While French sales companies report mixed results from the 2012 film market, assessments are positive overall.
Six French sales companies took part in the event this year along with uniFrance Films at the Jeanie Madsen Gallery in Santa Monica from October 31 through November 7: Bac Films International, Le Pacte, Other Angle Pictures, Memento Films, Rezo Films, and Wide Management. In the view of Nicolas Kaiser from Memento, it would be better to delay sales until the uniFrance Films Rendez-vous with French Cinema event in Paris or the Berlin EFM: "While it remains important to be present in Los Angeles to meet with big clients for films with name cast attached or pre-sales, the offers we get do not always match expectations." On the other hand, Camille Neel from Le Pacte and Gilles Soussa from Bac Films claim that "Santa Monica is perfectly suited to genre films, which find interested buyers more easily than auteur films." The majority of clients attending Santa Monica come from Latin America, Asia (South Korea, Japan), and Central and Eastern Europe, which Camille Neel believes, "requires some companies to have several sales agents present, since there are also opportunities for smaller deals that are not to be missed out on." A cocktail party held in honor of distributors of French films abroad, held November 2 at the Sonoma Wine Garden, brought together over 350 industry professionals.
A number of other sales agents were also in Santa Monica for the event: Celluloid Dreams, Elle Driver, EuropaCorp, Films Distribution, Futurikon, Gaumont, Kinology, Pathé International, SND Groupe M6, StudioCanal, TF1 International, and Wild Bunch.
Activities :
Foreign distributor (feature film), Film exports/foreign sales, Executive Producer, Foreign production company, Associate producer, Co-production, French distribution
