London Film Festival
The London Film Festival (Oct 14-29) has long been a good place to launch films into the UK market. Now, with a budget increase and a pivotal slot in the autumn calendar, it hopes to become the gateway into Europe for some of the biggest films of the year.
What difference does $3m (£1.9m) make? In the case of the 53rd Times BFI London Film Festival (LFF), the investment promises to give the event an immediate boost. Available as extra funding from the UK Film Council (UKFC) over the next three years, the LFF is spending $1.4m (£900,000) of its windfall this year.
In recent years, the festival has been run on $6.7m-$7m (£4.2m-£4.5m) a year. Now, artistic director Sandra Hebron believes the event can begin to compete with its better resourced rivals such as the International Rome Film Festival ($17.7m), which runs almost simultaneously.
The LFF (October 14-29) is on a mission to attract more high-wattage premieres, to make sure it is a citywide event and to increase its international media profile. It is also introducing a new awards event (see page 20).
High-profile bookends
Foreign press are being jetted in for interview opportunities. Twentieth Century Fox’s Fantastic Mr Fox is opening the festival in two Leicester Square cinemas (the Odeon Leicester Square and the Empire), and Yoko Ono is scheduled to attend the closing night screening of Sam Taylor-Wood’s Nowhere Boy, about the young John Lennon.
For the first time, the LFF will stage its own press conferences in the Mayfair and Dorchester hotels. These are expected to be attended by around 400 journalists for the big gala films such as the George Clooney-starrers The Men Who Stare At Goats and Up In The Air.
International distributors and producers seem to be warming to the LFF’s new-found ambition. As Focus Features’ CEO James Schamus says: “Pay heed to some fairly significant junketing that will be going on in London. There’s been a real uptick in London as a destination for the press around the world.” Schamus will be giving the LFF’s inaugural keynote speech on October 27 at the Vue Cinema to 180 invited industry guests, arranged in association with UK training body Skillset. Titled ‘My Wife is a Terrorist: Lessons in Storytelling from the Department of Homeland Security’, it is clear the Focus chief does not intend to give a typical industry speech.
“By becoming one of the great regional festivals, it has actually become a much more significant international festival.”
James Schamus, Focus Features
“Like all festivals, London is feeling the twin and sometimes opposing imperatives of growth as a competitive global player and as a festival that has, in the past decade, grown and become more dynamic because of its relationship to its audience,” he suggests. “By becoming one of the great regional festivals, it has actually become a much more significant international festival.”
Optimum Releasing is using the LFF to promote its autumn releases Bunny And The Bull and Cracks to the UK press. The distributor is also bringing in talent for its other festival films including Chloe (parent company StudioCanal plans to use the LFF for the international press junket).
“It’s good to be able to use London not just to launch the film in the UK but to set it up internationally. With the investment the LFF has made in bringing over more international journalists, London becomes a more viable place to do that,” says Danny Perkins, Optimum’s managing director and COO.
As in recent years, there will also be a significant Bafta campaign for many of the bigger films. Actors and directors in town for the LFF screenings will often take part in Bafta events. “It makes sense for the two things to dovetail,” says Hebron.
But while this year’s bigger films are set to receive more exposure than ever before, questions persist over whether the LFF is the best launch pad for the world premieres of smaller UK films. There is a danger they will be lost in what remains a large programme. Hebron points out that many of the titles from the New British Cinema strand are from film-makers early in their career and many are documentaries. “It’s about giving them exposure,” she says. Hebron mentions Chris Atkins’ Starsuckers and Jez Lewis’ Shed Your Tears And Walk Away, both documentaries, as films and film-makers ripe for discovery.
And the festival still prides itself on its ability to showcase provocative and offbeat fare that has little chance of mainstream distribution.
Industry office
The LFF’s industry office will still be running along relatively straitened lines. The aim is to invite around 25 international sales agents for the industry screenings, including well-known figures such as Wild Bunch’s Carole Baraton, MK2’s Dorothée Pfistner, Pyramide’s Yoann Ubermulhin, EuropaCorp and Roissy Films’ Yohann Comte, Memento’s Tania Meissner, Celluloid Dreams’ Hengameh Panahi and Visit Films’ Sylvain Tron.
“It’s getting a reputation throughout the world as one of the friendliest and most charming festivals around.”
Donald Rae, Ecosse Film
Around 25 UK buyers are also due to attend the industry screenings, which are held at the Curzon Soho cinema for films without UK distribution. Andrea Klein, the LFF’s buyers and sellers facilitator, is organising a Meet the Buyer event, this time for a full day, at which international sellers meet UK buyers and producers.
The goodwill toward the LFF is self-evident. “It’s getting a reputation throughout the world as one of the friendliest and most charming festivals around,” says Douglas Rae of the UK’s Ecosse Films, the producer of Nowhere Boy.
