eliminate films with credits, films which were completed back in June because, generally speaking, they’ve already done the rounds of the sales agents. We try our best to select films shot over the summer or sometimes even later, in order to maintain greater secrecy over the selection. And, obviously, confidentiality is very important and the selected filmmakers agree not to contact sales agents before screening in Les Arcs. That said, sales agents are brilliant at what they do, so they’ve often already heard about most projects, but they won’t have seen any images. It all adds a bit of excitement and suspense to the WiP matinée. We try to keep the atmosphere relaxed and festive, but there are lots of professionals present, and it has to remain a unique moment with an opportunity to get initial "feedback" on films and to generate interest.
This year, our selection includes some very "arty" films and - to a greater extent than last year - more commercial films with significant sales potential. We don’t make our decisions based on specific quotas per country. The proof of this is that we have two Dutch and two Norwegian titles this year. We’re also very happy, in league with the WiP selection team (which includes Lison Hervé and Jérémy Zelnik), to only be presenting two coming-of-age tales this year, because we receive a huge number of them but we couldn’t even fit half of these films into a selection! We need different films, and we insisted on this this year, with an incredibly diverse selection. But the selection process remains very subjective, and we like to trust our first impressions. Once we’ve made our selection, we have to find the right format in which to present them by chatting with the film teams (who decide on the final cut).
Are international sales agents and selectors from major festivals - who travel in great number to Les Arcs - looking for the same kinds of films?
Not necessarily. Every festival has a different editorial line: the Directors’ Fortnight doesn’t look for the same thing as Karlovy Vary or Venice’s Critics’ Week. For sales agents, the personalities of the team behind the project, of the producer and primarily of the director, also count for a lot: how they see the film, which marketing approaches are an option for the film, how capable the filmmaker is of promoting his or her film, etc.
Some European arthouse films have met with great success around the world, but the divide has nonetheless grown wider, with increasing numbers of failures for many other titles. What’s your analysis of this trend?
There’s no denying that the Cannes effect is extraordinary. When you look at the success of Souleymane’s Story [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Boris Lojkine
film profile] by Boris Lojkine, it’s clear that things would have been a little harder for the film had it not been presented in the Un Certain Regard section. The major festivals are really important to films doing well, and they have a huge impact on sales. But sales agents also single out films which they know probably won’t be selected in major festivals but which they still believe will sell really well, and there are frequent examples of this. And for a young filmmaker, having a popular film which is of interest to the market and to festival programmes is primarily a guarantee they’ll be able to make a second feature film. That said, it’s no easy matter distributing European arthouse films in cinemas, not even in France. It’s a bit of a gamble, hunting for films which stand out and which have the potential to attract a slightly younger audience. Then there’s the art of distribution: when and how to release and promote films. Good distributors manage to play their cards right, but the general situation is undeniably tense.
Can you see any signs of things improving?
American agents like William Morris and CAA are now taking an interest in our WiP section; they ask who a particular director, actress or actor is. That wasn’t the case when we first started out, and it’s clearly something to be happy about. They take an interest in WiP projects, but also in filmmakers, to find out about their next projects. Because, these days, everyone stakes their bets on attention-grabbing films which can be highly profitable in the arthouse cinema sector. That’s what A24 did wonderfully, at the beginning, in any event, with markedly arthouse and highly personal films, and filmmakers who deserved a hand up. Ultimately, they were right to do so. It brought about a change in American thinking, among independents as well as studios.
(Translated from French)
