Selling your film project in Cannes
Dutch filmmakers at the world’s biggest film market
The Cannes Film Festival: a place of red carpets, world premieres, coveted awards, glitter and glamour. But Cannes is also the world’s largest film market, where thousands of new projects are presented and sold. In episode 1 of Cinema Extra, Noa Johannes speaks to three Dutch filmmakers and producers who are presenting their projects there, and meeting the people who can help bring their films, and their dreams, to life. Because how exactly do you sell your film at the biggest film market in the world?
Bobby Boermans is a producer and director behind series such as Mocro Maffia and Het Gouden Uur, as well as iHostage, the film that became the most-watched non-English language production worldwide on Netflix. He has been coming to Cannes for around fourteen years. Does it feel any different now, after the success of his latest film?
Director Didier Konings and producer Monique van Kessel are presenting their project in the Pitch Forum, where a proof of concept is used to persuade others to believe in your idea. Konings is ambitious: he hopes companies such as A24, Neon or Focus Features will see potential in his folk-horror project Aulken.
While Didier Konings’ film is still in development, Lost Son by Edson da Conceicao is in its final stage: post-production. Lost Son is Edson’s feature debut, and he and producer Nicky Onstenk have been selected to present the film in Cannes to international sales agents and other festivals, in the hope that it will soon be released in as many countries as possible.
