16/10/2002

This year's London Screenings, scheduled to run from 28-31 October, are, together with MIFED which takes place one week later in Milan, part of the autumn film market season. The fact that these two markets are held in two different European cities over a two-week period has often been a problem for buyers and sellers, not so much the bigger players who can afford the costs of attending both events, but rather for the vast majority of smaller film companies. However since last year, in an increasingly difficult economic and political climate, most film suppliers and distributors decided that they could no longer afford duplicating their market costs and would have to choose between one or the other event. Last year's MIFED was bypassed by many high profile US companies such as Miramax and Good Machine, who only sent a few representatives to London: fears for their employees' safety following the September 11 attack was also key factor in their decision.
But this year's casualty is undeniably the London Screenings: British and French export associations, followed by a dozen leading US companies, decided to boycott the London event undermining its financial health, not to mention its credibility.
Cineuropa is focusing on the history of the London Screenings, the reasons for this year's boycott by key sales companies and the need, expressed by many of those sales agents, to rationalise film markets in general.