For the author's art film, what level of film festivals can be gone to and how many film festivals can go to depends on the quality of the film, and it also depends on the means and capabilities of international sales companies, which directly determines how many national theaters the film can eventually enter and how many people around the world can see it. Formulating a film festival strategy that matches the film, accurately positioning the international market of the film, communicating with distributors in various countries in advance, personally sending the film to the selection team, etc., are the responsibilities and tasks of an international film sales company.
The role and task of the "international sales company" is simply the sales agent between film producers and distributors in various countries, who buy international sales rights from producers and then sell films to distributors in various countries in major film markets.
Submitting film festivals is one of the ways they achieve their sales purposes.
So --
Has a strong network of directors and production companies around the world;
Have the judgment and appreciation to estimate the potential and market potential of the film festival according to the script, materials and first cuts;
Have a good relationship with the selection teams and even the film selection directors of major film festivals;
Familiar with important publishers in various countries around the world;
Stable cooperative publishers in various countries;
These are the capabilities that a top international sales company should have.
So if we look at the Cannes Film Festival as a level playing field, and the films are selected because of the good quality, without any other factors, then we are too naive.
For example, last year's debut film of the only airborne main competition, "Judgment Day", and this year's debut of the only airborne main competition, "Les Misérables".
They all happen to come from the same sales company, and this sales company has a total of nine films at this year's Cannes Film Festival, becoming the sales company with the most films represented at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Is it a coincidence? Is it good luck?
Judgment Day
《Miserable World》
So as in previous years, I pulled the background information of the official section including the main competition, a kind of attention, non-competition screening, special screening, and nearly 100 feature films of the director's bi-week and the critic's week.
In total, nearly 40 sales companies represented the international sales rights of nearly 100 feature films at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Let's take a look at the most powerful behind-the-scenes drivers.
It is worth noting that in addition to the main competition unit, a small number of films in other units were selected before the sales company negotiated and bid for the global sales rights.
No.1
At the top of the list is the French company WildBunch, known as the Cannes Cancer.
This is what was mentioned above, representing the international sales rights of nine films at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Including the five main competition films Dane Brothers' "Young Ahmed", Ken Lodge's "Sorry, I Missed You", Suleiman's "Must Be Heaven", Desprichin's "The Lamp of Roubaix", and French director Rad Leigh's debut "Les Misérables";
A kind of Russian film "The Thin Man" that focuses on units
Two directors' bi-weekly "Give Me Freedom" and "Watery Yang Hua", as well as film critic Zhou Xiaogang's debut film "Spring River Plumbing".
No.2
In second place is the French company MK2, known as cannes no. 2 cancer.
In order to compete with WildBunch in the international sales market, he gave up the French domestic theatrical distribution business and represented a total of five films at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
These five include four main competition films: Sianma's Portrait of a Young Girl, Chutte's Sibil, Boran Boyu's La Gomera, and Diop's Atlantic;
He also represented a focus unit, Transit Station, produced by Scorsese.
No.3
In third place is the German company The Match Factory, which represented four films at this year's Cannes Film Festival:
Italian director Beloquio's main competition film "The Traitor", ferrara's "Tommaso" in the special screening unit, "The Invisible Woman" in a kind of focus unit, and "The Unknown Saint" by film critic Zhou.
No.4
In fourth place is the french veteran film group Pathé, four films represented at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
These include the main competition unit Of Course's Fate and Love: Intermission, the non-competition edition of Belle Epoque, the special screening of Alive and Knowledge, and a focus on the unit of The Famous Bear Invasion of Sicily.
No.5
In fifth place is French company Luxbox, which also represented four films.
A kind of focus unit Dumont's "Joan of Arc", Zhao Deyin's "Burning Secret", director Bi Zhou's "Song of no Name" and "Orphan".