Today, Berlin saw the end of the European Film Market held under the aegis of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. Except the market itself where FILM.UA Group was presented by its own stand as a part of IFTA, EFM also conducted a range of industry events for producers from all over the world, in which the Group also participated.
This year at the European Film Market FILM.UA Group presented theatrical releases at different production stages as well as services provided by the group of companies. Networking became an important part of the market: MRM, the biggest consulting company in Ukraine, organized a range of meetings for the producers of the Group to look for co-production partners, and the members of FILM.UA marketing team met publishers and journalists working for international cinema publications.
FILM.UA Group stand presented a feature line-up for the following two years: The Stronghold fantasy film (to be premiered in Ukraine on October 12, 2017) and two animation strips, The Stolen Princess (to be premiered in Ukraine on March 7, 2018) and Mavka. The Forest Song (premiere expected in 2019).
“At the market, we held over 50 meetings with potential buyers, i.e. distributors and TV channels,” says Igor Storchak, Head of Distribution, FILM.UA Group. “The companies enjoyed watching new materials for The Stolen Princess and The Stronghold: the international teasers and a range of new scenes for these projects were internationally premiered there. As for results, we are finalizing sales negotiations for The Stolen Princess in former Yugoslavian territories and Vietnam; The Stronghold got Germany and Poland interested.”
Besides, on February 11 a 30-minute theatrical screening of the new scenes from The Stolen Princess was held. The screening was visited by over 40 market participants; afterwards, the distribution signed a project pre-sale agreement with Bir Film – the company acquired all rights, including theatrical runs, on the territory of Turkey. Just a reminder: before, the project was sold to over 20 territories, including China, France, Germany, Poland, Iran, South Africa, South Korea, and others.
Though the sales to Mavka. The Forest Song project haven’t been opened yet, the film still gathered its European audience following the success at the American Film Market. Another reminder: the project will become the first Ukrainian full-length animation strip to participate in the pitching of the biggest European co-production forum Cartoon Movie (March 8-10) in Bordeaux, France; it is there that the first project teaser will be premiered.
Besides, post-production and content localization services were presented at the market for the first time. The Group has been successfully providing them to Eastern European production companies for a long time, and is now ready to upscale and cooperate with international producers. At FILM.UA Group stand an information point was opened for the first time: every market participant could find out about our services and send price lists for facilities and equipment lease to one’s own email.
“Besides, there were over 20 meetings. As a result, we managed to collect a pool of projects for potential VFX cooperation,” says Egor Borshchevsky, Postmodern Digital director. “Half of market participants believe that VFX are expensive, and post-production of premium quality is prohibitively expensive. To counter that, we specify the capacities of Postmodern Digital, and as a result co-production negotiations for two international projects started here at the EFM.”
.JPG)
Yury Prylypko, Postmodern and Digital Cinema Ukraine CEO, also shared the results of this Berlin trip. “EFM became the start of a range of negotiations on cooperation in producing VR and AR content: on the one hand, our works impressed European counterparts; on the other, the niche of hi-tech content producers hasn’t been filled yet. So we are starting to make joint plans for the nearest future.”
With the involvement of Media Resources Management consulting company, FILM.UA conducted over 30 meetings with different European film funds and also actively participated in Co-Production Market and Drama Series Days under the aegis of the European Film Market.
The headliners of FILM.UA development catalogue are a theatrical screening of Felix Austria, a novel by Sofia Andrukhovych; feature historical dramas Anne of Kyiv (based on a novel by Jacqueline Dauxois) and Zakhar Berkut (based on a novella by Ivan Franko); an eight-episode criminal drama Lemberg (based on short stories by Bohdan Kolomyichuk); a 12-episode historical drama Ryurik: The Origins; and animation, both theatrical projects (Mavka. The Forest Song, Roksolana and Suleyman, and Snow Republic) and series (Mum Hurries Home and Tiki).
