What happens in the south of France over the coming weeks will resonate throughout the independent sector, despite the increasingly year-round nature of the film business market.
Cinemagoing is yet to fully recover from the impact of the Covid -19 pandemic – box office in the US trails last year at the same stage by 23.8% and 2019 by 41.7% – but many in the independent sector are now saying they are bullish about theatrical.
US sellers report buyers – particularly in Europe, Russia (despite the war in Ukraine and unofficial embargo on selling to the country) and parts of Asia including China – remain hungry, albeit more focused on what does and doesn’t work in their territories.
Buyers will get to scour the Official Selection for new work by auteurs and lesser- known filmmakers, as well as off-festival packages rolling out at a steady clip. These come at varying budget ranges, with higher-end projects starring Sydney Sweeney, Ben Stiller, Colin Farrell, and Dwayne Johnson.
There is money out there to finance films. Marc Butan’s MadRiver Pictures recently struck a raft of equity and distribution partnerships with the likes of SND in France, Italia Film in the Middle East, and IDC Distribution in Latin America to offer a steady supply of mid-budget features to the marketplace.
Butan hopes “an economy of scale that rivals the US studios” will keep coveted projects with A-list talent firmly in the independent realm.
The top US sellers and their counterparts around the world have been doing this for years, of course, but one more supplier can only be good for buyers. The hope is US buyers, besides the studios and A24, step up and show they can match the ambition of their international peers.
Now that streamers have retreated somewhat as buyers – although never count out a big Netflix acquisition on the Croisette – to focus on data-driven productions to give their subscribers what they want, there are opportunities.
The other side of the coin is streamers are paying lower Pay-1 fees, reducing confidence in theatrical buyers to make bids on top-drawer projects.
Yet fortune favours the brave, as seen with early-year successes including A24’s $100m global hit Civil War and more modest but nonetheless significant wins like IFC Film’s Late Night With The Devil, which is nearing $10m in the US.
If Berlin was a steady, encouraging return after the 2023 US strikes, even though many packages were pushed back, the sense is Cannes could be the time to capitalise.
“The general overall feeling I’m getting about the market right now is very positive,” says Brian Beckmann of Arclight Films, which is selling Paul Schrader’s Competition entry Oh, Canada with Richard Gere and Uma Thurman. It is also introducing buyers to the romantic comedy Under The Stars with Toni Collette and Andy Garcia, which is shooting now in Italy.
Beckmann reports strong interest from Chinese buyers on the slate, which includes Renny Harlin’s Deep Water, which he says has sold well after it was introduced in Cannes last year. Currently in post, the survival thriller is targeted to release this year.
Like any savvy producer-financier, Arclight benefited from Global Rule One and SAG-AFTRA interim agreements to ensure continuity on its production slate last year and into 2024 and shot Deep Water in Europe, with post taking place in Australia.
While there is some concern about a possible strike from below the line union IATSE, whose three-year contract expires on July 31, basic contract negotiations have been proceeding without drama. That said, US producer-financiers were savvy last year about relocating shoots outside the country to avoid working with union talent during strikes, in addition to benefiting from soft money.
“Too good to pass up”
Now there is further impetus in the form of the UK’s new Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC). AGC Studios relocated the UK co-production of Naseem Hamed boxing biopic Giant from Malta to the UK to benefit from the incentive.
“The UK has always been an amazing place to shoot films,” notes Beckmann. “But this puts them on a completely different level. You’re going to see a lot of productions moving to the UK. It’s just too good to pass up.”
Glenn Kendrick Ackermann of V International Media will be screening the supernatural romance Can You Hear Me with Peter Facinelli from the Twilight franchise and star-writer Charlotte Radford.
While he notes “buyers are hungry for the right product”, Ackermann has also observed a willingness to overcome language barriers. “People are open to stories in the international marketplace that will travel.”
Genre remains a draw, and to that end the Los Angeles- and Munich-based Ackermann and his German partner David Marsh are selling the Jack In The Box trilogy, The Ghost Within, The Companion, and The Crucifix under their ScaryContent partnership.
“What has become very tough is the reliability of buyers to buy the way they have been engaging over the last decade,” notes Christine D’Souza Gelb, a co-founder of producer-management company 2AM.
As the streamers produce more and pay top dollar to attract the biggest talent, D’Souza Gelb says, that has made it harder for sales agents to leverage the marketplace.
2AM, which is backed by A24 but does not have to release its films through that company, was a producer on Past Lives and has two films in its production pipeline, Celine Song’s follow-up Materialists and Halina Reijn’s Baby Girl with Nicole Kidman.
D’Souza Gelb says the market has got back to a place where international buyers are enquiring about what genre titles they have. “It’s become less about the cast,” she says. “It’s become what the genre is, how they can market it, how they can get a real audience to see it in the theatres and not wait and see it at home. Challengers is a great example of when it works.”
The money is out there to finance films, says D’Souza Gelb says. Now the challenge is to get buyers to go out on a limb to replicate the big bets like Everything Everywhere All At Once, Poor Things, Past Lives, and American Fiction.
“Independents are where the innovation happens”
Scott Shooman, head of film at AMC Networks, parent company of IFC Films, notes: “Independents are where the innovation happens and we’re in a moment of change right now. I mean that in lots of ways from how movies are consumed, to windowing, to which stories filmmakers are looking to tell.”
There is no mandate for IFC Films to buy in Cannes, but if a film or three pop, they will be at the negotiating table. “This will be the first market that we hope packaging is back,” he says. “We’re reading the scripts and seeing the footage for recently financed or upcoming independent films for 2025, because [Cannes] is really where everyone looks to fill the cupboard for future years.”
Shooman feels confident about cinema-going and says the company’s strategy has evolved into a “very audience-forward approach” where they respond in real time to audience demand. France’s Oscar submission The Taste Of Things opened in February in two theatres, for example, and rapidly expanded to over 500 within the first week.
“We’re really trying to lean into theatrical and as certain studios may vacate a certain area, we see that as an opportunity,” he notes. “IFC was built by some tremendous people with terrific taste on the back of foreign films, documentaries, and collapsed windowing. What’s important to us now is to figure out how does that work now, what does the window look like?”
Referring to the process of taking a film from the theatre into the home at an accelerated rate, he says: “Is a collapsed window even necessary anymore?”
Dori Begley, co-CEO of Magnolia Pictures, another renowned buyer on the independent circuit, maintains window flexibility ensures maximum reach. “In some cases, that still means a traditional theatrical window,” she says. “For others, we may opt to replicate a wide release by collapsing that window.”
The distributor launches Sundance acquisition Thelma starring June Squibb on June 21. The action comedy was one of the most broadly appealing films in Park City.
“Magnolia has been empowered to take some bigger swings, and we’re beyond thrilled to bring Thelma to a wider audience,” says Begley. “We’ll still maintain the same diverse slate in terms of size and scope, but now we can offer a more aggressive theatrical release plan for certain titles.”
No comments yet