What Will Indie Film World Face at the Cannes Virtual Market?

Andreas Wiseman International EditorEXCLUSIVE: Pablo Larrain’s Princess Diana movie Spencer, which is set to star Kristen Stewart as the former royal, was a hot seller for FilmNation out of the Cannes virtual market.The New York-based firm all but sold out on the project, closing deals for the UK, France, Italy and Benelux (STX Entertainment), Germany and Switzerland (DCM), Australia/NZ (Roadshow), Latin America, Spain and Portugal (Sun), South Korea (Green Narae) and Japan (Tohokushina).Buyers

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterThe latest project from acclaimed independent filmmaker Justin Chon, “Blue Bayou,” has been acquired by Focus Features, Variety can report exclusively.The studio brokered a worldwide deal for the film’s distribution rights out of the Cannes 2020 virtual market, which was financed by MARCO and Entertainment One.

Cannes has declared its first and, if things go as planned, last virtual film market a success. Just more than 10,000 film professionals took part in the five-day event, which wrapped up June 28, according to official figures released Thursday.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentCannes’s virtual Marché du Film, which wrapped on June 26, attracted more than 10,002 participants over the course of five days. The U.S.

The global film industry is betting that eventually there'll be a box office rebound. Studios and streamers, international distributors and global sales agents were doing business at the Virtual Cannes Market, the two parallel online film markets held June 22 to 28 in lieu of the canceled physical festival, as if the future were bright.

Jill Goldsmith A restart for film and television is bearing down but looming uncertainty around COVID-19 insurance has the business on edge.Pandemic insurance disappeared in March. Three months later there’s still no viable alternative to put many independent producers back on a path to completion bond backed financing.

Fernando Sulichin is used to doing things differently. The veteran producer and CEO of New Element Media has established a reputation for working with maverick auteurs — Oliver Stone, Sean Pean, Abel Ferrara, Michael Winterbottom, Larry Clark, Harmony Korine — and finding creative ways to get films made that don't fit the industry's cookie-cutter models.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorHello, and welcome to International Insider, Jake Kanter here. Well done on making it to Friday, here are the six things we want you to know about the global film and TV business this week.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorAGC has closed a raft of Cannes virtual market deals on Nick Jonas-Laurence Fishburne action-thriller The Blacksmith.Sizeable pre-sales have closed in Germany & Switzerland (Constantin), France (Metropolitan), UK (Entertainment Film), Latin America (CDC & CVT), Russia (Paradise/MGN) and South Korea & Vietnam (Joy’N’Content).Pacts have also been sealed with Benelux (The Searchers), Greece (Odeon), Middle East (Salim Raima), Eastern Europe (Prorom), Asian Pay TV

Screen Media Ventures President David Fannon will be attending this year’s Cannes markets by way of Connecticut. He is, like so many of the now homebound buyers and sellers that plan on making the most of the Virtual Cannes Market, working from home offices, basements and kitchen tables.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the “Hamilton” cast, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots are coming together for a special performance.

It was only a matter of time. The 2020 Toronto Film Festival, set to run Sept.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentBeta Cinema has closed numerous deals on its Cannes virtual market slate, spearheaded by all-rights deals on Berlin competition entries “Berlin Alexanderplatz” to Le Pacte for France and “My Little Sister” to Weltkino for Germany, as well as “The Auschwitz Report” to Signature Entertainment in the U.K./Ireland.As well as the French deal, Burhan Qurbani’s new adaptation of Alfred Döblin’s “Berlin Alexanderplatz” was picked up by distributors in

Martin Dale ContributorOne of Latin America’s biggest genre propositions, the Latido Films-sold “Virus 32,” from Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernandez (“You Shall Not Sleep”), was unveiled Tuesday on the A Demain Cannes market platform.The $1 million pic is a 50-50 Argentina-Uruguay co-production between Aeroplano, run by Sebastian Aloi, and Mother Superior Films, run by Hernandez and Ignacio García Cucucovich.In addition to subsidy support from Argentina and Uruguay, the horror-thriller has

Carole Horst The Cannes Marché du Film, along with a sales initiative led by Hollywood agencies, is hosting the first major virtual market since the start of pandemic, starting on June 23. Distributors and sales agents are looking forward to it: the turn-up for the online Cannes Marché du Film is significant with more than 7,000 accredited participants as of mid-June.“As nobody can leave their house, a virtual market is the next best thing.

Chris Pine is set to star in a brand new thriller movie, called Violence Of Action.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterFull credit to organizers of the Cannes virtual Marche (June 22-26), who by and large pulled off with relative smoothness day one of what will be a technically challenging and largely unprecedented event.There were a few hitches here and there, however, which caused scattered moments of frustration and, in one particularly bizarre incident, some hilarity among delegates.Earlier today, Neon aces Tom Quinn and Elissa Federoff logged on for an insightful

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Andreas Wiseman, Tom Grater The unprecedented Cannes virtual market is underway and there are a surprisingly large number of pre-sale titles on offer.Big-canvas projects such as Will Smith starrer Emancipation and Michael Mann movie Ferrari will be on sale alongside action-thrillers like Gerard Butler movie Kandahar and Nick Jonas title The Blacksmith, adventure pics like Arthur The King, dramas such as James Gray’s starry Armageddon Time and genre fare like Elisabeth Moss movie Run Rabbit Run.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterSince you can’t be in Cannes this year, Variety is bringing Cannes to you.