08/09/2003 - More than 2,000 professionals from around the world took part in the Venice market. We spoke to the person running the show

Laura Marcellino: video interview

The Venice Screenings were set up last year with the aim of increasing the space for the film market, and this year more than 2,000 professionals from around the world took part in the event.
The person in charge of the Venice market, Maria Laura Marcellino, gives us an overview of this second edition.

Could you give us an update on the Venice Screenings at the 60th Venice Film Festival?
"The Venice Screenings went very well. There were more than 100 films shown, mainly feature length works, and we had more than 2,000 people attending, with a significant volume of investments and business deals. I know of very favourable contracts, purchases and sales, with an example being a number of important films sold to North America.
But for next year we need a better infrastructure, the existing setup isn’t sufficient for the number of screenings we want to hold in the future.".

Which countries had the highest number of participants?
"There were a large number of participants this year, more than in the past. There were professionals who hadn’t been here before, representing new countries and new buyers.
There was a significant delegation from South America, but then many titles were also bought up by representatives from the Orient, Eastern Europe, Hungary, Poland and Russia.
As far as the EU countries were concerned, there was a very big group from Scandinavia, with an increased number of delegates, and then came the representatives from the Benelux countries and middle Europe, Germany and Austria in particular, with a few new names from Britain and a lot of representatives from France.
We have to work on Spain, which left the biggest gap this year. That’s something we’ll concentrating on in the future."