As consumers become pickier, ‘chasing the zeitgeist’ of changing buyer and audience tastes is fruitless, said Jeff Deutchman, president of acquisitions and production at US distributor Neon.
He was talking at a panel at the Mediterrane Film Festival in Malta this week, with Hal Sadoff, CEO of Dark Castle Entertainment, Gabor Greiner, COO of Berlin-based Films Boutique and Lamia Belkaied Guiga, Tunisian film critic and teacher at the Higher School of Audiovisual and Cinema Carthage University.
Deutchman cited several factors he takes into consideration when looking at projects. “A name brand director always helps, so does an actor who doesn’t work very often, a Daniel Day-Lewis or Frances McDormand, or an actor doing something you’ve never seen them done before,” he said.
“Films that need to be experienced communally, like a comedy where you want to laugh with a group of people, or a concert film where you want to dance in the aisles. Or movies that serve an underserved audience, people who haven’t seen themselves.”
Above all else he said Neon looks for “uniqueness”.
“That’s the highest premium we put on anything, movies that are incomparable, that you haven’t seen before,” Deutchman explained. “That’s a really strong position to be in when it comes to a sophisticated theatrical audience.”
Films Boutique’s Greiner said it was the same from an international sales perspective. ”When it comes to the taste of the buyers whom we want to please, it is true that it has become much more unpredictable.”
He said films with certain elements always caught his eye: “Food and animals, these are elements that sell,” he revealed. “Dogs and cats, and cooking. A circus, however, is no good.”
“Local flavours, something that has to do with a region and their traditions,” he added. “Dramas, but not too much drama.
“What we need right now is very positive stories, embedded into a universal story so that a worldwide audience can easily follow it. Character development is much more important than the narrative for us at the moment.”
The speakers lamented the shrinking of the pre-sales market. Whereas previously, 80 to 90% of Deutchman’s acquisitions would be pre-buys, the number is now down to 60% he said.
Greiner was more succinct. “Presales are dead,” he said, adding Films Boutique rarely looked at films “prior to a rough-cut stage.”
Festivals in competition
The speakers agreed the usefulness of festivals and their respective markets, particualy Cannes and the Cannes Market, is still key, despite packaging and presale stresses.
Sadoff cited the Berlinale, its European Film Market (EFM), and Toronto International Film Festival as his most useful. “Pre-production will be planned around what festival or market you want to sell at,” he said.
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