12/04/2017 - Cineuropa caught up with Romain Roll at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival to talk about his latest project, the BIF Market, the inaugural edition of which is being held this year

(© Tina Babič)

Romain Roll has always been fascinated by film, and more particularly, fantasy film. The instigator of the Fantasy Film Nights and the Cinenigma Festival in Luxembourg, he also participated in organising the Frontières co-production market at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF), before throwing himself into a new venture: the BIF Market. Cineuropa sat down with him to talk about it.

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Cineuropa: What does this market actually consist of?
Romain Roll: First of all, there is no real film market that focuses solely on genre films. Frontières and other co-production markets now specialise in genre films, but there’s no real market with buyers and sellers. I had the idea because the BIFFF has a certain European and global reputation, so we thought it would be the ideal place to establish a genre film market. It is a necessary market because genre films are becoming more and more important, topping all the box-office charts. 

What are you offering at the market?
Like all other markets, stands for buyers where they meet sellers, screenings of films for industry professionals, and we’ve put together a VFX panel where we’ll have information on Belgian VFX. Belgian post-production companies will also be there to show that there is a lot of interest in the fantasy genre in Belgium. We will also have a masterclass with Timo Vuorensola, the director of Iron Sky. 

How many professionals will be attending the market?
At the moment we have about 100 who have registered. 

Have you reached your objective?
Yes, more or less. It’s always difficult to say in advance, but I think we can already say that we’ve done what we set out to do. 

Will this be the first genre film market in Europe? 
Yes, it will be the first real genre film market in Europe. 

Are there production companies that specialise in genre film in Europe?
I think there are a lot of production companies that are pretty specialised, and I’m thinking most notably here of Jinga Films and Reel Suspects. The companies that come here are quite specialised in genre film, we have Showbox from Korea, Nikkatsu from Japan, and IM Global from the United States for example. 

What proportion of the total number of participants do non-European companies represent?
I would say 30 %.

Is funding for genre films different from funding for ‘normal’ films?
I think it’s a lot harder to secure. A lot of people aren’t familiar with genre, but I think that many of them have nonetheless understood that genre films aren’t limited to gory films with lots of massacres, that they can be more subtle and psychological. I think people are starting to become more open-minded, especially in Europe. 

When we talk about genre film, within the context of this market, what category are we dealing with?
Film noir, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, surreal film and even gory ones. We don’t exclude documentaries either, and in future we will also include TV series, which is really a big revelation as everyone loves them. 

I didn’t see a lot of series in the programme for the BIFFF.
It’s nonetheless quite tricky, we are all well aware of the fact that Netflix and Amazon Prime are hot on our heels, and they aren’t really open to working with festivals. Film festivals should find a way to work with them because we do this for the joy of the audience, not just to make money.

(Translated from French)