Cinema under construction, cinema in development, Apifa… The Cinélatino Meetings have set up or collaborate with a profusion of mechanisms to help filmmakers, new or confirmed, to launch or complete their projects. Support that is often essential for getting advice and getting to know each other, and moving forward on what is often the project of a lifetime.
from our special correspondent in Toulouse,
This Friday, March 31, on the big screen of the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, we were able to discover Barbarism by Argentinian Andrew Sala, which will be screened in Paris on Monday April 3, as a prelude to the first edition of clap festival. In the family estancia, a young boy discovers that barbarism and violence concern all social classes, without exception. A full house and a flurry of questions from a conquered audience for the director and his producer Sebastián Muro. The film, which will be released in May in theaters in Argentina, went through Cinema in Construction where it won the first prize in 2021. Eden, Los reyes del mundo And Anhell 69 by Théo Montoya, three young Colombian directors, Las hijas by the Panamanian Kattia G. Zuñiga… all these films are from Cinéma en construction or Cinéma en développement, and are screened this year at Cinélatino. We also see in the whirlwind of the festival the Mexican director Angeles Cruz. She came to present her new film project at Cinéma en construction; his previous -and noticed- feature film, Nudo Mixtecohad already benefited from this precious boost to which she paid tribute when we met her last year.
A long story
Argentina Ana Katz was able to finalize her first film, the tender The game of the silla thanks also to Cinéma en construction. She participated in the first edition in 2002and we could multiply the examples, because some 231 films have been supported for twenty-one years by this system, of which Esther Saint Dizier told us the story. A pioneering initiative, then set up with the San Sebastian festival, thanks to José Maria Riba. ” Never before have two festivals from two different countries and different categories cooperated in this way reminds us of Eva Morsch Kihn. kingpin of the festival, which takes care -in addition to the coordination of the selection committees in charge of fiction and focus- of the professional platform.
This professional platform therefore includes Cinema under construction which gives a material boost to films for their closing or distribution, thanks to European and Latin American partnerships, and Cinema in development which connects film professionals from Latin America and Europe with project leaders and private or public partners.
After its creation, the professional platform was quickly structured to allow better support for films and a selection of projects was put in place. We would like a forum-type format to accompany them all, but objectively, but the volume of projects and people is too heavy for a very small team to bear, explains Eva Morsch Kihn.
Cinéma en développement is reserved for calls for projects internal to the festival, with a few partnerships such as the Cinéfondation de Cannes or the Brazilian BrLab: the project can be “ a small idea on paper or already a film in post-production”, which was the case, for example, ofBarbarism : “the goal is not for producers to position themselves, but to provide an opportunity for exchanges, feedback, within a given framework”. For very young directors, who come for example for a short film or a first film, “it’s a pretty sweet way” to help them feed their network and understand how a film is built up to its distribution. “We are not a co-production market, nor a lab”, insists Eva Morsch Kihn.
Cinema in construction and Cinema in development also offer prizes, thanks to partners. After two days of meetings and discussions, the professionals made their choices this Friday.
The growing role of the region
Alongside these mechanisms, there are others linked to the region, such as the Occitanie Platform. A regional film agency (Apifa) was created during the merger of Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon, and ” it brings a lot of dynamism to the sector “. An association of producers from Occitania, with which the festival is associated, also emerged in the process. This dynamic has widened the field of action and allows, for example, a regional producer who has a project in Latin America to find contacts and vice versa. ” For a Latin American professional, whether his producer is in Paris or Toulouse, he remains French “. Exchanges take the form of co-productions, writing residencies, the circulation of films and directors in cinemas in the region, etc. And the projects are not lacking. Inspired by the co-production workshops with Spain in 2021, then in 2022 with Brazil, this year the platform focused on co-productions with Colombia this week. These workshops again consist of exchanges of information and networking between French and Colombian professionals.
Colombia was also chosen for the Focus of the Meetings This year. The strong presence of Colombian films in major international A-rank festivals such as Cannes, Berlin or Toronto testifies to the vitality of its cinema. The public agency Proimagenes, directed by Claudia Triana since its creation in 1998, has done remarkable and long-term work, which has borne fruit, according to Eva Morsch Kihn. Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Chile… these countries are very present at Cinélatino meetings. We should perhaps be able to prospect more on the side of Central America, which is less represented, and of documentaries. “ Needs, there are, and desires, that’s not what’s missing, but we are very constrained by our little means “, regrets Eva Morsch Kihn. There is no specific budget for the professional platform, which is part of the general budget of the Rencontres, funded by the city and the region. To compensate for this lack of means, Cinélatino collaborates with other festivals, for example, to exchange films and pool guests. ” We work with what I call ‘the international spring festival’ » : Milan, Barcelona, Ojo Loco Grenoble, Villeurbanne, Pessac, Valence… The women’s film festival in Créteil, the Peruvian film festival and the Cinéma du Réel documentary meetings have welcomed or will welcome films and directors who have passed through Toulouse. Create virtuous circles to always better support and make known this cinema from across the Atlantic…