Focus On...
A series of industry sessions designed to explore issues that are having an undeniable impact on filmmaking and the state of the film industry. Artists and experts gathered to take a closer look at the affects of new trends and how they will shape the future of the business.
This year’s sessions included:
Co-Producing in a Post-National World
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Co-productions have become essential in today’s independent film world. With funding cuts to national cinemas across the globe and the ongoing challenges to traditional models of distribution, producers and filmmakers must look beyond national and continental borders for new business partners. How can they navigate these foreign funding structures and maximize the benefits of such a collaboration? Co-production experts and producers with films in this year’s Festival bring us tales from the trenches and break down what every filmmaker needs to know about today’s film business.
- Eric Jordan (The Film Works, Canada) – Producer, In Darkness
- Steffen Reuter (SCHMIDTz KATZE FILMKOLLEKTIV GmbH, Germany) – Producer, In Darkness
- Peter Watson (Recorded Picture Company, UK) – Executive Producer, A Dangerous Method
- Michael Weber – Managing Director, The Match Factory
- MODERATOR: Sonja Heinen - Head of the Berlinale Co-Production Market
The Art of the Impossible
In order to put an astonishing vision on the big screen, you need producers who are capable of achieving the art of the impossible. In this conversation, we hear from two veteran documentary producers who will recount how they overcame different filmmaking challenges. Mark Lipson, the long-time producer for Errol Morris, will take us behind the scenes of great works such as Thin Blue Line and Tabloid. Mark Magidson, producer of Baraka and Samsara, will discuss filming around the world in dramatic locations.
China Rising: New Developments and Opportunities in the Chinese Film Industry
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China is a land of opportunity for the global film industry. But how can Hollywood studios and independent producers alike ensure their products are shown on the big screen in China? How to collaborate with Chinese companies on co-productions that will benefit both sides? Efforts to open up China to foreign product and productions have been abundant. Join our panel of expert speakers for this highly-anticipated discussion on a widely coveted territory.
TIFF Nexus Developing William Gibson's Neuromancer as a Game and Film
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The TIFF Nexus series launches with a discussion of the creative production possibilities behind this innovative film and game project. Joint President and CEO of Bedlam Games Trevor Fencott, director and screenwriter Vincenzo Natali (via Skype), film producer Jay Firestone and Francesca Accinelli, Director, English Market from the Canada Media Fund as they discuss the challenges and opportunities in adapting Gibson’s seminal work to engage audiences on multiple platforms. The panel will be moderated by Mark Askwith, co-founder, SPACE.
TIFF Nexus is presented by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) and is sponsored by Autodesk.
State of The Industry: Theatrical release windows and VoD
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Not to be missed, this session focuses on the controversy caused by DirectTV's recent announcement to offer films on its VoD channels just ten weeks after their theatrical release. Industry leaders will discuss these emerging business models and the impact they will have on the global film industry.
In Conversation with Bruce Beresford
Acclaimed filmmaker Bruce Beresford sits down with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Borys Kit for a candid chat covering his celebrated career. Novelist, filmmaker, opera director, Beresford career highlights include early success at home in Australia with The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Breaker Morant and Puberty Blues, Academy Award® Winner Driving Miss Daisy and recent triumph Mao’s Last Dancer. He returns to The Toronto International Film Festival this year with Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding starring Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener and Elizabeth Olsen.
Co-Producing in a Post-National World
Eric Jordan
Eric Jordan, with his partner, Paul Stephens, co-founded The Film Works, an independent production company with an outstanding reputation for working with acclaimed writers, directors and international partners to produce remarkable feature films.
His recent feature films, which have all premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, include: In Darkness, directed by Agnieszka Holland; Oliver Sherman (Garrett Dillahunt, Molly Parker, Donal Logue); Beowulf & Grendel, (Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgard); Julie Walking Home (Miranda Otto, William Fichtner), from writer-director Agnieszka Holland (2002 Venice Film Festival); Love, Sex and Eating The Bones (Hill Harper, Best First Feature at the Festival); Such a Long Journey (Roshan Seth, Om Puri); and Clement Virgo’s Love Come Down (Larenz Tate, Sarah Polley) and The Planet of Junior Brown (Lynn Whitfield, Margot Kidder, Sarah Polley).
Steffen Reuter
Prior to his work as producer, Steffen studied psychology, film producing and acting. At his company he concentrates on development, financing and production of feature film projects. SCHMIDTz KATZE FILMKOLLEKTIV is a prolific independent production company based in Berlin and Halle/Saale. With sixteen films completed since the company’s founding in 2003, it has become an established brand and is known for being creative, reliable and persistent.
