American Film Market Dailies

November 8^th was the day for pitching new projects at AFM. Industry professionals shared with an audience of more than 700 people the main principles for short project presentations in front on a professional audience, which, as a rule, should guarantee the success of the project. After that, participants who had passed a preliminary selection process presented their projects to the jury.

Commenters on the presentations included conference moderator, founder of the GoodInRoom consulting company and professional blogger Stephanie Palmer, President of Worldwide Productions and Acquisitions Executive of Exclusive Media Group Tobin Armbrust and independent (and influential) Hollywood producer Cassian Elwes. ROSKINO is acting as a partner of the prestigious industry event for the 3rd time.

ROSKINO CEO Katya Mtsitouridze opened the conference with a speech:

“First of all, I am grateful to AFM for the opportunity to act as a session partner. Your team gives people a chance, a belief in the possibility of changing the world and oneself via film. I wish the best of luck to all participants with all my heart. Unfortunately, the world has once again recently become bipolar, black and white. Politics is important, yes, but culture is much more important. Art, film, the entertainment industry and new media can change the relationships between countries for the better. Let us hold on to each other and not take sides. Trust your heart, your intuition. Despite the tense political situation and what we are told on TV, Russian culture and Russian media are open to you. We will also be glad to see all of you at the Saint Petersburg International Media Forum (SPIMF) in October 2015, and I hope that by then all the projects presented at the conference will be in production.”

Katya Mtsitouridze’s speech was greeted by huge applause and she showed how to present not just a project but also a whole country. Americans and representatives of other states came up to Katya and thanked her and the ROSKINO team for taking an open and friendly stance.

Among the 15 projects preliminarily chosen for pitching, Galaxy Vision, with support from ROSKINO, presented their latest Russian animated feature Stripey and Genie – a story of Stripey, a fish in love. General producer Anatoly Sverchkov and executive Anatoly Sergeev presented the animation.

Anatoly Sverchkov, general producer, Galaxy Vision:

“American-style pitching was surprising because we were not allowed to show any video - we had to explain the whole concept of the project in 2 minutes and to fascinate and charm the public and the moderators. It was a huge experience for us. It is important to note that we are already in talks with several companies that showed interest in our project after the pitch.”

Anatoly Sergeev, executive producer, Galaxy Vision:

“A pitching session is a unique opportunity, almost like taking an exam in school - but in front of an audience of eminent professionals from the global industry, where Hollywood’s strongest producers grade the exam. ROSKINO presents a rare and amazing opportunity to try to look at one’s own project through the eyes of the several hundred industry players sitting in the hall, to hear their immediate reaction. The responses that I received during the pitch were the most important because they were honest, straightforward, sometimes quite harsh, but at the same time they came from a friendly atmosphere of international cooperation.”

Stripey and Genie, an animated feature with a budget of $14 million, is at the first stage of production. It is a joint production with China and has acquired international partners at the American Film Market.

Producer Roman Borisevich (Koktebel Studio) has also had successful business meetings at the AFM regarding E-sider, his massive new joint film project with American producers. His main achievement was to initiated discussions with LionsGate, one of Hollywood's top studios. If the talks are successful, Alexei Popogrebski’s new film E-sider has a chance of joining The Hunger Games and the Twilight franchises in the company’s portfolio. The producers want E-sider to become the first instalment of an international franchise in three parts.

The companies STV and HHG held talks with several Hollywood studios on joint production of their new international project – the psychological thriller Adam’s Perfection from producers Sergey Selyanov and Vladislav Pasternak. Spanish partners ... are already involved in the project.

In Los Angeles, Legenda No. 17 co-producers Svetlana Dali, Olga Sinelshchikova and Piter Winther (The Patriot, Independence Day) continued the talks they started at the Saint Petersburg International Media Forum regarding their new project 20 Lives – the true story of Hero of the Russian Federation Shavarsh Karapetyan, who saved the lives of 20 people in extreme conditions. The project has aroused interest from several companies from Hollywood, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. The producers are now meeting with representatives from leading American VOD platforms after recommendations from ROSKINO.