08/09/2023 - VENICE 2023: VPB head Pascal Diot gives us the low-down on the event, which fosters the development and production of projects across a range of audiovisual formats

The Venice Production Bridge (VPB) attracts an ever-increasing number of international industry experts, hailing from all over the world, to the Lido. “At our first edition in 2012, we had about 400 professionals,” says Pascal Diot, head of the VPB. “This year, attendance shot up to 2,903.” The majority of the participants come from Europe, followed by the Middle East and Latin America. But film professionals from North America and Asia also attend the industry event in Venice, which encompasses the Book Adaptation Rights Market (BARM), the Venice Gap-Financing Market (VGFM) and the Final Cut in Venice workshop. The 2023 VPB Focus was on Germany and Québec.

“The VPB has not only helped attract a great number of professionals back to the festival in Venice, but it has also made a name for itself as a rendezvous that is important and, in many respects, crucial in the calendar of autumn events dedicated to the sector’s professionals,” emphasises Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice International Film Festival. Since its launch ten years ago, the VGFM has helped to finance 370 films from 70 countries. “80% of the projects are completed within six months of the end of the festival,” Diot points out. “In the last four years, various better-known directors have presented their projects at the Venice Gap-Financing Market.”

Among them is Steve McQueen, who was looking for gap financing for Occupied City [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. In 2019, Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland presented Charlatan [+see also:
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interview: Agnieszka Holland
film profile] at the VGFM, and in 2021, Wim Wenders came along with the 3D feature-length documentary The Secrets of Places, about Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. This year, Oscar-nominated director Jim Sheridan and David Merriman were looking for gap financing for the Irish-Luxembourgish co-production Recreation, which is about the unsolved killing of Daniel Toscan du Plantier’s wife, Sophie, in 1996. In total, 62 projects have been presented at the VGFM, among them 30 feature projects and ten immersive works.

“We had 1,311 one-to-one meetings for these 62 projects,” says Diot. The VGFM team organises such meetings between the projects’ teams and either financiers, sales agents, broadcasters, distributors, streamers or co-producers, depending on what the filmmakers are looking for. “We have many big companies as well as world sales agents like Films Boutique and The Match Factory, which are more strongly dedicated to arthouse movies.” Among the potential partners at the VGFM were Cinecittà, Searchlight, RAI Cinema, Film4, Canal+, Curzon, Amazon and Netflix.

For the 2023 edition, the VPB team received 283 applications. The projects already need to have 70% of their financing in place. “Our selection criterion is quality,” underlines the Venice Production Bridge head. The pre-selection is made by two consultants, and in the second step, a selection committee chooses the projects, which are at different stages, be it in production, currently shooting or in post-production. Two former VGFM projects premiered at the 80th Venice Film Festival: Heartless [+see also:
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interview: Alain Parroni
film profile] by Alain Parroni, both shown in the Orizzonti section.

The Book Adaptation Rights Market benefited from a big boost, having originally started with 15 publishers. The event receives so many requests that it is necessary to say no to some. “This year, we had 560 one-to-one meetings,” stresses Diot. “The BARM has become the second-most-important rendezvous for publishers, after the Frankfurt Book Fair.” In Cannes or Berlin, publishers have to select a highlight or two, while in Venice, they can offer their entire catalogue. In 2022, seven options were sold for film and TV-series adaptations.

The VPB also offered a conference programme with more than 50 panels about the latest trends in the industry, such as AI movies, storytelling in XR, as well as case studies and tips from producers for those who want to move from fiction to animation. At the Meet the Streamers events, SVoD/VoD platforms from all around the world offered their services to producers, distributors, rights holders and audiovisual professionals. Furthermore, Venice provides an immersive universe on the Lazzaretto Vecchio island, where about 30 film installations are presented both in and out of competition. “Museums, foundations and some cinemas show immersive works,” explains Diot. “We’ve become the number-one immersive market in the world.”