Peter Watson
Peter Watson is Chief Executive Officer of Recorded Picture Company. Joining RPC in the 1990s, Watson began a long and fruitful partnership with Jeremy Thomas. Setting out to build a vertically integrated production and distribution business, Watson co-founded the innovative sales agency HanWay Films in 1999, and remains Deputy Chairman. Continuing RPC’s legacy as a director-led production company, he has focused the business to achieve its standing in the market as a home for quality cinema.
Films executive-produced by Watson include Takeshi Kitano’s Brother, Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, Terry Gilliam’s Tideland, Richard Linklater’s Fast Food Nation, Franklyn by Gerald McMorrow, Jon Amiel’s Creation and most recently David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method starring Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender (Toronto International Film Festival '11).
Watson served as a Governor of the British Film Institute from 2004 – 2011.
Michael Weber
Michael Weber joined the Bavaria Film Group in 1996 in the world sales division. In April 2000, he was appointed Managing Director of Bavaria Media GmbH.
In addition, Michael Weber co-produced, among others Michael Haneke’s Cannes competition films Code Inconnu, Time of the Wolf and Caché (Best Director Award in Cannes), and Caroline Link’s Nowhere in Africa (Academy Award® Best Foreign Language Film).
Since beginning of 2006 he has run his own sales company, The Match Factory. He founded the company together with Karl Baumgartner and Reinhard Brundig of Pandora Film.
Among the directors represented by The Match Factory are Aki Kaurismäki, Ari Folman, Fatih Akin, Tom Tykwer, Brillante Mendoza, Bent Hamer, Thomas Vinterberg, Eran Kolirin, Miranda July, Danis Tanovic and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
The company also co-produced Pandora's Box by Yesim Ustaoglu and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
MODERATOR: Sonja Heinen
After studying languages and economics at the Euro Academy in Cologne, Sonja Heinen started her career in film business in 1991 at Filmstiftung NRW in Duesseldorf. Until 2001 she was Assistant to Executive Director Dieter Kosslick and responsible for International Contacts.
During this time she organised Co-Production Meetings with numerous European countries as well as international producers' delegations and developed the International Co-Production Market Cologne which took place in 2000 for the first time. From March 2001 until July 2003 she worked as Producer and Project Coordinator for Gemini Film and International West in Cologne.
Since 2003 she has worked at the Berlin International Film Festival, as Head of the Berlinale Co-Production Market and since August 2004, she has been Programme Manager of the Berlinale World Cinema Fund.
The Art of the Impossible
Mark Lipson
After studying at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Mark Lipson began his career in the 1980’s developing screenplays and producing television and film.
Mark Lipson is the producer for the Errol Morris documentaries, The Thin Blue Line, Fast Cheap and Out of Control and most recently Tabloid, which premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. More recently, he was post-production supervisor for the Errol Morris film Standard Operating Procedure, Countdown to Zero and Stand Up to Cancer. Currently he is supervising This Space Available for Emotional Branding.
Lipson is equally passionate in his work as a photographer. Recognized for his bold and graphic images, his art photography can be found in such notable publications as The Art of the SX-70, Circus Americanus, The Material Man and True Stories which was based on the feature film by David Byrne. Lipson’s photography is held in several private collections including the International Polaroid Collection.
Mark Magidson
In the broad landscape of independent film production Mark has emerged as a unique producer who has undertaken artistic projects that are epic in scale, entail great technical complexity and innovation, and transcend an ordinary view of the world.
An inventor and industrial designer with a diverse technical background, and equally comfortable in both creative and producing roles, Mark is a hands-on filmmaker who is deeply involved in all aspects of his projects, including concept development, production planning and management, editing, and scoring. In the course of the last 20+ years he has taken crews to over 50 countries in search of unique and profound imagery. His films have received a number of prestigious awards and nominations.
Mark’s earlier film, Baraka, played at TIFF a number of years ago. Samsara, this year’s entry into the Toronto International Film Festival, and in production for over 4 years, marks his third film made in collaboration with Ron Fricke, and is a testimony to his ability to create films of uncompromising vision, commitment, and quality.
MODERATOR: Sean Farnell
Sean Farnel is currently an unrestricted free agent, having recently departed his post as Director of Programming at Hot Docs, North America's largest documentary festival, market and conference. Sean was recruited to this newly created position in November 2005, following six years as a staff programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival. At Hot Docs, Sean was responsible for managing all Festival programming, including film curation and the Industry conference. He also created the popular Doc Soup screening series, as well as the Dog Mogul Award, and managed the Shaw Hot Docs Fund. Sean is a graduate of Cinema Studies from one of Canada’s most respected film schools, Concordia University. Upon graduation he received the Motion Picture Foundation of Canada Award for Most Outstanding Achievement. His occasional blog is RippingReality.com.
