16/10/2002

The London Screenings were set up in the late eighties by a few London-based sales agents willing to show their new "A-line products" in privileged conditions to some key buyers - mainly Hollywood residents on their way to MIFED. Top international distributors trying to get ahead on the hectic Milan market began to enjoy previewing top quality films in a dozen private and public screening rooms, and deals were often signed around a relaxed drink or dinner in the West End. As long as they remained informal and 'unofficial', the London Screenings were an ideal stopover even for non-London based sellers who could choose to go to London if they felt they had strong titles to premiere. But the Screenings gradually became the victim of their own popularity and started to spiral out of control. Many sellers also bemoaned the practice of block-booking screens by some London PR companies who took advantage of their free reign in the absence of an official central organisation.
In the late autumn of 1996, concerned by the shift of the London event from an elitist platform to a more conventional market with hundreds of old and new products on offer, Mike Ryan, then co-chairman of J&M Entertainment, started to lobby the UK film industry for a more formal event in order to have better control both of products and services. He also explored possible links to the London Film Festival (LFF) that is held every year in November.
In February 1997, Sheila Whitaker, who had just lost her position as Head of the LFF, hijacked the initiative and launched her plan to co-ordinate the pre-MIFED London Screenings concurrently with a new London film festival called the London International Film Festival And Market (LIFFAM). The plan also meant that the whole event could take place on the same dates in October.
Following her surprise announcement, the British Film Institute - the official organiser of the LFF - said it would keep the November dates for the existing London Film Festival, but proposed to help formalise the London Screenings. Pressured by the industry to arbitrate and try to find a solution, British Government officials from the Department of Culture Media and Sport and the producers' association PACT commissioned a feasibility study into the creation of a fully-fledged London International film festival and market on an equal footing with Cannes or Berlin. But the report was never officially published and the project eventually abandoned.
Many self-appointed organisations, sponsored by various film companies seeking to capitalize on the potentially highly-lucrative event, set up shop and tried to tame the uncontrolled London Screenings. Today, the main organizers and service providers during the London Screenings are 'London Screenings Ltd', run by Fusion Event's Jo Jo Dye, and 'Soho Screenings', headed by Sandy Mandelberger. Another separate organisation founded by Alexis Bicat provides an online market registration service at London Screenings and the US PR company Dennis Davidson & Associates (DDA) continues to block-book screening slots while servicing its clients, something it also does for them in Cannes and at the American Film Market (AFM).
Unfortunately, the presence once again of too many co-ordinators has only added to the confusion surrounding the London Screenings, and ended up benefiting the rival MIFED market with its centrally co-ordinated organisation.