Friday’s panel ‘New Strategies for European Sales Agents’ at Helsinki’s industry event Finnish Film Affair, was moderated on stage in Helsinki by Timo Suomi, Senior Acquisitions and Development Executive for AMP International.

Online panellists were UK-based Vicky Brown, (Head of Sales, Altitude Film Entertainment), Daniel Green (Head of Home Entertainment, Dogwoof), New European Film Sales’ MD Jan Naszewski, and Wild Bunch’s Head of International Sales Eva Diederix.

Asked how the pandemic has affected their business and deal-making opportunities, each executive offered different perspectives, reflecting the size and profile of their company.

Jan Naszewski, head of the small boutique operation New Europe Film Sales, specialised in 1st and 2nd time directors - many from the Nordic region - said his business was particularly badly hit by the festival turmoil. “The lack of festivals has really hurt us,” he told the Finnish Film Affair participants. “We had ten films scheduled to launch at festivals this year, and suddenly we are left with only four films as we’ve had to reschedule the delivery of some films, due to covid.” He continues: “With Sweat, we decided to launch it at Cannes virtual and treated it as a market premiere. The Cannes label, good buzz and reviews helped us profit from it,” said the sales exes, who mentioned that the Polish/Swedish co-production achieved ‘similar’ numbers globally as the Icelandic hit A White, White Day.

However, he explained that the lack of festival exposure has impacted the launch and potential sales revenues of other smaller films. “If you have an established filmmaker and A-list cast like Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, you can achieve pre-sales, but with first time Hungarian or Finnish films, it’s hard,” said Naszewski who gave the example of the Finnish film Any Day Now [by first timer Hamy Ramezan], still struggling to get buyers’ attention, due to the lack of a festival spotlight such as Toronto to create a buzz. Naszewski said he feels safe for 2020, but anticipates a dip in revenues for 2021-22. “Since theatrical distributors aren’t making much money, what will be the future for smaller arthouse operators in 1-2 years-time, asked the sales agent, who acknowledged he is “thinking twice what to buy and what to launch.”

Eva Diederix from the French/German integrated group Wild Bunch (active in production, sales, distribution across the EU) said Covid-19 has confirmed and accelerated trends on the market. “At Wild Bunch we try as much as possible to sell films in the traditional way - on a territory by territory basis, but in two years, will this still be possible, and will indie movies still survive without a platform deal,” she asked.

For her, in today’s uncertain times, trying not to be destabilised and focusing on deal-making is essential. Diederix said the Venice launch [ out of competition] of the French/Belgian road movie Mandibles by Quentin Dupieux was successful and “gave her hope”, although she reckons that smaller arthouse films will be harder to sell in the future, “even to smaller distributors”.

Diederix also pointed out at distributors’ harder bargaining under covid, with some trying to renegotiate deals or shift payment schedules. Meanwhile, delays in international film launches is also impacting the entire film eco-system. “When we wait a full year to launch a film at Cannes 2021, it means that producers as well have to wait for MGs-everyone is impacted and this creates a lot of uncertainties. At Wild Bunch, we have the muscle to secure commissions, but others don’t,” she stressed.

Vicky Brown from the UK-based sales, production and financing group Altitude, concurs with Diederix. “Indie distributors haven’t been impacted the same way by the pandemic. Those who had digital platforms were able to play with their release strategies, but those relying on cinemas are struggling with a backlog of titles, and try to renegotiate deals and new payment plans. We are trying to be sympathetic, but eventually, we need to collect money!” she said. “At Altitude, we are lucky to have different strings to our bow so we can focus on different revenue streams, still, it’s hard and the longer this goes on, the greater the uncertainties,” she said.

Daniel Green from London-based Dogwoof, specialised in documentary films, said his company was fortunate to go into the pandemic with two strong titles: the Hillary doc series and Swedish film I am Greta. “We’ve been lucky time-wise with our slate. It took the pressure off,” admits Green. The sales agent underlined the shorter windows and growth of SVOD that is - to some extent - offsetting losses on the theatrical market. “With documentaries, the quicker you can go to life cycles and get into platforms, the better,” he said.

Genre Films Rule
Regarding acquisition trends, all companies with large catalogues have experienced a growth in that sector. For fiction projects, genre movies are more than ever in high demand. “Genre titles are very popular for us and horror in particular-it works, without name casts,” said Brown. 

Diederix agrees: “If you have the right project, there is always an appetite from buyers - streamers and non-streamers,” she said, mentioning Wild Bunch’s success both with Julia Ducournau’s French film Raw, and the upcoming Finnish chiller Hatching by first-time filmmaker Hanna Bergholm.

Expanding on the film’s success with world buyers, Diederix said she picked up the film based on the quality script, female director and uniqueness of the project, like Let the Right One In. After a pre-sales launch at Berlin 2020 with a promo-reel, the film enjoyed a bidding war from US distributors, with rights ultimately being snatched by IFC Midnight. Diederix said that the pandemic has delayed the film's delivery, but given the director more time in post to work on the sophisticated VFX. “We had initially targeted Toronto or Sundance but now we’re aiming for a Cannes 2021 international launch,” she said.

Dogwoof’s Green said “escapism" is what buyers are looking for, but titles dealing with the current pandemic is also on buyers hit list. 

In a closing note addressed to filmmakers and producers, Wild Bunch’s Diederix said: “Stay strong and keep being creative, no matter the odds. We’re here to help and we all have to stick together.”