China Rising: New Developments and Opportunities in the Chinese Film Industry
Jeffrey Chan
Jeffrey is the COO and a board member of Bona Film Group. He co-founded with Nansun Shi, a veteran producer of Asian pictures, the international sales agent, Distribution Workshop, now a joint-venture subsidiary of Bona. In his former capacity as Head of International Sales / Distribution of Media Asia, he championed the remake deal of the HK contemporary classic, Infernal Affairs, which was remade by Warner Brothers into the Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award® winner, The Departed.
Isabelle Glachant
Isabelle Glachant started her career as a journalist for the French TV station Canal+. She served as Audiovisual Attaché of the French Embassy in China from 1998 to 2003, and began working on Chinese films in 2004 as Executive Producer of Shangai Dreams. Since then, her credits include Associate Producer of Lost in Beijing, and City of Life and Death; Co-producer of Love and Bruises; Producer of In Love We Trust; documentaries by Wang Bing and Yang Lina, Chongqing Blues and 11 Flowers. She’s currently producing Alone and developing new projects from Kit Hui, Lou Ye, Wang Xiaoshuai and Zhang Yuan.
Ryan Kavanaugh
Ryan Kavanaugh is a successful producer and highly regarded expert in film finance as CEO and Founder of Relativity Media (Relativity). As a producer, Ryan Kavanaugh's personal production line-up includes: Neil Burger’s Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro, Tarsem Singh's Immortals, an epic action-adventure film in the vein of 300, and David O. Russell's The Fighter starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. Currently in production, Kavanaugh is producing an Untitled Snow White film, starring Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, and Nathan Lane, and is in pre-production on Nicholas Sparks’ Safe Haven. He also executive produced the critically acclaimed, eight-time Oscar®-nominee The Social Network. His recent films include Universal's Despicable Me and Mamma Mia!, Lionsgate's Brothers and 3:10 to Yuma; Sony's Grown Ups and Screen Gems' Dear John. Kavanaugh was also instrumental in launching Relativity’s historic partnership with China’s Huaxia Film Distribution Co. Ltd. to become equal partners in SkyLand Entertainment with private-equity firm SAIF Partners and IDG China Media to handle production and distribution of films in China and U.S. The strategic alliance announced with Huaxia makes this joint venture the first and only government sanctioned pact.
Zhang Zhao
Zhang Zhao received his Bachelor degree in Information Science and Master of Arts degree in Philosophy from Fudan University, Shanghai. In the 90s he studied in the U.S., where he obtained an MFA in Film Production and Directing. Several films he produced and directed have won many international awards and were recognized by the U.S. independent film committee.
Returning to China, Zhang founded Enlight Pictures in 2006, which has become one of the top five film studios in China. Enlight Pictures has financed and distributed nearly 30 commercial films since its establishment.
Zhang’s film producing credits include: Confession of Pain, Flash Point, Triangle, Wonder Woman, Missing, Witness, Astro Boy, All's Well, End’s Well 2010 and recently successfully released City Under Siege, Legend of the Fist: The return of Chen Zhen and All's Well, End’s Well 2011.
In 2008, Zhang was named one of the top 10 most influential people in China Film and Entertainment Industry. Additionally, in early 2011, Zhang was invited to join Le Vision Pictures as its CEO and Executive Director.
MODERATOR: Patrick Frater
Patrick Frater has over 20 years of experience writing about and analysing the international film industry, with publications including Screen International, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, where he was its Asia editor. In 2010, he co-founded Film Business Asia (FBA).
Based in Hong Kong, Film Business Asia is a next-generation film trade publication -- less a magazine and more a market intelligence platform -- for and about the Asian film industry.
The company operates a busy trade news and reviews service online and has recently launched its first data services sold on a subscription basis.
In just over a year the company has published 2,000 news and film review stories and its weekly newsletter has just reached its millionth reader.
Film Business Asia has also successfully branched into print, with special issues published at the Cannes and Busan festivals, at Hong Kong’s FilMart and market dailies at ScreenSingapore.
Film Business Asia will be publishing further special issues this autumn at Busan, Tokyo and AFM.
