Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Ray Pride
Notes From A Festival Junkie ...
Tuesday
Exhaustion. Just when you thought you were hitting your pace, you start to nod off in screenings. And that short hop across town becomes a marathon and that reception you wanted to attend evaporates from your mind and schedule. If you're foolish or unfortunate enough to be viewing and writing, there's always a looming deadline and there are only so many excuses one can make for extensions ("my dog ate my floppy disk"). It is a bit like burning the candle from three ends.
Among the Toronto festival's myriad curiosities is the way it functions as a networking and sales event in the absence of an official market. The event has always been industry friendly and after a couple of sessions decided to open what it called an Industry Office to acknowledge the growing presence of acquisition scouts, sales reps and talent handlers that descend annually.
Apart from Sundance, Toronto is the festival of choice for U.S. and international film execs. It has a staggering number of North American and world premieres and a generally easy environment conducive for sales and meetings. There's always the anticipation of a big payday for an anticipated premiere or the discovery of an unheralded picture that emerges out of the throng.
On the first day of this year's edition, I ran into a beaming John Ptak from Creative Artists. Sporting a Cheshire Cat grin, he said, "I'm on my way to sell a picture." The film was Crash, an American indie drama with an ensemble cast that included Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle and Thandie Newton and it was screening at that very moment. By the end of the day it was reported that a deal had been closed with Lions Gate to the tune of $4 million.
In subsequent days there have been a handful of American acquisitions but none as rich or high profile. My Summer of Love, a British comedy-drama that was prized in Edinburgh, was acquired by Focus and Newmarket picked up A Hole in My Heart, a bleak and intense drama by Sweden's Lukas Moodysson. A couple of other films, including 3-Iron (Sony Classics) from Korean Kim Ki-duk who made Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring had closed deals prior to Toronto but the distributors held off on an official announcement until the festival screening.
Other films have been acquired for distribution in Canada and European and Asian territories but the big money and snowballing effect generally comes from a deal in the U.S. It's hardly new but very few films employ festival screenings as a means to sell a picture. At least, not high profile movies with marquee talent.
The technique is too much of a roll of the dice and considering the financial risk one would be foolhardy to jeopardize a $10 million investment on hoped for audience and industry response to coalesce. Granted Toronto is famous for its appreciative audiences. There are countless tales of films sold at the event based on public enthusiasm that subsequently fell short in the commercial marketplace.
Moodysson's picture was widely admired from its first screening on opening day. But the word on the street was that it was too unsparing and graphically told for an immediate U.S. theatrical sale or it would only occur later to a small company. There are quite a number of pictures this year that can be categorized similarly.
Certainly among that group is Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, a surprisingly tender look at a sexually charged relationship that has plenty of skin and unsimulated intercourse. It also has an unconventional 63-minute running time. Another tough sell is Turtles Can Fly from Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi that chronicles the devastating impact of the war in Iraq on children caught in the crossfire.
Historically, film festivals have served as a kind of brokerage house with screenings becoming the sales floor. And there's no question that events like Toronto and Sundance still serve that purpose … albeit on a less frequent basis.
Neither the films nor the public have changed radically, it's the marketplace that's gotten smaller and less adventurous. The stakes got higher and the competition ramped up considerably. And that's meant that such acclaimed movies as Italy's Don't Move and Take My Eyes from Spain are still looking for buyers in North America and as their vintage ages, that prospect can only lose luster.
There are no more than 500 screens dedicated to screening alternative product in North America and on any given weekend there are as many, and usually more, films debuting on those screens as on the 33,500 playing mainstream fare in the dominant multiplexes. Depending on price and contract points, many films that start out with specialized playdates have to earn crossover engagements or suffer the fate of commercial ignominy. It's simply a scenario that allows few players to throw caution to the wind and trust that a quality film will surmount the blare from $30 million marketing campaigns and find a niche via critical hosannas and word of mouth.
So, the question on a lot of people's lips is: are we entering a point in time when the people calling the shots can afford to be bold. The sales plan and marketing strategy won't change for most established companies as a result of the seeming inactivity of Miramax. But will it translate into the release of more daring movies or will the perception of a calmer business environment mean playing it safe?
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