Editor

The Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition hosted by ROSKINO, the Russian film promotion body, with the support of Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation and Moscow government announces additional leading industry executives from around the world who will bring their wealth of expertise from across the spectrum of the film industry to Russia’s First Virtual Content Market which goes live on Monday, 8 June and runs until the 15 June.  

Jay Roewe, SVP of Production for HBO, Erik Barmack, founder of Wild Sheep, Marc Lorber, Senior Vice President, International Co-productions and Acquisitions at Lionsgate and Andy Whittaker, Dogwoof's  Chairman and founder, join the line-up of industry leaders who will bring their perspectives to the virtual market.  

Evgenia Markova, CEO of Roskino will host an in conversation with Erik Barmack, founder of the new and fast-growing Los Angeles-based content production Wild Sheep. The former Vice-President of International Originals at Netflix will discuss the golden era of non-English-language productions around the globe, Wild Sheep’s exciting slate of content and opportunities he sees in working with regional markets, Russia in particular.  

Marc Lorber, SVP International Co-productions & Acquisitions, Lionsgate, and David Ellender, CEO of Sonar Entertainment come together to discuss trends in international production, the market for non-English language films in the USA, co-producing and distributing distinctive and high-quality content that people want to watch — and finding a range of homes for it.

Jay Roewe, Senior Vice President of West Coast Production at HBO, Jess Conoplia, President of the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI), Pavlína Žipková, Head of Czech Film Commission, Einar Hansen Tómasson, Film Commissioner at Iceland Film Commission and Alexander Kessel, founder, and producer at Sputnik Vostok production will exchange ideas on resuming global production and navigating the new landscape. The session will be moderated by Svetlana Maximchenko, CEO Moskino, Moscow Film Commission.

The Chinese film industry will be represented by Zhang Fan, Project Manager, Bridging the Dragon, Alexander He, Assistant Shooting Manager, Hengdian World Studios and Du Liang, CEO of Airmita Cultural Development Co., Ltd. Hosted by Olga Kashirina, Sinologist, Head of International Development at Vodorod Pictures, the speakers will discuss and share experience on raising the curtain once again on the industry, the impact and potential opportunities the new normal may present.

International buyers from the USA, Latin America, and Spain will share their experience of releasing Russian content into their markets and share insights into the success of best-performing projects. Angel Lopez Armendariz, Head of Foreign Production Contents at Mediaset Spain, Juliana Da Cunha Jacobsen, Partner and Head of Acquisitions & Operations at BF Distribution and Jordan Fields, VP Acquisitions at Shout! Factory will join the discussion moderated by Katerina Pshenitsyna, VP International Distribution at Central Partnership.

Thatcher Mines, Director of Development and Deals at Power Animals United (Finland), will moderate a panel discussion dedicated to the global success of Russian animation. The speakers include Pierre Sissmann, CEO, Cyber Group Studios (France), Richard Rowe, Director of International Acquisitions & Co-Productions, Wildbrain (UK), Yan Li, CEO, Beijing Joy Culture Media Co. (China), Lionel Marty, Managing Director, APC Kids (France) and Ariel Tobi, CEO, SNAP TV Lat Am (Argentina).  

Deadline will host a discussion with four of the major Russian filmmakers and executives to find out how the country’s local industry is expanding and becoming more international in its focus. The speakers include Fedor Bondarchuk, Founder of Art Pictures Studio, producer and film director, Ilya Stewart, founder and producer at Hype Film, director, screenwriter, and producer Timur Bekmambetov and Vadim Vereshchagin, producer and CEO of Central Partnership.

The rise of the innovative filmmaking technique screenlife will be explored in a panel discussion that includes producer Evgeny Nikishov, head of PREMIER Studios ( #SidYadoma project – first Russian screenlife series about life during the lockdown), Yegor Baranov, Russian film director (The “GOGOL” trilogy, screenlife thriller “Resurrected”), Alexander Fomin, International Sales, Marketing Director, Pulsar Content (“Aznavour by Charles”, “The Deep House”, “A Perfect Enemy”), Maria Zatulovskaya, Head of Development Unit, Bazelevs Production and Sophia Kvashilava, General Producer at OKKO Entertainment  (“All Together” show — the first screenlife project produced by Okko).

Leading independent producers from Russia and Europe will explore potential opportunities for a future of independent co-production in a panel discussion moderated by Erwin M. Schmidt, Managing Director, German Film Producers Association. He will be joined by Didar Domehri, producer and founder of Maneki Films and Full House, Riina Sildos, founder of Amrion, Titus Kreyenberg, founder of Unafilm, Natalia Drozd, producer at CTB Film Company and Artem Vassiliev, producer at Metrafilms.  

Another discussion will focus on Russian TV drama, Vlad Ryashin, CEO and founder of Star Media, Anton Fedotov, film director, screenwriter and general producer at CTC Channel, and Daria Bondarenko, EVP, Sales and Co-Production at Yellow, Black and White will talk about creating national series for worldwide audiences.

Immersive storytelling and the future of Virtual Reality will be an insightful discussion between Georgy Molodtsov, director and producer (“Under the pillow” XR project), curator of the Open Frame VR Award (goEast Film Festival (Germany), VR SciFest (Sweden), Russian VR Seasons Initiative), Alina Mikhaleva, producer, founder of Less Media Group, VR expert, co-founder of VR Studio Spherica, Anton Outkine, director and scriptwriter (Kessler Effect, Trench VR) and Ilya Rozhkov, director and co-producer of VR action film “Agent Emerson”. Together they will explore industry insights and creative opportunities for scriptwriters and storytellers. 

The global documentary landscape, the wide spectrum of distribution and growing audiences for independent content will be explored by Annie Roney, Founder, and CEO, ro*co films (USA), Andy Whittaker, Founder and Chair of Dogwoof (UK), Sofia Kapkova, Founder and CEO, Documentary Film Center, Ove Rishøj Jensen, documentary consultant, producer (Denmark) and moderated by director, producer Georgy Molodtsov, programmer of MIFF documentary sections, chairman of the Board of Russian Documentary Guild.

Leading executives of major Russian VOD platforms will share their views on the changing streaming market and customers` behaviour during the pandemic. Roman Petrenko, Managing Director of GPM ETV (Premier), Yulia Mindubayeva, CEO at START, Denis Gorshkov, CEO at more.tv and Yana Bardintseva, CEO at OKKO multimedia service will also talk about foreign financing and market evolution in Russia together with Yevgeny Pokalyukhin, investment and business development specialist, Director IBD at Renaissance Capital.

Post-production services in Russia are successfully being utilized by international filmmakers. Stefen Fangmeier, VFX supervisor and director (USA), Johnny O'Reilly, producer and director (Ireland), John Dietz, Founder of BangBang, Visual Effects Supervisor (USA, China), Ronnie Lahiri, producer, Rising Sun Films Pvt. Ltd (India) will join Nick Holdsworth to share their experiences.

A separate session will be dedicated to state structures and their support of creative industries export. The exclusive panel, moderated by Russian journalist, film and TV critic Susanna Alperina, includes Maxim Ksenzov, Deputy Minister of Culture of Russian Federation, Alexey Fursin, Head of the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovations, Evgenia Markova, CEO of Roskino, Nikita Gusakov, Senior VP of Russian Export Center, CEO of EXIAR and Svetlana Maximchenko, CEO of Moskino, Moscow Film Commission.

The platform hosting the event is developed and supported by the SPB TV company.