For patrons and sellers of French programming the Rendez-Vous market is a back-to-school second after the summer season break. Having relocated from Biarritz to the port metropolis of Le Havre in Normandy, Northern France, it sees attendees spend a number of days collectively, with the gala screenings, lunches, dinners and night occasions all a part of the primary program.
Unifrance, the org devoted to selling French TV and movie, organizes affairs, which proceed at a special tempo to MIPCOM in October. If the Cannes market is concentrated on jam-packed days of back-to-back 30-minute conferences, the Le Havre shindig is a extra relaxed affair and the buyer-seller conversations run for longer. Acquisition execs from over 40 international locations will likely be on the town, largely hailing from Europe.
It’s the greatest market of the yr for French programming and that sharp give attention to Gallic fare is useful, Cécilia Rossignol EVP, Worldwide Gross sales and Growth at Gaumont advised Deadline. “Consumers know what they may get at Le Havre, it’s French content material – its high quality time to debate French packages.”
For gross sales outfits like Federation Worldwide which have each French and English-language fare, Le Havre is an opportunity to actually house in on the previous. Federation could have French dramas together with thriller sequence Log Out, which was in competitors at Sequence Mania. Talking about the place Rendez-Vous matches into the calendar, Federation Worldwide’s Co-Head of Distribution, Monica Levy, stated: “You eat collectively, you go to occasions collectively, and it’s a manner for us to keep up a correspondence with our shoppers, some who perhaps we received’t be capable to see at MIPCOM.”
She added: “Because it’s earlier than MIPCOM, it’s additionally a possibility for us to gauge the success of sure packages. We would have feedback that imply we return and alter some technique slightly. Calendar sensible, it’s actually best.”
There are lots of worldwide markets and occasions that house in on a selected style, however the Rendez-Vous has at all times spanned all kinds of programming from fiction to docs to children with 51 exhibitors on the town this time. Animation specialist Xilam, for instance, will likely be there, pushing the likes of Piggy Builders, The place’s Chicky?, Zig & Sharko and Submarine Jim. “It’s grow to be a practice at Xilam to attend Unifrance Rendez-Vous as an effective way to kick off our market season, Safaa Benazzouz, EVP Distribution, advised Deadline.
We checked in with some key distribs to see what they’re getting behind this time.
FTD’s Vendetta
France TV Distribution
“It’s an important alternative to attach with our long-standing companions from many European linear broadcasters, whom we get pleasure from assembly on this extra relaxed ambiance, earlier than the busy rush of MIPCOM,” Julia Schulte, France TV Distribution’s SVP of Worldwide Gross sales advised Deadline forward of creating the journey to Le Havre.
France TV Distribution will host one of many galas with a screening of Vendetta, the Corsica-set crime drama produced by Marco Cherqui, producer of Jacques Audiard’s movie A Prophet. Solid and crew will likely be on the town as FTD pushes gross sales.
The distributor may also have the brand new, third, season of cyber-crime drama Stalk, a couple of gifted hacker who makes use of his expertise to precise revenge on imply classmates. The earlier runs offered into over 120 international locations, a giant quantity for French fiction. “It was one of many first digital sequence we launched internationally: concentrating on a youthful viewers than the standard primetime productions broadcast on France TV, with a brand new narrative model and youthful protagonists,” Schulte stated. “Season 3 a brand new journey for Lux as he enters a extra grownup world and explores the recent matter of synthetic intelligence, making the season much more engaging to broadcasters and streamers, with a shift towards a broader, extra mainstream viewers.”
Studiocanal Brings A Prophet To Le Havre
Christian Mantuano
One other of the massive French distributors, Studiocanal, will head to Le Havre from the Venice Movie Pageant the place its sequence A Prophet had its world premiere. A reimagining of the enduring Jacques Audiard film, it’s set in a brutal French jail and starring breakout expertise Mamadou Sidibé.
“Rendez-Vous in Le Havre is a well timed alternative within the gross sales cycle — it comes simply after summer season, in a back-to-business context, and permits Studiocanal, to highlight our French-language sequence to a curated group of patrons actively looking for any such content material,” stated Chloe Marquet, Studiocanal’s Head of Worldwide Gross sales for Movies & TV Sequence.
The French studio may also have The Sentinels on the market, a high-concept sequence a couple of group of tremendous troopers combating in an alternate model of WWI. The timing is sweet with the Esprits Frappeurs and Federation Studios sequence about to bow on Canal+ in France.
Federation Ramps Up Factual
Federation
Federation Worldwide has its personal sizable distribution operation and is likely one of the major gamers on the Rendez-Vous. Recognized for its scripted titles, this time it rolls into city with numerous docs, having folded the catalog of doc distrib Fortunate You into its personal.
There will likely be a Rendez-Vous screening occasion for Nature: The Name for Reconciliation, the newest from filmmaker, journalist and environmental activist Yann Arthus-Bertrand.
“His new movies are at all times a giant occasion and we’ve at all times already pre-sold it in Germany with the ZDF and it has already aired in France on M6,”stated Ilan Sarfati, who heads documentary gross sales for Federation. “It reveals the fantastic thing about the earth, and in addition raises consciousness in regards to the urgency to behave and to battle local weather change. It’s heavy in some methods, you type of face the arduous reality, however on the similar time it’s completely visually stunningy.”
Making The Deal For Gaumont
‘The Deal’
Gaumont
The Deal is a coproduction between Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Belgium and follows individuals and occasions as Switzerland hosts last-chance nuclear talks between the US and Iran, with Europe, Russia and China additionally in attendance. It scooped the Consumers Award at this yr’s Sequence Mania.
The sequence is multi-language and was for Arte in France and RTS in Switzerland. Gaumont will likely be trying to rating extra gross sales in Le Havre, which Cécilia Rossignol EVP, Worldwide Gross sales and Growth, stated has at all times been an essential marketplace for the corporate.
“The principle function for us because the starting of Rendez-Vous is getting high quality time with patrons and commissioning editor, attending to know what they need and who they’re. We are able to’t at all times be simply doing offers we have to know the individuals, it’s a human relationship – and this a very good place for that. It’s one thing totally different, patrons take notes, watch stuff, and also you don’t simply get twenty minutes with them, you get an hour.”