State of The Industry: Theatrical release windows and VoD
Geoff Gilmore
Geoffrey Gilmore joined Tribeca Enterprises in 2009 as Chief Creative Officer. He is responsible for Tribeca's global content strategy and leads creative development initiatives and expansion of the brand. Gilmore has also joined the Board of Directors of Tribeca Enterprises. He came to Tribeca from the Sundance Institute where he served as the Director of the Sundance Film Festival. He was responsible for film selection and the overall direction of programming from 1990 through 2009. In addition, Gilmore was a consultant for the Sundance Channel and also served as consultant to the Sundance Cinemas. He directed the Sundance Institute’s Annual Independent Producers Conference for 18 years and worked with the Institute on numerous international and national projects and symposia. For 14 years, he served as head of the UCLA Film & Television Archive's programming. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and did his post-graduate work at UCLA.
John Fithian
John Fithian assumed the post of President and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) in January 2000. During his eleven years in office, he has helped guide movie theatre owners through recent challenges facing the exhibition industry, including technological developments, movie theft, government oversight of the movie rating system, preservation of the theatrical release window, and relationships with the creative, production and distribution communities. John serves as the chief public spokesperson for theatre owners before public officials and the press. Recognizing the rapid globalization of the exhibition industry, he has worked to improve coordination and communication between domestic theatre owners and international cinema operators.
Prior to joining NATO full-time, John served throughout the 1990s as NATO’s Washington counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Patton Boggs LLP. In addition to NATO, he represented many other trade associations, as well as professional athlete unions, telecommunications companies, non-profit organizations, publishers and advertisers.
Neil Campbell
Neil Campbell has worked in exhibition in Canada since the mid 1970s. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer & Partner of Landmark Cinemas, Canada. Since 1993 Campbell has served on the Board of the Alberta Branch and the National Board of the Canadian Motion Picture Pioneers. In addition he is a board member of the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada [National Association] and the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association [AMPIA], and serves on the Executive Committee and ShowCanada National Committee of the MPTAC. From 2006-2010 Campbell was a Board Member of the Calgary International Film Festival. Campbell is also Chairman of the Film Classification Committee for the MPTAA and Chairman of the AMPIA Feature Film Committee.
Chris McGurk
Chris McGurk has over 25 years of experience in senior leadership positions at MGM Studios, Overture Films, Anchor Bay Entertainment, Universal Studios, Disney Studios, Pepsico and Price Waterhouse. He also has extensive board director experience at five corporations.
Recently, Mr. McGurk was the founder and CEO of Overture Films from 2006 until 2010 and was also CEO of Anchor Bay Entertainment, which distributed Overture Films’ product to the home entertainment industry. From 1999 to 2005, McGurk was Vice Chairman of the Board and Chief Operating Officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (“MGM”), acting as the company’s lead operating executive until MGM was sold for approximately $5 billion to a consortium of investors. McGurk joined MGM from Universal Pictures, where he served in various executive capacities, including President and Chief Operating Officer, from 1996 to 1999. From 1988 to 1996, McGurk served in several senior executive roles at The Walt Disney Studios, including Studios CFO and President of The Walt Disney Motion Picture Group. McGurk currently serves as a director of BRE Properties, Inc. and has previously served on the boards of DivX Inc., DIC Entertainment, Pricegrabber.com, LLC and MGM Studios, Inc.
Todd Wagner
Wagner's first significant mark in the media business came when he and partner Mark Cuban co-founded Broadcast.com, which they later sold to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion in 1999. Using this success as a platform, Wagner fused his passion for entertainment with his business portfolio to build the Wagner/Cuban Companies, which includes 2929 Entertainment, 2929 Productions, Magnolia Pictures, Landmark Theatres, HDNet and HDNet Movies.
As CEO of 2929 Entertainment, Wagner has been the driving visionary behind important films such as the Oscar® nominated Good Night, and Good Luck and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, as well as Akeelah and the Bee and The Road. He is currently developing his next passion project, The Chosin Few, a film about the landmark Korean War battle.
Wagner also has a stake in the Dallas Mavericks and the Weinstein Company, and he is founder and co-chairman of Content Partners LLC, a company that invests in the back-end profit participations of Hollywood talent. In addition, Wagner is honored to serve on the American Film Institute's Board of Directors and Board of Trustees.
MODERATOR: Anne Thompson
Born and raised in New York, Anne Thompson has been a contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, The Observer, and Wired. She has served as film columnist at Variety, and deputy editor of Variety.com, where her daily blog, “Thompson on Hollywood,” launched in March 2007. Anne was the Deputy Film Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, the West Coast Editor of Premiere, a Senior Writer at Entertainment Weekly, and West Coast Editor for Film Comment. She wrote the film industry column “Risky Business” for L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times syndicate. A graduate of the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University, she has taught film criticism at USC and hosts the fall semester of “Sneak Previews” for UCLA Extension.
