More than €50,000 in Film Sales Support (FSS) funding has been set aside for 12 world sales companies by EFP (European Film Promotion) for the promotion and marketing of 13 European extraordinary and distinct films to North American and further non-European buyers at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (5-15 September).
TIFF is the first festival on EFP’s annual calendar of events for which the financial scheme is available to European world sales companies. As a pan-European programme, FSS is enhancing the promotion of films from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy (including co-productions with the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic and Croatia), Poland, Romania (coproduction with Germany and the Netherlands), Spain, The Netherlands and Sweden (coproduction with Finland) at Toronto.
FSS is increasingly used by sales agents to develop and cover primarily digital promotion strategies for their films at an early stage, way before the premieres at the respective festivals. Sophisticated campaigns attract the attention of buyers, in particular from outside of Europe, and equip them with important information as well as trigger curiosity prior to onsite screenings at the festival.
TIFF’s competitive Platform programme, this year presided over by Academy-Award-nominated Canadian director Atom Egoyan, is screening the world premieres of the FSS-supported surrealistic film, Mr. K by Tallulah H. Schwab (The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway / LevelK) as well as They Will Be Dust by Carlos Marques-Marcet (Spain, Italy, Switzerland / Latido Films). Films selected for this programme are eligible for the Platform Prize, an award worth CAD $20,000.
The festival’s Centrepiece section that pays tribute to cinematic achievements is showing a majority of supported diverse titles which depict underrepresented groups and topics. They include, Under the Volcano by Polish director Damian Kocur (Salaud Morisset), Anywhere Anytime by Milad Tangshir (Italy / Fandango), The Exiles by Belén Funes, a coproduction between Spain and Chile (Film Factory Entertainment), Souleymane's Story by Boris Lojkine (France / Pyramide International) and The Swedish Torpedo by Frida Kempff from Sweden and Finland (Urban Sales). Inclusive drama, The Party’s Over by Spanish director Elena Manrique (Goodfellas) is screening in TIFF’s Discovery section as is The Quiet Ones by Frederik Louis Hviid (Denmark, France / TrustNordisk).
Two documentaries are equally receiving a promotional boost from EFP: world-premiere Tata by Lina Vdovîi & Radu Ciorniciuc (Romania, Germany, Netherlands / autlook filmsales) and the North American premiere, Wishing On A Star by Peter Kerekes (Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia / Films Boutique).
Please see list of supported films HERE
FSS for the respective films was underwritten by Cinecittà, Danish Film Institute, ICAA (Spain), Polish Film Institute, Romanian Film Development, SEE NL, Swedish Film Institute and Unifrance.
FSS is financially backed by Creative Europe MEDIA of the European Union since 2004. FSS offers grants to European world sales companies for promotion and marketing campaigns with the goal to advance the export of films from Europe to countries outside of Europe at international film festivals and markets. Individual grants amount to a maximum of €5,000 or €5,500 (for films depicting diversity & inclusion) per campaign.
