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DISTRIBUZIONE / USCITE / ESERCENTI Francia

I distributori francesi prendono la strada del VOD

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- Le incertezze sulla riapertura dei cinema in Francia costringono i distributori ad arbitrati talvolta innaturali al fine di decongestionare le loro line-up

I distributori francesi prendono la strada del VOD
Nuestras madres di César Díaz

Questo articolo è disponibile in inglese.

It’s like a perilous hike up a steep mountainside, with no visibility and no clue of how far away the summit lies, nor the landscape that will unfurl upon arrival. Despite their faith in the future revival of the bounteous magic of the big screen (213 million admissions in France in 2019, equal to 1.4 billion euros in takings), French distributors are having to move forwards amidst the ever-changing constraints of the health crisis, forcing them to make some very difficult decisions.

With the re-opening of cinemas not yet on the agenda (although, unofficially, it’s hoped this will happen on 1 July) and any summertime reboot set to suffer from the protection measures that will inevitably be imposed (capacity and motivation of audiences, masks, sanitization, the issue of aeration and air-conditioning, etc.), not to mention a significantly enfeebled film offering (the cost-effectiveness of screening movies in this complex climate of recovery is infinitely unlikely, further dampening distributors’ spirits), titles on the release schedule are finding themselves endlessly pushed back to the autumn, if not 2021. This flood of postponements, and the accompanying prospect of a backlog of film releases - which will lead to an assortment of cinema results even more brutal than the norm - is yet another issue on top of the evaporation of resources currently experienced by distributors, and these onerous, extra difficulties are driving many within the industry towards the speedier route of VoD releases, including distributors who would never before have envisaged such a scenario.

(L'articolo continua qui sotto - Inf. pubblicitaria)

In this respect, Pyramide have decided to release César Díaz’s Our Mothers [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Cesar Diaz
scheda film
]
directly on VoD on 16 June - the Cannes Film Festival’s Caméra D’Or winner of 2019 was originally due to be released in cinemas on 8 April. Similarly, a number of distributors who hadn’t immediately capitalised on the CNC’s exceptional provisions (read our news) - authorising films whose time in French cinemas had come to a brutal end, on 14 March, as a result of the health crisis, to be released immediately on pay-VoD in France - have finally resolved to do so. Indeed, on 13 May, further titles were added to the VoD list, most notably Vivarium [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Lorcan Finnegan
scheda film
]
by Lorcan Finnegan (which was released in cinemas on 11 March by The Jokers and Les Bookmakers), A Mermaid in Paris [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film
]
by Mathias Malzieu (likewise released on 11 March by Sony Pictures Entertainment) and the documentary Woman [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Anastasia Mikova e Yann Ar…
scheda film
]
by Anastasia Mikova and Yann-Arthus Bertrand (distributed by Apollo Films on 4 March), not to mention Lara [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Jan Ole Gerster
scheda film
]
by Jan-Ole Gerster (KMBO, 26 February).

In all, 59 films have now been granted special exemption from French media chronology laws, opting for an early VoD release in France. Of the various titles launched in cinemas on 4 and 11 March, and in the midst of their movie theatre careers when these establishments were forced to close, many have already taken the VoD path (including Radioactive [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Marjane Satrapi
scheda film
]
by Marjane Satrapi via StudioCanal, Monos [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film
]
by Alejandro Landes via Le Pacte, Land of Ashes [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film
]
by Sofia Quiros Ubeda via Eurozoom and Oskar & Lily [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film
]
by Arash T. Riahi via Les Films du Losange). But several distributors haven’t yet made this about-turn and are instead standing firm on their decision to re-release their films in cinemas once possible, and under good conditions. Such firms include Memento with Martin Provost’s How To Be A Good Wife [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Anamaria Vartolomei
scheda film
]
, Jour2Fête with Mehdi M. Barsaoui’s A Son [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Mehdi M. Barsaoui e Sami B…
scheda film
]
, Paname Distribution with Sandra Kogut’s Three Summers [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film
]
, SND with Gabriel Le Bomin’s De Gaulle [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film
]
, Bodega Films with Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Bartosz Bielenia
intervista: Jan Komasa
scheda film
]
, Pyramide with Hadrien La Vapeur and Corto Vaclav’s Kongo [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film
]
, Les Valseurs with Marios Piperides Smuggling Hendrix [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Marios Piperides
scheda film
]
and Norte Distribution with Patric Chiha’s If It Were Love [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Patric Chiha
scheda film
]
.

If we also take into account the two films directly resold to Amazon Prime Video - Ballsy Girl [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film
]
by Katia Lewkowicz (which was scheduled to be distributed by UGC) and Pinocchio [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Matteo Garrone
scheda film
]
by Matteo Garrone (which was scheduled via Le Pacte) - and this week’s direct VoD release of Christian Volckman’s The Room [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Christian Volckman
scheda film
]
(via Condor Distribution), we begin to get an idea of the extremely difficult position French distributors now find themselves in, especially independent firms. Their dilemmas are financial (cash flows are down and they must make the painful choice between the usual revenue hailing from cinemas - which, sadly, is a thing of the past for now - or, at best, from wholly uncertain screenings in the mid-term, and the incomparable and, for now, far less appealing revenue that comes from VoD), logistical (how and when to release films, and under what conditions, so as to avoid them sucking the lifeblood out of each other) and ethical (highly valued in France vis-a-vis other distribution media, movie theatres are of prime importance). To be continued…

(L'articolo continua qui sotto - Inf. pubblicitaria)

(Tradotto dal francese)

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