29/11/2002

A cooling-down period rapidly ensued and many UK sales and producers had to accept that ‘the easy ride’ was over. Since then, key independent companies have disappeared from the marketplace (J&M, Alibi, United Artists, Lola Films UK) while others have moved to Hollywood (Intermedia). The launch of Signpost Films in 2001 was a courageous attempt by Stewart Till to defy the harsh reality of the marketplace, but his dream was to be short-lived and his company closed last month.
Today, UK sales agents are waiting for better times. They are being more cautious and they all evaluate the risk element most carefully, even financially healthy companies like Pathe International. “Pathe has never been big on taking huge risks,” says the company’s head of sales Alison Thompson. “What we do is that we’re taking our time, always trying to have a mix of films, combining high-calibre titles such as Jane Campion’s In The Cup – currently in post-production - with risk-taking on new filmmakers”.
Sales companies are now catering to today’s buyers after the market decided to focus on two distinct types of products. On the one hand they are looking for easily marketable films with specific genres or star directors. Two films, for example, that got an excellent reception at the last edition of MIFEd were Pathe’s animated feature, The Magic Roundabout, and Capitol Films’ The Company, by established US director, Robert Altman. On the other, international distributors want smaller, quality films that have had a seal of approval either from a festival or from critics such as Portman’s Bloody Sunday or The Work’s Bend It Like Beckham.
According to Renaissance Films’ Angus Finney, “the market has changed and films within the $10-12m (Euros 10-12 million) bracket are difficult to finance these days.” Finney concentrates on the $4 -$5m (Euros 4-5 million) projects and the $15-20m (Euros 15-20 milion) films with top UK or US filmmakers like Neil La Bute (Nurse Betty), Roger Michell (Notting Hill) or Oliver Parker (An Ideal Husband), with whom Finney established relationships at the development stage of their respective new projects.
While Renaissance is using its healthy $1m (Euros 1million) development fund to lure top directors, many competitors have increased their production and financing activities: Hanway Films and Winchester, for example, just hired ex-Alibi sales expert Gareth Jones as the new head of production and financing.
No longer able to rely on pre-sales alone or on equity investors such as Film Four who withdrew from the market, UK sales agents and producers have to work much harder on putting budgets together, and many of them now turn to alternative sources of financing: tax funds, subsidies and co-productions. Fortunately, the UK is seen as ‘the place to be’ in terms of soft money after tax breaks ( which can mean producers can raise as much as 50 per cent of their budgets locally) were extended to 2005, and the UK Film Council has an annual budget of around US Dollars77.5m (GBP50m – Euros 77.5 million).

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On another positive note, this year a variety of titles sold by UK-based sales companies were critically and commercially successful abroad, the titles include Bend It Like Beckham, All Or Nothing, Gosford Park and Bloody Sunday.
2003 should be another exciting year with the release of several eagerly awaited films including Roger Michell’s The Mother with Daniel Craig, Mike Barker’s To Kill a King with Tim Roth, and Jane Campion’s In The Cut starring Meg Ryan. Attracted both by the UK boom in tax breaks and presence of talented filmmakers, producers and writers, some US companies have decided to bet or reinvest in the London film community: which is another good sign for the UK. Lakeshore has asked Peter Rogers to supervise their European co-production activities in London, and producers Edward Pressman and John Schmidt hired Jamie Carmichael (ex-Icon) to head their sales arm, Content International, in London.
For Alison Thompson, all UK sales agents can do these days is “ride the storm”. According to her, “UK’s sales scene is on the verge of a new age; an inevitable change is happening which will lead to new beginnings”.