04/08/2003

Industry attendance at the Locarno Film Festival (6-16 August 2003) is growing steadily. This year, “old faithfuls” like Bavaria, Arte and RAI and US mini-majors like Miramax and New Line, will be joined by Spain’s Lola Films, Greece’s Filmtrade, Finland’s Finkino Oy, Sweden’s Nonstop Ent, France’s ID Distribution and Russia’s Pan Terra – all of whom will make a huge contribution to the international visibility of their productions.
It was thanks to the great work of the Industry Office, that films like Tan de repente, Diego Lerman’s 2002 Silver Leopard-winning directorial feature debut that was co-produced by Holland and Argentina, was released in numerous territories like France and Germany. Meisje by Belgium’s Dorothée van den Berghe screened in last year’s international competition and immediately snatched up by German distributor, Media Luna.

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This year, the Industry Office has outdone itself by organising even more meetings for producers, buyers and distributors.
The Locarno Festival has organised a meeting for the heads of the following foundations - Montecinema Verità, Hubert Bals, Göteborg and Fond Sud. This is also an excellent opportunity for buyers to get an overview of film production in the South of Europe and facilitate funding for projects. The Industry Office furthermore renewed its joint venture with ACE (Atéliers du Cinéma Europèen) and this year, the focus is on Swiss producers, in preparation for Switzerland’s joining the EU.
The Office is also strengthening its ties to the Turin Film Commission and Regione Piemonte by means of a nightly cocktail party on a boat on the magical setting of Lago Maggiore.