Cloud21 International and Kultura PR International co-presented the third annual "Global Entertainment Showcase: Cannes 2020” on June 24, 2020, virtually, during this year’s Online Marché du Film. The ZOOM event featured panelists Threshold Entertainment Group CEO Larry Kasanoff (producer Mortal Kombat, Terminator 2), Roskino CEO Evgenia Markova and E! founder | Metan Global Entertainment Group President/CEO Larry Namer, with award-winning filmmaker Sue Vicory as moderator.
“Thanks to the Cloud 21 and Kultura PR International team for such an exceptional event! You demonstrate that our industry is still alive and kicking despite all the current economic gloom,” comments Elena Palmer, Ph.D., international correspondent, ISVESTIA. “It was the right event at the perfect timing. The level of esteemed speakers, their passion, honesty and authenticity was quite impressive. This was a rare and exclusive opportunity to learn from experts how to survive during the crisis. It was also great to hear industry professionals, offering real-time insights on the current business climate, industry trends and sharing their successful strategies, such as the Russian On-line Film Market, created and organized by Roskino CEO Evgenia Markova.”
The recorded hour long event is available for viewing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FFkw4-YC1A&feature=youtu.be
Highlights included:
Evgenia Markova on the Russian film industry. "We are really a young industry, which is going abroad now... but we're very rapidly growing and bringing some projects which are relevant to global audiences. Russian products are now basically sold to over 150 countries abroad, which is much more than four years ago, when it was 20."
Larry Kasanoff, who currently has three co-productions with India. "India is a phenomenal industry. It's way bigger than our's.... Movie stars there are revered, so is the opportunity to make great stories, and locations and talent.... These are not Indian movie stars, they are global movie stars."
Larry Namer on post-pandemic movie-going. "This 'going to the movies' - I think that is going to suffer. You are really going to look at major changes to the exhibition business."
“We’ re extremely pleased with the results of the virtual edition of our annual Global Entertainment Showcase series that we have produced over the past several years, partnering with Roskino and the Russian Pavilion during the Cannes Film Festival,” says Nicole Goesseringer Muj, founder Kultura PR International.
“We had an amazing turnout to our first ever virtual Global Entertainment Showcase, and plan to produce more during these unstable times,” adds Gotham Chandna, founder Cloud 21 International . “Based on the initial feedback we’re receiving, our event was truly groundbreaking, due to our high level panel of executives, Evgenia Markova, Larry Kasanoff and Larry Namer, and our star moderator Sue Vicory.”
Esteemed panelists of the Global Entertainment Showcase: Cannes 2020, included:
Larry Kasanoff, Chairman/CEO, Threshold Entertainment Group
Larry Kasanoff is the producer of all Mortal Kombat media, including two number one films, a television series, an animated series, platinum-selling soundtracks, direct to DVD, and a live tour.
Mr. Kasanoff is executive producer of the box office smash film, True Lies, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by James Cameron. Previously, as president and co-founder of Lightstorm Entertainment, Larry supervised production, marketing, publicity and merchandising for the four-time Academy Award-winning hit Terminator 2 Judgment Day. He produced two movies with Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow. As a producer or studio head, Mr. Kasanoff has made over 250 feature films, including Dirty Dancing, and Academy Award Winning Best Picture Platoon. He has raised well over a billion dollars in the film business.
In the music world, he has packaged or produced video projects with several of the world’s biggest talents, including Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones and Dick Clark. For Terminator 2, he produced MTV’s top video of the year, “You Could Be Mine” with Gun’s ‘N Roses.
Evgenia Markova, CEO, Roskino
Evgenia Markova has a wide range of experience in international marketing and management. She has worked for Philips and Russian Railways. From 2013-2018, she worked for the Group of Bank "Rossiya," where she designed projects for the culture, tourism and social services.
