13/08/2003

“Locarno is a paradise. You don’t experience the stress usually associated with major festivals here. You can work in a calm atmosphere and it’s easy to talk and make plans.”
Pascal Diot, former head of sales at a number of leading French film companies like TF1, Canal Plus and Pathé International, is here in Locarno as the new head of his very own production and distribution slate, Onoma.
Although Diot only created Onoma a little over three months ago, he is already working on four major film projects: “I cannot go into detail because I am in the middle of finalising a co-production deal with an international company.” Big secrets and big manoevres. “I have always worked in sales and have often had to nurse projects that I did not much care for. That is one of the main reasons why I decided to work exclusively on projects that I like.”
That is not to say that Diot is a newcomer to the film production arena. “In 1999 I founded IDPL but that year I was hired by Pathé and was forced to dedicate less time to my company.” He did not abandon it totally and Diot is in Locarno not only to discuss Onoma projects but also those of IDPL. “Despite not having much time at my disposal, I managed – with IDPL – to produce Kurosawa’s last film, After the Rain, selected for the Venice Film Festival in 1999.”

Asked what are the goals he has set for himself at Onoma, Diot replies: “Above all, to choose films according to their universal appeal. I don’t care where they come from or how much they will cost to make. I am only interested in the stories and in how they relate to reality. In a world where races and cultures are continuously intermingling, a new window of opportunity has opened for us, and its name is diversity. It’s up to us to exploit it.”
Diot has his doubts as to the effectiveness of the European market in terms of interesting opportunities. “That could well be true, but Europe has a big problem to deal with: small production companies – incidentally, the ones that occasionally have the most interesting projects, don’t often manage to make their projects sufficiently commercial.”
What about investment by foundations or governments? “Of course they are useful but I think the real answer to the problem of supporting small or medium-budget projects is not the funding given to a single film. I think it would be much better were a package of projects presented by the same producer to get funding. It is often the case that a film turns out to be a flop when it is already in an advanced stage of the production process. If that happens, the best thing to do is walk away, even if you lose the money you’ve invested, and concentrate on more commercial projects in order to cover or recoup your losses immediately. When a single title receives funding, if the producer realises that it’s a turkey, he has no alternative but to continue producing and ends up losing €1m instead of €200,000.”