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LOCARNO 2003 Market

Cigars & strategies

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Work started early with a first screening scheduled at 9 a.m. for the producers, distributors and film exporters at the Locarno Film Festival.
It’s far too early to discuss deals but the operators who met at the Dannemann Centre in Brissago yesterday evening (6 Aug) know what they want, although they are open to surprises.
For the non-smokers amongst you, the Dannemann Centre is the site of a world famous cigar factory that was founded in 1864 and recently bought up by Dannemann. So cigars, tasty snacks and refreshing cocktails contributed to breaking the ice and to getting people talking.
They include Anna Pekala, the representative of Polish distribution slate, Gutek Film, with a predilection for avant-garde cinema. The Gutek line up includes international hits like Marco Bellocchio’s My Mother’s Smile [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
; Pedro Almodovar’s Speak to Her [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and Aki Kaurismaki’s Man Without A Past.
“I am here also on behalf of the Cieszyn International Film Festival,” said Pekala, “so my search for titles is somewhat doubled: on the one hand, there’s GutekFilm who want Spanish and especially Scandinavian auteur-driven titles, on the other, there’s the Festival that’s looking for rather more commercial films.”
Gutek Film own and manage two Warsaw cinemas (the Muranow and the Wars) – both of which belong to the European Cinema Network and Gutek are actively involved in promoting European cinema. “It’s certainly not easy,” said Pekala. “On a par with most other territories, we in Poland are involved in an ongoing battle with the Americans and their productions which have reduced the share of the Polish market occupied by European productions stands at a relatively small 30%.”

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According to Hélène Cardis, head of the Zurich-based Monopole Pathé Films AG, the situation’s not so dire in Switzerland: European films have a 50% share of the domestic market.
“The Swiss market is fortunate in that it encompasses three languages and that helps the spread of European films.” Cardis is in Locarno to distribute two titles – France’s Le coût de la vie by Philippe Le Guay and Au sud des nuages, a Franco-Swiss co-production directed by Jean-François Amiguet. Cardis said she was also looking for interesting novelties for the next few seasons: “I am a regular in Locarno; it’s the best place to find interesting that are different.”

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(Translated from Italian)

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