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VENICE 2015 Industry

The Venice Film Market shows its strength

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- VENICE 2015: The industry event saw stable attendance, high-quality projects and various acquisitions

The Venice Film Market shows its strength
Venice Film Market director Pascal Diot

At the fourth edition of the Venice Film Market (VFM), attendance levels have been stable. “Overall, 1,496 industry professionals from 575 companies collected their badges,” reports Venice Film Market director Pascal Diot. Among the participants were 415 producers, 207 distributors and 63 world sales agents. “Venice is a networking place, where people have time for deep conversations; producers can speak about their projects. That is the strength of the Venice Film Market.”

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The European Gap-Financing Market, which took place for the second time, received very positive feedback from producers and financiers owing to the high quality of the projects. Co-funded for the first time by MEDIA, the event hosted 15 European projects from nine countries, with budgets ranging between €40,000 and €11 million. While some of the films are still at the script stage, others are looking for post-production support. “We had 246 one-to-one meetings, which were requested by 61 companies,” says Diot. The projects that were most in demand were the Portuguese drama Letters from War [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Ivo M Ferreira
film profile
]
by Ivo Ferreira, which is being produced by O Som e a Fúria (Arabian Nights [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile
]
, Tabu [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miguel Gomes
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile
]
), and the Turkish film The Bank of Broken Hearts by Onur Ünlü

Two projects from the 2014 edition of the European Gap-Financing Market celebrated their world premieres at Venice this year. Interruption [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daphné Patakia
interview: Yorgos Zois
film profile
]
by Yorgos Zois was presented in the Orizzonti section and First Light [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vincenzo Marra
film profile
]
by Vincenzo Marra in the Venice Days. Furthermore, Sworn Virgin [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Laura Bispuri
film profile
]
by Laura Bispuri had its world premiere in the 2015 Berlinale competition, while Peace To Us in Our Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sharunas Bartas
film profile
]
by Sharunas Bartas was shown in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes this year.

Among the 90 or so world premieres at Venice, several films were acquired for international release. “Distributors often focus on director-driven films,” underlines the market director. Movies like Remember [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
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by Atom Egoyan and Equals by Drake Doremus have already been pre-sold in more than 30 territories at the script stage. The Argentinian competition title The Clan [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
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by Pablo Trapero has been sold to Diaphana (France), Prokino (Germany), Lumière (Benelux) and Warner Bros (Spain), while Retribution [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dani de la Torre
film profile
]
by Dani de la Torre was picked up by independent Italian distributor Satine Noir. Another hot Venice Days title that is in high demand for buyers is The Daughter by Simon Stone. Further acquisitions include La calle de la amargura [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Arturo Ripstein, which was being sold by Spanish sales agent Latido Films, as well as the new, untitled project by Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, which was pre-bought by Lumière. 

Various world sales companies found new films at Venice. The Match Factory secured the rights for the Turkish political film Frenzy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emin Alper
film profile
]
by Emin Alper, while German sales outfit M-Appeal snapped up the Biennale College film Blanka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kohki Hasei
film profile
]
by Japanese filmmaker Kohki Hasei. Celluloid Dreams went for Laurie Anderson’s Heart of a Dog [+see also:
trailer
film profile
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as well as From Afar by Venezuelan filmmaker Lorenzo Vigas. Another Latin American title is the drama A Monster with a Thousand Heads by Uruguay-born director Rodrigo Plá, which was bought by Memento Films. Indie Sales acquired the comedy In Bed with Victoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile
]
by Justine Triet, while Silver Sword snagged the rights for the project Final Vatican Conspiracy for France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

The Venice Film Market was rounded off by several industry panels. “One of the discussions was about how short films can help to scout out new talents and be associated with companies,” reports Diot. “MEDIA is thinking about creating a special brand for short films.”

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