MUMBAI: National Film Development Corporation Ltd. (NFDC), presents Film Bazaar India 2009.
The idea behind Film Bazaar is to provide a proficient stage for prospective buyers & sellers of film rights from India & abroad. Last year, over 300 delegates from 17 countries had attended Film Bazaar.
Talking about the Film Bazaar NFDC managing director Nina Lath Gupta said, “Film Bazaar’s main objective is to provide a platform to filmmakers to network and create business opportunities with domestic and international partners. In our endeavour to provide a wide range of services essential to the growth of Indian cinema Film Bazaar this year has lined up Knowledge Series with the industry experts. We will have sessions on digital disitribution, co-production treaties, International Film Financing. There are also representatives from International film festivals like Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and others to help the filmmakers understand their festivals and give insights.”
This year the Hong Kong Trade Development Corporation, a delegation of distributors from Europa Cinemas, and the American Film Institute’s 20/20 program will be present at Film Bazaar to further expand their global film network.
NFDC has conceptualized, planned and executed some initiatives that will take place over 3 days from 24th – 26th Nov:
The first is the Screenwriters’ Lab 2009, which is a 2-part screenwriters’ workshop for writing and selling original Indian screenplays. The first part was held at Locarno International Film Festival, in August, 2009 and the 2nd session now culminates at Film Bazaar, Goa. The workshop is being conducted by Binger Filmlab artistic director Marten Rabarts, in association with some international guest mentors.
The selection committee selected 6 screenplays out of 92: Gangoobai by Priya Krishnaswamy, The Prompter’s Son by Somen Mishra, Vanish by Pratim D. Gupta, Synchronicity by Sidharth Singh & Lalit Ajgaonkar, F 20 by Aparna Pednekar, and Adigaram 79 by Vinod Veera.
The other initiative is the Co-production Market. This initiative undertaken by NFDC offers selected filmmakers the opportunity to present their feature film projects (in all languages and at any stage of production) to co producers, bankers, funds, sales agents, distributors, TV stations and other potential financiers from India and abroad.
The feature films selected this year are: Ceylon by Santosh Sivan, I Am by Onirban, Inside-Out by Ketan Mehta,Keep off the Grass by Ben Rekhi,Manjunath by Sandeep Varma,Obsession by Suman Ghosh,The Return of the Tiger by Mike Pandey, The Virgin Goddess by K.N.T. Sastry and Twosome by Siddharth Sinha.
The third initiative is Primexchange which aims at market exchange and the exchange of ideas between India and Europe in the field of Film and TV Production.
In order to develop sustainable cooperation between the two continents, the professional training program offers trans-national networking issues as well as potential market analysis for Film and TV Projects from the fields of script analysis, market research, financing/funding, distribution, world sales and games/interactive media, made by Indian and European film industry representatives as well.
It is funded by the European Commission and will be implemented by German based Company PRIMEHOUSE GmbH in co-operation with NFDC.
The fourth initiative, The Work in Progress lab is held at Film Bazaar for feature films at a rough cut stage, whose makers are seeking feedback from experienced film professionals from the international community.
The mentors for this section of Film Bazaar are seasoned film professionals and include film editors, film festival directors, film critics, and international sales agents.
The fifth initiative is the Knowledge Series: NFDC Knowledge Series presents case studies and presentations by industry experts. The various Knowledge series lined up are:
Digital Distribution for Web and mobile by Cinetic Rights Management COO Janet Brown.
The Journey from East is East to West is West. Panel discussion with actor Om Puri, producer Leslee Udwin and others.
De-coding India’s Co-production treaties with UK, Germany, Brazil & Italy by International Film Financing legal counsel Dina Dattani.
Discussion with Mani Ratnam on his expertise, his journey so far and his varied body of work.
Case Study on Distribution Reaching Beyond Borders – Panel discussion with The American Film Institute’s project 20/20 in conversation with contemporary Indian filmmakers.
One of Film Bazaar’s earliest supporters, CineMart of the Rotterdam International Film Festival, will be there to invite a select group of producers to travel to attend the Rotterdam Labs during the CineMart later on in the month. They will also present a Hubert Bals Award to one of the directors from official selection of Film Bazaar co-production projects.