In 2019, Ms. Markova became a Director of Industry Relations for Expocontent, a consulting company for key industry players dealing with film, TV and animation promotion at the international level. She coordinated the promotion of the Russian film Industry under the "Made in Russia" brand to international markets, including the Marché du film in Cannes, supported by the Russian Export Center, the American Film Market in Los Angeles and Toronto International Film Festival, where the "Created in Moscow" brand was used and was supported by the Moscow Export Center.
Under the leadership of Ms. Markova, supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Key Buyers Event was held in October 2019. The international forum that brought together more than 50 leading studios from the USA, China, Europe and Latin America, to promote Russian content to foreign content buyers.
Ms. Markova was also a member of the working group created to develop a national system of rebates for foreign film productions, an initiative signed by the Russian Government in November 2019.
Larry Namer, E! Founder | President/CEO, Metan Global Entertainment Group
An entertainment industry veteran with close to 50 years professional experience in cable television, live events and new media, Larry Namer is a founding partner of Metan Global Entertainment Group (MGEG), a venture created to develop and distribute entertainment content and media specifically for Chinese speaking audiences in China and abroad. In 2018, the company launched the MGEG Film Fund I and serves as managing partner. He is also the executive producer on the recently announced feature film EMPRESS, a new travel series for the China audience titled Explore The World, and an executive producer of the new crime series Nova Vita.
Mr. Namer is the co-founder of E! Entertainment Television, a company now valued at over four billion USD, and the creator of several successful companies in the United States and overseas. Among those companies are Comspan Communications that pioneered Western forms of entertainment in the former Soviet Union and Steeplechase Media that served as the primary consultant to Microsoft’s MiTV for developing interactive TV applications.
Early on, he was named the youngest general manager of a major cable system at Valley Cable TV (VCTV) in Los Angeles. His vision and direction garnered VCTV several Emmy and Cable ACE award nominations, as well as recognition by Forbes magazine as the national model for local cable television programming. In 1989, he was awarded the prestigious President’s Award from the National Cable Television Association. He was honored with the “Outstanding Contribution to Asian Television Award” at the 19th Asian Television Awards in Singapore, and most recently was presented with the International Media Legacy Award at the 2017 Elite Awards Foundation Gala and the Hollywood Lifetime Achievement Award in Entertainment at the 2018 Hollywood Tribute Awards and the 2019 Hollywood China Night by the American-Chinese CEO Society (ACCS), both in celebration of the Academy Awards®. He also was awarded The Tribeca Disruptor Award at the Novus Summit, held at the United Nations in July 2019.
The event was moderated by three time Telly Award-winning filmmaker Sue Vicory. Ms. Vicory has been creating community-based films and projects within her not for profit production company Heartland Films, Inc. since 2003. Her works include Homelessness & the Power of One, feature documentaries One and Kansas City Jazz & Blues; Past, Present & Future and short films Absent and 1898, The W.F. Norman Story. In 2015, she founded Team XX, an all female team of 25 filmmakers that created the award-winning film Down Stage.
Ms. Vicory is a member of the Los Angeles-based Alliance of Women Directors and creator of the Website www.womendocumentaryfilmmakers.com, designed to increase visibility for female filmmakers. She is the creator of the non-profit brand My Power of One (MPO1). In 2015 under the MPO1 banner, she filmed a 48 state tour completing 12 Acts of Kindness. She is currently working on a feature documentary and short narrative parody film.
Cloud 21 PR International and Kultura PR International have produced events at Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals, including most recently the “Indie Entertainment Showcase at Park City” from 2018 – 2020, “Production Without Borders” during AFM and “A Salute to Akira Kurosawa” with China’s Jinke Entertainment at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. The companies have co-produced events and worked with top entertainment and technology brands, including E! Entertainment Television, Eurocinema, Metan Global Entertainment Group, 8K Miles Media Group, Maverick Entertainment, Sony Interactive, Oculus, Cinando, Euromed, ECU Film Festival, Creative Coalition, plus many others.
Photos Courtesy of Cloud21/Kultura PR