Fantastic Fest Announces New International Co-Production Market for Genre Films
Steve Barton
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Been wanting to check out the fabulous Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas? Well, this is the year to do it as they’ve announced that in 2013 they will begin hosting an international co-production market for genre films called Fantastic Market|Mercado Fantastico.
From the Press Release:
The goal of the market is to connect international film projects with potential production partners, sales agents, and distributors. The inaugural market will occur in parallel with Fantastic Fest, which will be held in Austin, Texas, from September 19th through September 26th, 2013, and will highlight new genre narrative projects from across the world with a particular emphasis on Latin filmmakers from Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the United States. Fantastic Fest lead programmer Rodney Perkins and festival director Kristen Bell are heading up the effort.
CANANA, the Mexican production and distribution outlet helmed by Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Pablo Cruz, and Julian Levin, will co-produce Fantastic Market|Mercado Fantastico alongside filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’s El Rey network. Cristina Garza, Vice President of MUNDIAL, CANANA’s sales joint venture with IM Global, will source projects from the region.
“The Latin movie-going audience is the only demographic increasing in the US. Because of our proximity to Mexico and Latin America, we see a large number of emerging projects from these countries at Fantastic Fest,” said Fantastic Fest co-founder and creative director Tim League. “Fantastic Market is the next step in the evolution of the festival to help us further our mission to support emerging genre filmmakers from across the globe.”
“In the last few years we have seen a huge spike in the number and quality of genre films coming from Latin America,” said Pablo Cruz, CANANA Partner. “We hope bringing these projects to the US marketplace will expand financing possibilities and international exposure for these emerging directors and producers.”
El Rey founder Robert Rodriguez said that “establishing the Fantastic Market is a great opportunity to not only give the Ibero-American community a stage for their work in genre films, but it’s also an outlet for the US Hispanic community to showcase their projects in an area where they are underserved. I’m excited to see what is produced.”
“We congratulate Tim League, Robert Rodriquez, and those involved with this new film market. This is a great opportunity for filmmakers from Austin and around the world,” said City of Austin Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office Director Kevin Johns. “Austin was rated #1 this year by MovieMaker magazine’s ‘Top 10 Cities to Be a Moviemaker,’ and this new film market will go a long way towards further enhancing Austin as a great place for moviemaking.”
Submissions will be accepted from June 1, 2013, through July 15, 2013. You can view the set of project guidelines on the Fantastic Fest website. All projects will be reviewed by a panel consisting of Fantastic Fest organizers, market partners, and members of the industry; and the selected projects will be announced mid-August.
Representatives from the selected projects will be invited to make pitches at the Film Market in Austin. A jury consisting of Fantastic Fest founder Tim League, Robert Rodriguez, and select other industry professionals will select and award the top three projects at the market. There will also be a variety of other market activities, including workshops and networking opportunities.
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