One to One Meetings – Crowdfunding and Audience Development
10:00 – 12:00
TRAVERSE BAR CAFÉ
EIFF Press & Industry Centre

Access: EIFF Passholders

You may only sign up for three 1-2-1 meetings in total, with a max. of one meeting per expert. You must be an EIFF passholder to book a meeting.

Sign up for a 15 minute focused meeting with Rebecca Thompson from Hot Tap Media and Social Screen to get professional advice and discuss your projects.

Rebecca Thompson is an award-winning digital marketer specialising in digital audience development and crowdfunding. Since establishing Hot Tap Media in 2011, she has delivered audience development and crowdfunding campaign consultancy for a number of film projects including Not Another Happy Ending, Bodkin Ras, Fireworks and Nothing to Declare. Rebecca now runs Social Screen, a web platform for independent filmmakers that allows you to build your audience, crowdfund and distribute your film, all from your own website. She is currently working with Film City Futures to deliver their business development project, FOCUS. Rebecca works with makers of all kinds to help them integrate digital strategy into their work, and is passionate about the role of the digital community in the creative industries for crowdfunding and beyond.

In partnership with Hot Tap Media and Social Screen

 

One to One Meetings – Entertainment Law
10:00 – 12:00
TRAVERSE BAR CAFÉ
EIFF Press & Industry Centre

Access: EIFF Passholders

You may only sign up for three 1-2-1 meetings in total, with a max. of one meeting per expert. You must be an EIFF passholder to book a meeting.

Sign up for a 15 minute focused meeting with Janine Beach, to get professional advice and discuss your projects.

Janine Beach is an entertainment lawyer based in New York and Toronto, and the principal of Phoenix Entertainment Advisors. Phoenix represents producers, directors and writers working in film, digital media and television with a focus on international markets. Janine advises on development, financing, production and distribution agreements, and structures and negotiates deals across all platforms. She has practiced law at leading firms and production companies in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, representing several Academy Award and BAFTA winners. Janine received her law degree and MBA from Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s degree with joint honours from McGill University.

In partnership with Phoenix Entertainment Advisors 

 

One to One Meetings – Sales 
10:00 – 12:00
TRAVERSE BAR CAFÉ
EIFF Press & Industry Centre

Access: EIFF Passholders

You may only sign up for three 1-2-1 meetings in total, with a max. of one meeting per expert. You must be an EIFF passholder to book a meeting.

Sign up for a 15 minute focused meeting with Sara Vonk from Film Seekers to get professional advice and discuss your projects.

Sara has studied and worked in The Netherlands, USA and Hong Kong, and interned with The Walt Disney Company. After graduation, she worked as a Media Operator at DMC/ AMC Networks International. As part of her masters degree in Film Distribution and Marketing Sara interned with FilmNation in Cannes, and worked as a Research Assistant for Stephen Follows. Sara started at Truffle Pictures in July 2017 and after went on to join the Film Seekers team.

Film Seekers is a London-based international sales agency focusing on commercially driven English language feature films with worldwide appeal. With a combined experience of more than 20 years in the independent sector, the company seeks to offer producers support from script stage through to distribution, representing eight to ten new films a year.

Recent successes include Edie, released theatrically nationwide in the UK in May 2018 and named “One of the year’s biggest independent theatrical success stories’ by UK Trade Magazine with the rest of the world going out theatrically throughout 2019; The Witch in the Window which sold on multi-territory deals worldwide and had a fantastic international festival run; and most recently Love Sarah, which pre-sold to eight territories in Berlin 2019 when introduced at the market.

In partnership with Film Seekers

 

One to One Meetings – Producing Genre
10:00 – 12:00
TRAVERSE THEATRE
EIFF Press & Industry Centre

Access:  EIFF Passholders

You may only sign up for three 1-2-1 meetings in total, with a max. of one meeting per expert. You must be an EIFF passholder to book a meeting.

Sign up for a focused meeting with Christine Falco, Owner-Producer of Les Films Camera Oscura (Ziva Postec. The Editor Behind the Film Shoah, The Cyclotron, Scratch), to get professional advice and discuss your projects. Each slot lasts 15 minutes so we advise you to prepare your questions in advance. 

Christine Falco is a Canadian producer of feature-length fiction and documentary films, with a passion for rich content and storytelling. Founder of Camera Oscura Films, Christine works with emerging talents and accomplished filmmakers to produce films inspired by their unique vision of the world. Christine has notably produced feature films With Love (2018), The Cyclotron (2017), Scratch - A Hip-Opera (2015), Rock Paper Scissors (2013), Guilt (2011), and Cowardice (2007), as well as documentaries Ziva Postec. The Editor behind the film Shoah (2018), A Moon of Nickel and Ice (2017) and Slums: Cities of Tomorrow (2014).

