Meet Market

As if one would need more of an incentive to spend two weeks in the South of France, the Festival de Cannes and the Marché du Film have created a new business venue for filmmakers, the Producers Network, hosted in the Village International adjacent to the Palais des Festivals.

"We realized that we could provide a valuable tool for producers, especially independents," says Veronique Cayla, managing director of the Festival de Cannes. "Film exporters are already well-catered to by the market, as are those producers and distributors who have a film in the festival. This is to provide a tailored service for all the other producers."

The network is particularly suited for one-man bands. The registration fee, at €335 per person for access to both the festival and market, is less than half the minimum cost for a company. Participants get an entry on the dedicated Web site and in the printed catalog, including details of their projects.

"More and more producers were signing up to gain access, be in the guide and go to screenings," Marché du Film executive director Jerome Paillard says. "At a certain point, we had to consider this sector and customize our services for their needs." At press time, more than 400 producers had registered for the network.

Participants have been invited to send advance details of their projects and what their market objectives are in terms of securing financing, talent or other elements for their movies. A team of advisors will try to "match-make" with interested industry players.

Informal daily breakfast meetings will be held at Plage des Palmes in the village, each with a different theme — ranging from feature development to international financing, co-production, meeting with talent agents and composing music for films.

A slew of prestigious international partners will host the breakfasts, including the Australian Film Commission, its New Zealand counterpart, the U.K. Film Council, Telefilm Canada and IFP/New York.

"The whole thing is based around meeting people, whether contact with financial partners or discovering new talent," Paillard says.

The producers' club marks the biggest development in the Marché du Film since the opening of the Riviera exhibition space behind the existing Palais in 2001. The initiative also should confirm the strong growth of the Village International in recent years. Six countries are exhibiting for the first time in the village: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, all of whom joined the European Union on May 1, as well as Japan and Argentina.

"The Producers Network is the best to way to develop the cinema of tomorrow," Cayla says. "If, in three years, a film developed through the network goes up the red carpet, that's great. But participation is not a ticket to get into competition."