Filed under: PUBLISHED WORK
Arts Hub Australia, 21st July 2008
If it were up to Mark Woods, all Australian film producers could build a bridge and get over it. As it is, only 64 are registered for 2008.
This figure is still substantial when one considers that at Melbourne International Film Festival’s 37South: Bridging the Gap, the selected filmmakers will battle it out through the canny use of scheduling to secure 20-minute audiences with as many of the 39 local and international film financiers or buyers in attendance as their celluloid hearts may desire.
37South: Bridging the Gap is a major component of MIFF’s 37South2008 suite of industry modules, which also includes Breakthrough Screenings, Accelerator Express, Books at MIFF (BAM) and PostScript & Direct. Woods manages all of these varicoloured strands in addition to the Festival’s Premiere Fund, an ongoing co-financing source for the support of new Australian theatrical films and feature-length documentaries.
37South: Bridging the Gap, now in its second year, is this country’s only film co-financing market in a film festival environment. Its mission is to facilitate the union of Australian producers of market-ready feature-length projects, with key international film co-financiers – in Melbourne. Much of the four initial days of the Festival, for these attendees, will be spent locked in the incongruously sumptuous surrounds of the Forum Theatre, pitching and re-pitching, or considering and reconsidering, depending on which side of the table they sit. Literally every twenty minutes, says Woods, a bell goes off and everyone shuffles to their next appointment.
Before we titter at visions of cinematic speed dating, however, it is worth stopping to consider that relationships are relationships and a good D&M with the right financier might just deepen their interest enough to generate some much-needed monetary action for a filmmaker’s slate. However, the gap being bridged by this program lies not only between two bank accounts$$s$$ 37South is as much about drawing Australian cinema as a whole closer to the international marketplace. By importing international financiers, sales agents and distributors to network alongside their Australian counterparts, a portal is created through which Australian filmmakers can release their work into a wider market than might otherwise be possible.
This is where the marriage of Woods’ financial savvy and filmic nous strides to the fore, engaging those financiers he knows to be every producer’s pin-ups, as well as finding a balance between those sales agents with a proven interest in Australian content, and those for whom the prospect of backing an antipodean project is an exciting if hitherto unexplored option. To hear him describe the assemblage of such a mix is more reminiscent of a recipe than an industry event: a boutique sales agent here, a handful of big names there, a pinch of gap financier bank, and all garnished with an attractively proportioned Hollywood studio type.
Clearly, last year’s event left a bad taste in no one’s mouth, with an even stronger line-up engaged for 2008: “It’s bigger, fatter, bolder than last year, but in terms of Bridging the Gap it’s a similar concept and proportion of the different types of financiers and buyers,” he says.
Prior to his role at MIFF, Woods had been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Ausfilm in 2005, following a two-year tenure as Chief Executive of the Irish Film Board. He also held a number of prior positions in Australia, including Head of Acquisitions and Investment at the Premium Movie Partnership (Showtime) and staff reporter with <i>Variety</i>.
Not an undernourished CV by any measure, and an impressive set of tools with which to shape the industry programs branch of MIFF. Aside from the multi-pronged 37South2008 program, Woods is also responsible for the distribution of the Festival’s Premiere Fund, aimed at filling the financing gaps where projects have exhausted other options, or as a funding springboard, to lift under-financed projects into the realms of eligibility for government and other funding. In addition, the selected films will be premiered as part of MIFF, affording them the kind of publicity that many filmmakers literally just can’t buy.
However, MIFF’s contribution to the projects is just that, and the springboard must first have a solid foundation on which to rest. Woods’ financial background and industry knowledge allow him to very quickly discern which projects’ financial plans are viable and which are likely to crumble as soon as the momentum begins to build. Taking on only those teams guaranteed to stretch the MIFF funding to cover their needs, Woods and the Festival have the satisfaction not only of seeing new Australian work being brought to life, but also of a substantial kick-back in the form of original premiere content for a growing international festival.
Commenting on the experiences and observations of MIFF Executive Director Richard Moore in wrangling for premieres at other international film festivals, Woods says: “Competition to get titles and premieres is very fierce. What we’re doing is building a pipeline of premiere content for us. There are ten world premieres in MIFF this year$$s$$ six are from the premiere fund.”
With another six still ripening for next year’s season, the Premiere Fund team can take a moment to breathe.
“We had to pick up the government money, work out the shape of the Fund, find the content, and have it delivered in time. Now we have a brief break to stop and go ‘Does anybody like these films?’. That’s a very early test for us$$s$$ I’m hoping most people like most [of them].”
The money to which Woods refers was pledged to MIFF by the Victorian government in its 2006 election manifesto, which emphasised the importance of nurturing Melbourne as a national and international screen production centre. This context of reinforcing Melbourne’s position as a creative industries hub has strongly influenced Woods’ moulding of the MIFF industry programs and led the Festival to opt for what Woods refers to as, “the screen business route: it’s very producer-, business- and sales-led, so it’s not a conference, it’s a market.”
Other international film festivals cited by Woods as having taken the low-profile road – favouring insider attractions over general public appeal – include London, Rotterdam, and the “Berlinale”, Berlin’s international film festival.
“What is a really interesting positive, is that most if not all of the… film festivals in Australia are now defining their second life – their personalities – by adding new businesses and new identities,” says Woods, hastening to add that the view is a personal one. “The big city festivals…exist mainly for audiences, which is good$$s$$ if you don’t have that, what do you have? But… how do you move forward, give yourself a renewed relevance to the industry and an expanded relationship with your government?”
Turning his gaze to the wider world, Woods notes that many of what he calls the “grand dame” festivals are catching themselves in a new mirror and finding a makeover is on order. London was a case in point, and Rotterdam and Berlin before it. Now several others – from Rome to Gothenburg to Pusan – are nipping and tucking their programs to include markets, funds and other ancillary businesses, extending their relationships with their respective governments, and with each other.
In Australia, typically sober Melbourne’s northerly sister creates a stimulating contrast, opting for the high-profile road: with its Official Competition offering of the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize and the plush red splash of an Opening Night Gala, Sydney Film Festival’s 2008 outing was a seemingly decadent affair, but Woods sees equal merit in both: “I say this from a distance,” he ventures, “but I think that Sydney is going down what I call [more of] a Tribeca or Cannes road, which is very red carpet. The aspiration [is] to use the [Prize] to attract international press interest and guests, so it’s bona fide model.”
Yet another style has been adopted by Adelaide, and very successfully, to Woods’ mind, who compares its boutique quality with festivals such as Italy’s Taormina, or Telluride in the United States.
As for Woods and his MIFF vision, the level of emphasis on strong relationships might almost have a passer-by guessing that the topic at hand was polygamous marriage rather than the growth of the local film industry, but whatever the approach, it seems he may have something.
“It’s about deepening your relationships with talent and with film suppliers,” he says. “When we’re in Cannes talking to sales agents we can now say ‘Oh by the way, do you fancy coming to 37South?’ Suddenly we have a lot more to offer.
“Every relationship has to grow and have new bits added to it or you get bored.”
No partner could argue with that.
<b>Melbourne International Film Festival I 25 July – 10 August 2008</b>