2019 is off to a strong start for her most recent productions, including short film Just me and you, which won the Crystal Bear for the best short film at the Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) last February. Documentary Ziva Postec. The Editor behind the film Shoah premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and was presented at the RIDM, Jeonju, Edinburgh and Jerusalem film festivals.

In 2018, Christine received nominations at the Canadian Screen Awards for the Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary, and at the Gala Québec Cinéma for Best Documentary Film, both for A Moon of Nickel and Ice.

Interested in mixed reality and the impact of digital technologies on traditional forms of art, she is currently producing City of Ghosts, an immersive and interactive cinema game using augmented reality. Finalist at the 2018 SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event, the experience will be deployed in Quebec starting in the summer of 2019; and YNSpiration, a new genre of documentary that introduces a new audience to the world of classical music through immersive and interactive collective experiences, which use mixed reality and artificial intelligence. The project has just been selected by Zù, (Cirque du Soleil’s) Guy Laliberté’s incubator program for innovative technology-driven projects.

 

advance films Presents: Pitch First Feature
11:30 – 12:30
TRAVERSE THEATRE 1
EIFF Press & Industry Centre

Access: EIFF Passholders

advance films hosts an opportunity for filmmakers to pitch their fiction feature film projects to a panel of industry professionals. Chaired by David Pope. Filmmakers will have up to five minutes to pitch and will receive constructive feedback on their project and the style of their pitch. Six filmmakers will get the opportunity to pitch.

Those interested should email: [email protected] with PITCH FIRST FEATURE in the subject line. Filmmakers should include their name, project title and short synopsis. The first six filmmakers will be informed by email.

Panellists for this event include Head of Strategic Programmes at Screen Yorkshire, Caroline Cooper Charles, Mike Chapman, Chief Operating Officer at Blue Finch Films Releasing and Piers Nightingale, independent production consultant. 

advance films is a production company which also delivers script consultancy services and training provision internationally, both online and in person. Script consultancy clients have included academy award and BAFTA-nominated producers and screenwriters and national public funds. In 2017/18 four feature films and two television dramas that were client projects were green-lit into production including a candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. David Pope is Director of advance films.

In partnership with advance films 

 

Minding Non-Fiction
15:45 – 16:45
TRAVERSE THEATRE 2

 

EIFF Press & Industry Centre

Access: EIFF Passholders

What is the everyday impact of documentary filmmaking on protagonists, makers and crew? What methods of support exist and what is best practice when embarking on a non-fiction narrative?

Join us as we delve into an exploration of character driven documentary and consider issues ranging from security and privacy, to mental health and wellbeing. Our featured guests will deliberate the right approach to ethical documentary filmmaking based on their own experiences in the field, with a special focus on working with sensitive subject matter and vulnerable protagonists.

Speakers will include Director of Scottish Documentary Institute, Noe Mendelle and Directors Alexandre Chartrand (And With A Smile, The Revolution!), Catherine Hébert (Ziva Postec. The Editor Behind the Film Shoah) and Producer Ruth Reid (Scheme Birds).

In partnership with Scottish Documentary Institute

FOCUS Presents: Building a Sustainable Film Company
17:15 – 18:30
TRAVERSE THEATRE 2
EIFF Press & Industry Centre

Access: EIFF Passholders

How do you make a sustainable business out of making films? Bringing together creative leaders who are building and maintaining sustainable businesses in an unpredictable industry, panellists will share their own experiences, and examine how film companies in the UK are evolving to survive and thrive in today’s global film market.

Speakers include Producers Ken Anderson from Red Kite Animation, Aimara Reques from Aconite Productions, and Rachel Robey from Wellington Films. The event is presented by FOCUS, a business development pilot working to support Scotland’s screen sector, supported by Screen Scotland partners Creative Scotland and Scottish Enterprise.

In partnership with FOCUS

Early Doors... Networking Drinks
18:30 – 19:30
TRAVERSE BAR CAFÉ
EIFF Press & Industry Centre

Access: EIFF Passholders

Screen Scotland and FOCUS invite you to the Traverse Bar Café for a chance to mingle and discuss the day’s events with fellow passholders.

FOCUS is a two year pilot project that provides expert sector-specific business support to screen production companies working in Scotland.

Sponsored by Screen Scotland and FOCUS