Even so, the LFF faces some challenges. It has lost its flagship venue, Odeon West End, to redevelopment. With its new West End partners Vue Cinemas and Empire Cinemas, the LFF is having to stage some gala screenings simultaneously on two screens to meet spectator demand. It will have to find a new title sponsor (if it decides it still wants one) for 2010 as the deal with The Times expires this year. The ongoing discussions about a possible BFI/UKFC merger will have a bearing on the festival’s own future and the extra UKFC funding itself will run out in two years.
The imperative now is to build on the extra funding. Hebron remains upbeat about the future. “I’m optimistic on the basis of what it has been possible to raise against the festival this year,” she says.
London Fashion Week
Tube commuters took the front row for a taste of the new season today as London’s first high street fashion week kicked off with a show on the underground.
London fashion week starts in a few days’ time and will remain the preserve of A-listers and journalists. But the “pop-up” style event, which is aimed at promoting the best of Oxford Street, saw models posing in autumn’s newest looks, including sparkly dresses and six-inch heels, as bemused passengers looked on. The “People’s Catwalk” ran on the Central Line from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch – the mile and a half length of Oxford Street. The show started at 10am, missing rush hour, and lasted 20 minutes, much longer than regular shows, which often last for under 10 minutes despite hours of waiting.
Eight models showed a range of designs from high street favourites Debenhams, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Next, River Island, Selfridges and Uniqlo.
Laura Ramos, communications manager for the New West End Company, one of the organisers of the show, said: “With London fashion week coming up we wanted to do something that was more accessible to the public. Normally fashion shows are reserved for the fashion elite and the tube show was an opportunity to grab a slice of what it’s like. It’s a great showcase for the high street as people can go straight into the shops and buy what they saw.
“This stunt was the first in a week-long calender of events. We’ve had a really positive reaction and it’s going to become a regular thing. Hopefully it will be even bigger in February. We’ve got 15 retailers involved this time but we’re hoping to expand that.”
Other events will include live DJ sets, champagne receptions, promotions and discounts.
UK’s third biggest conference venue
The UK’s third-largest corporate conferencing venue has now been opened, boasting state-of-the-art features and unrivalled proximity to the country’s principal international gateway.
The Sofitel London Heathrow, located just one hundred yards away from the airport’s fifth terminal, has been praised by critics for its sleek architecture and modernist features, which include a “cathedral-like” main atrium and several stunning water fountains.
However, in addition to being a five-star hotel aimed at global jet-setters, the venue also boasts 45 separate meeting rooms and the massive Arora suite, capable of seating in excess of 1,000 delegates.
According to a review in the Daily Telegraph, “the corporate market is being vigorously targeted, for obvious reasons.
“It is not hard to imagine the Sofitel becoming a must-stay-at address for the executives of multinational companies, jetting in from all over the world, with time at a premium.”
In addition to being right next to the UK’s busiest airport, the new venue is located just 21 minutes from the centre of London by the Heathrow Express as well as being close to the M25 so as to allow easy access to the rest of the country.
Red Bull Air Race London
The Red Bull Air Race World Series lands in the Capital for the fifth race of the series this summer, for what promises to be one of the most spectacular sporting events of the year.
The world’s best pilots will go head to head over the London skyline, in the world’s fastest and most exciting new motor sport.
Weaving their way through a complex series of air gates just metres above the Thames, at speeds of up to 250mph, and coping with forces of 10G, these dare devil pilots will certainly keep you on the edge of your seat.
For your chance to see British pilot Paul Bonhomme defend his status as leader of the series, just answer the question below. For more information, visit redbullairrace.com.
To see videos of the races please go to http://www.xbb.tv/v2/hi/watch/premium_media/alternative_media/new_media/business_opportunities/rbar07rio1/index.htm
London Antique Fair Olympia
The Olympia Fair, a landmark event on the London art and antiques calendar for 35 years, has seen and survived many changes over the decades. Since its start in 1973, it has grown, shrunk, reinvented itself, expanded and retreated, changed names, management and ownership, while always managing to remain an admired and hugely popular fixture in the antiques world.
This year’s fair, which ran from June 5 to 15, exemplified its ability to change, and — perhaps more importantly, predicting the need for it — ensured Olympia’s continued success. The spring show, which stood alone for years before being joined by the February and November events, is without doubt a premier event again. Next year, after a drawn out display of survival of the fittest, will bring only two Olympia fairs. The June fair will return to its flagship status, on a par with major worldwide shows, and the exit of the February fair positions the November event for a more traditional role.
Now renamed Olympia International Art and Antiques Fair, it is smaller than in previous years, with 260 top dealers in a stunning layout and a new patron in Sir Timothy Clifford. This most recent incarnation garnered high praise from exhibitors and visitors alike.
Fair director Freya Simms spoke on behalf of the organizers, Clarion Events, and echoed the feelings of both dealers and buyers, commenting, “We are really proud of what has been achieved at Olympia. This year the fair looks spectacular and is a testament to the hard work and creative flair of the exhibitors in designing the stands and bringing such quality stock. Our visitor numbers are up and we are building for 2009.”
