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INDUSTRY Europe / Latin America

Strengthening ties between Europe and Latin America

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- European and Latin American film agencies are reflecting on their future together as part of a seminar organised at Cinélatino

Strengthening ties between Europe and Latin America

There is no doubt about it: the cinematic ties forged between Europe and Latin America are becoming stronger. In fact, the Miami Film Festival has just hosted the first Mercado del Cine Francés, an event that was held between 8 and 10 March by UniFrance and brought together 17 exporters of French films and 29 distributors from Latin America, with 26 screenings on the table. And as part of the Cinelatino Film Festival, which kicked off last Friday in Toulouse (this year’s 28th edition, which was opened by Franco-Argentinian-Spanish co-production Eva Doesn’t Sleep [+see also:
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and will come to a close on 20 March, will feature over 150 films, including 27 in competition), a seminar will be held on Tuesday 15 March and Wednesday 16 March which will gather together the directors of film institutions in Europe and Latin America. The aim? To reflect deeply on the opportunities for strengthening ties between the two continents through public policies that support their film industries and encourage diverse offerings.

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Multiple round table discussions will enrich the analysis, whilst the film institutions of a dozen or so European countries and just as many Latin American countries will be present in Toulouse. Discussions will be launched by presentations on the state of play by the directors of the two federations that unite the two continents: the German Peter Dinges for the EFAD (European Film Agency Directors) and the Brazilian Manoel Rangel for the CACI (Conferencia de Autoridades Cinematográficas de Iberoamérica). As well as the director general of the FFA (German Federal Film Board), the Europeans attending the seminar as part of the Cinelatino Film Festival most notably include Frenchwoman Frédérique Bredin (president of the CNC), Belgian Jeanne Brunfaut (deputy director general of the Centre du cinéma et de l'audiovisuel), Icelander Laufey Gudjonsdottir (director of the Icelandic Film Centre), Portuguese Filomena Serras Pereira (president of the ICA  - Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual), Croatian Hrvoje Hribar (director general of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre) and a number of managers of international relations from European agencies such as Italian Chiara Fortuna (MIBACT), Spaniard Guadalupe Melgosa Fernandez (ICAA - Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales), and Brit Paul Gerhardt (director of Education at the British Film Institute).

Co-productions between Europe and Latin America and the distribution of films (with, among others, producers Thierry Lenouvel and Jean des Forêts in attendance), new ways of distributing films in a digital environment that should be regulated to preserve diversity, understanding audiences and how to lure them in, to broaden audiences and make arthouse films more attractive, an impact assessment and ways of innovating in film education, are just some of the things that will be discussed at the seminar. These two days at Cinelatino will no doubt lead to some very interesting ideas to pursue, in a global situation in which, for example, French film saw record box office takings in Latin American in 2015 with 22.3 million admissions (the highest in Mexico with 9.4 million, Brazil with 5.3 million and Colombia with 2.4 million), and a number of Latin American films that were highly visible in the big international film festivals last year were co-produced with Europe (The Clan [+see also:
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, Paulina [+see also:
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, Land and Shade [+see also:
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, Ixcanul [+see also:
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interview: Jayro Bustamante
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]
, etc.). Without of course forgetting the dynamic and highly successful Ventana Sur meeting for industry professionals, which has been held since 2009 at the end of the year in Buenos Aires by the Marché du Film du Festival de Cannes and Argentinian institution the INCAA. Highly fertile ground in which to plant the seeds for the future, as Europe and Latin America are still far from exploiting the full potential for developing fruitful alliances between one another.

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(Translated from French)

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