TIFF Nexus Developing William Gibson's Neuromancer as a Game and Film
Francesca Accinelli
Francesca holds the position of Director, English Market for the CMF Program Administrator at Telefilm Canada (service provider for the Canada Media Fund). Francesca has had the privilege of working with television and digital media producers across Canada over the past decade. She is an avid TV viewer and a newbie casual gamer.
Previously, Francesca was Deputy Director of the Television Business Unit at Telefilm Canada. Before joining the organization, Francesca was the Manager of Operations and Business Analyst for the Canadian Television Fund where she started in 2001. She began her career as a cultural administrator in theatre before moving to television production where she worked for nearly ten years.
Trevor Fencott
Over the past 11 years Trevor has been responsible for the creation, publication and worldwide commercialization of more than 25 games on all major platforms including console, mobile and PC. Projects of note include Playboy: The Mansion and, recently, the Gemini nominated Lost Girl interactive experience. He was a co-founder of boutique video game publisher, Groove Games, as well as its spin-out content developer Bedlam Games. In 2010, Bedlam was acquired by bitHeads Inc., a cutting-edge Canadian technology company in order to form Ascension CrossMedia, a cross-platform technology and entertainment company.
Trevor serves on the Board of Interactive Ontario and both the screen-based and interactive advisory committees of the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Jay Firestone
With over twenty-five years experience, Jay Firestone is one of film and television's most prolific and successful producers. Firestone heads Prodigy Pictures, a leader in the production of quality film, television, and cross-platform media.
Previously, Firestone established Fireworks Entertainment in 1996 which was acquired by CanWest Global Communications Corp in May 1998.
Prior to forming Fireworks, Firestone was a founder and Vice Chairman of Alliance Communications Corporation, and is widely regarded as a key contributor to the company's impressive growth.
At present, Firestone is Executive Producer of the hit series Lost Girl, which is currently in production on season two. Along with Lost Girl, Firestone’s company Prodigy Pictures, produced XIII-The Series with Europacorp television. The company also has several feature film projects in development, including William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and Weapon in partnership with Studio 37.
Vincenzo Natali
Vincenzo Natali is a Canadian-born fantasist director who burst onto the scene
in 1997 with his surreal, low-budget sci-fi thriller Cube. The film understandably impressed viewers and critics alike with Natali's ability to stretch cinematic boundaries on a shoestring budget; it also received multiple Genie nominations for art direction, sound, and an original score, and in time became something of a cult favorite.
Natali's 2002 follow-up to Cube was Cypher. The film performed admirably on all fronts and paved the way for a tertiary effort, 2003's Nothing, described by Natali as "a buddy comedy set in a void." Natali then contributed a segment to the 2006 film-à-sketch Paris Je T'aime alongside the Coen Brothers, Alexander Payne and Gus Van Sant, and that same year, announced production on his fourth feature project, Splice starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley.
Splice premiered at the 2010 Sundance Festival. It was subsequently acquired by Joel Silver through his Dark Castle label and received a wide summer release through Warner Brothers.
MODERATOR: Mark Askwith
Mark Askwith is a producer, writer and interviewer for SPACE, Canada's national science-fiction television channel, of which he is one of the founders. Graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in English, he moved on to manage one of the premiere North American comic book stores, Toronto's beloved "The Silver Snail." There, he learned to soak up the atmosphere of comics and science fiction, meeting many legendary authors in the process. Leaving The Silver Snail, he began writing a graphic novel called The Prisoner, shortly before becoming the comic book consultant on Canadian documentarian Ron Mann's Comic Book Confidential (1988).
The documentary, which was an overview of the comic book medium in the USA, inspired Askwith to elaborate on the medium, leading to his documentary news magazine program, Prisoners of Gravity (TVO, 1989-1994). The program explored science and speculative fiction and its relation to various social issues.
TIFF Nexus is presented by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) and is sponsored by Autodesk.
Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford was born in Sydney and studied at Sydney University. He was Head of Production for British Film Institute Production Board (London) from 1966-71, and film advisor to Arts Council of Great Britain. He is a writer and filmmaker, and has directed over 25 films. His films include The Adventures of Barry McKenzie , Breaker Morant, Tender Mercies, Crimes of the Heart, Driving Miss Daisy, Black Robe, Double Jeopardy, Mao’s Last Dancer and Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding.
Beresford has also directed operas in Italy, USA and Australia; the most recent being Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire for Opera Australia (2007). In July, 2011 he is directing Carlisle Floyd’s opera of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men for Opera Australia. In 2012 he will direct the Australian premiere of Erich Korngold’s opera Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City).
His latest film Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding stars Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener, Elizabeth Olsen, Chace Crawford and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.