Cannes goes online, to help Indian films hit by coronavirus

Amid the uncertainty hovering over international film festivals this year, an unprecedented virtual film market in Cannes is expected to provide the much-needed support to industry professionals in India. Marché du Film, the largest film market in the world held alongside the Cannes film festival every year, last week announced an online 2020 edition scheduled during June 22-26.

"With so many film festivals and film markets around the world either postponed or facing cancellations, the online Marché du Film gives hope to filmmakers in India," says Samir Sarkar, an independent producer based in Pondicherry. "Films that have been blocked because of coronavirus pandemic will at least see some light at the end of the tunnel," says Sarkar, who co-produced the Tamil film Nasir (2020), which had its world premiere at the Rotterdam festival in January.

The Cannes film market, which first began in a tiny canvas screening room half-century ago, drew 12,527 participants from 121 countries last year along with 4,000 films and projects at 33 screening venues. The vast market on its sprawling Mediterranean seaside location today drives the growth of global film industry helping film executives buy and sell new films as well as find partners for new projects in the awe-inspiring backdrop of the Cannes festival.

"I will be looking for selling my current films and possiblities for new projects at the virtual market," says Sarkar, who owns Magic Hour Films that produced the award-winning Bengali film Jonaki (2018) directed by Aditya Vikram Sengupta. "I first met Aditya at the Cannes film market in 2016 where we held the initial discussions for the Jonaki project," adds Sarkar.

Looking for new strategy

Srinivasan Narayan, who is part of the Mumbai-based film distributor C A Films LLP, is looking forward to the online Cannes market to understand the line-up of international projects this year. "The first thing is to keep abreast of the production line-up. In the present circumstances, I also need to look for a new strategy to distribute films in India when theatres are closed," says Narayan, former director of Mumbai film festival. "We don't know when the cinemas would reopen. Even if they open by August-September, normalcy won't be back until December," he adds.

Narayan, who had acquired the rights for the Oscar-nominated French film Les Miserables in Cannes last year, suffered losses after cinemas shuttered last month due to the virus outbreak. "We spent a lot of money in the publicity for the release of Les Miserables in March," says Narayan, who had earlier imported The Shoplifters, Ash is Purest White, Image Book, I, Daniel Blake and Loveless for the Indian market. Alexis Manenti, the co-writer and actor of Les Miserables, came to India with fellow actor Omar Soumare to promote the film when lockdown stopped screenings one day after its release.

Many Indian industry professionals feel a virtual Cannes market is not an ideal platform for doing business, but the best way forward in the present circumstances. "It is not the best solution. But it is a new way of working," says Sarkar, who has been attending the Cannes film market for a decade. "People have to find innovative ways to take the business forward," he adds. "Personal contact, which is essential in business, will be missing," says Narayan. "But it is better to have a virtual market than nothing."

Current mannerisms well suited

"There was a time not too long ago when sales agents would entertain key clients over two-hour lunches and long dinners – more often to celebrate ongoing collaboration than to negotiate deals," says Lucius Barre, a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and first international crossover publicist for celebrated Spanish director Pedro Almódovar. "In recent years though, the pace of market life has sped up to a point where entertaining clients may be limited to just a quick cup of coffee. Somehow, current mannerisms might turn out to be well suited to the virtual market," adds Barre, who develops international distribution strategies for films from many cultures.

Another Indian film professional eager to embrace the virtual market is Mumbai-based filmmaker Payal Kapadia. "I am glad that (Cannes) has decided to let us present our projects online," says Kapadia, who will be pitching her debut feature film project, All We Imagine As Light, in June. "We will get an opportunity to present the project to the French funders," adds Kapadia, whose short film Afternoon Clouds was the first student film ever from the Film and Television Institute of India to be selected for Cannes in 2017. All We Imagine As Light, about two nurses working in a Mumbai hospital, is the first Indian project to be selected by the Cinefondation Cannes Residency (2019-20) in Paris. "The Cinefondation pitch, where I was supposed to pitch with my project, is now going to be virtual as well," adds Kapadia.

Barre feels one key aspect of a virtual market that might be a challenge is whether dealmakers in negotiations can read each other as well remotely as in person. "Even as social graces are fading and entertainment budgets are slim, the business of selling remains fundamentally the domain of clever interpersonal observation and maneuvers," he says. "The overriding question of our day is when, given the current health crisis, theatrical film will return to health. If buyers are cautious about acquisitions, there may well be a wave of new titles unsold this season that could double the wave of new projects competing for attention at future markets," adds Barre.

Adapting to changing times

"No one knows what the second half of the year may bring and whether it will be possible to organise major film events again in 2020, including the Festival de Cannes," Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Cannes festival, said in a press statement last week announcing a virtual festival market. "Cannes has, therefore, decided to adapt its format for this peculiar year. Here's a first initiative: a Marché du Film Online, launched by Jérôme Paillard, Executive Director of the Marché. This brand new kind of market is organised in consultation and with the participation of many professionals from all over the world," said Fremaux.

The online market is intended to mimic the market experience in Cannes with live and real-time meetings. It will offer creative alternatives to facilitate business and networking for film industry professionals from all over the world. The Marché du Film Online will take the shape of a closed industry space with virtual booths for sales agents, virtual pavilions for institutions, video meetings, online screenings, programmes and conferences.

"A survey we conducted last week among distributors around the world reveals that 80 percent of them are interested in an online market and 66 percent have the capacity to make acquisitions (mainly of completed films but also of films in post-production and writing)," said Jérôme Paillard, Executive Director of Marché du Film. "We won't replace the Cannes experience with the Marché du Film Online, but we are recreating part of its essence online by offering professionals an efficient and cutting-edge platform to screen films, buy them, finance projects and meet partners. We’re also experimenting a new market model that will allow professionals who didn't have the means or the time to come to Cannes to participate."

Faizal Khan curated India’s first football films festival with artist Riyas Komu at the 2011 International Film Festival of India, Goa. He was the curator of a football films programme in the Artists Cinema section of the second Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2014.