The American Pavilion

Home to FilmFestivals.com during Cannes, the beachfront tent is stormed by Internet firms.

Be careful what you wish for, the old saying goes, because you just might get it. Julie Sisk, founder and director of The American Pavilion, is the latest beneficiary/victim of that age-old truism.

"I spent 12 years struggling, raising money, thinking, wouldn't it be great if we had a lot of money?" she said recently. That once may have seemed like wishful thinking, but the fervent desire of Silicon Valley to integrate itself with Hollywood has fostered a dot-com spending spree that has benefited the American Pavilion beyond Sisk's wildest dreams.

"I contacted some of the dot-coms originally," Sisk continued, "but between Sundance and now, you wouldn't believe how many we've turned down ... I mean, it's not normal, people calling and pleading 'How do we get into the American Pavilion?' Now that the shoe is on the other foot, and I have to decide which companies to accept, it is a lot harder than I had expected."

The American Pavilion, where FilmFestivals.com has one of 3 Cannes offices, also hosts a quintet of new media companies -- POP.com, E! Online, Internetstudios.com, ReporterTV.com, and On2.com -- which all made the grade and are joining returning sponsors Coca Cola, Delta Air Lines, Dos Equis/Sol, E! Entertainment Television, Eastman Kodak, Europcar, Evian, The Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times, Midnite Express and the North Carolina Film Commission.

The idea for the Pavilion originated when Sisk was attending her first Cannes. She was working as a fundraiser for the London Film Festival and availed herself of the services offered at the British Pavilion. She thought the same thing could be done for the American industry and first contacted Kodak for support. Kodak was looking to reconfigure its corporate presence at Cannes and opted to back Sisk's nascent venture.

"When we first started," she said, "we had a lot of small production companies based in the pavilion. Now it's switched over primarily to corporate sponsors." Lest "corporate" begin to dominate a pavilion intended for all levels of the American industry, Quantum Entertainment set a woman on fire there Monday to promote one of its titles. It's not likely that even a combination of dot-com mania and corporate suits can overshadow that.

Jeffrey R Sipe