Representatives of European sales companies attended the 8th Europa International annual conference from the 22nd to the 24th November in Lisbon, and for the 5th time in parallel of Europa Cinemas event.
New board
The event started with a general assembly and the new board of Europa International has been elected: Jean-Christophe Simon (Films Boutique, Germany) remains the President. Jenny Walendy (The Match Factory, Germany) and Frederic Corvez (Urban Distribution International, France) renew their mandates. Alice Lesort (Les Films du Losange, France), Paola Corvino (Intramovies, Italy) and Xavier Henry-Rashid (Film Republic, UK), are the new elected members. Susan Wendt (TrustNordisk, Denmark) is now the treasurer. Europa International would like to thank Daniela Elstner and Sasha Wieser for their dedicated and great work as board members since the creation of the network.
Creative Europe selective support
The conference has been focused on the new selective scheme which involves the the sales agents as coordinator of the project. The results and challenges have been discussed with Creative Europe and Europa Distribution. At this stage (beginning of the projects’ implementation), the feedbacks are really positive: improving exchanges between sales and distributors, collecting data and sharing information, developing pan European distribution strategies, creating more synergies with other platforms such as producers, festivals and online platforms.
Tales of Europe
The selection of the films for the 3rd edition of Tales of Europe has been made: out of the 36 European films submitted, 12 have been selected. Thanks to this curated program, those films will be supported for their distribution in cinemas to reach a US audience. Tales of Europe will be launch in January 2020, during Art House Convergence, the network of US cinemas. Europa International and Europa Cinemas have launched this initiative in 2018 to improve the circulation of films in the US, the most important overseas market for European films.
The words of the President
“By gathering the sales companies, strengthening ties with professionals in the film industry, and tackling the challenges of the current film distribution market, Europa International became an important representative for the sales’ companies. We can already welcome some concrete results such as the involvement of the sales agents in innovative way of distributing films with the new Creative Europe selective scheme. Thanks to our key position in relation with producers, festivals, distributors, exhibitors and digital platforms, we are thrilled to share our broad experience in order to prepare efficiently the future of sales and international distribution” said Jean-Christophe Simon, Europa International President.
Europa International would like to thank Europa Cinemas as partner of Tales of Europe, Creative Europe MEDIA programme for supporting Tales of Europe, and Europa International sponsors Éclair and CoPeerRight Agency.