The annual NFDC Film Bazaar, that has become a beacon of hope for budding filmmakers of South Asia, is started from Nov 20 2018 in Goa. Currently in its 12th year, the Bazaar has evolved into a one-stop shop for filmmakers, producers, sales agents, distributors, film festival programmers and financiers from around the world; a marketplace that encourages collaboration between the South Asian and international film fraternities.
The Bazaar will be held from 20-24 November 2018 at the Marriott Resort in Goa, India. From panel discussions with India’s leading filmmakers and film industry participants to pitching sessions for independent filmmakers to workshops for young producers to sessions by the Film Facilitation Offices of various states of India, the 4 day event will see the Marriott Resort turn into a thriving hub of activity centered around ideating on, and producing and distributing the best of South Asian cinema to the world.
Below are the segment-wise highlights of NFDC Film Bazaar 2018;
The Co-Production Market
The Co-Production Market is a platform for filmmakers to pitch their films to a selected audience of industry professionals including national and international producers, distributors, sales agents and financiers.
This year’s Co-Production Market presents 19 projects with South Asian themes from India, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Germany, Sri Lanka, and USA. The Co-Production Market kick started with the Open Pitch Session on Nov 21st, starting 10 am at The Grand Ballroom, Goa Marriott Resort. Over the rest of the Bazaar, the filmmakers get one-on-one meetings with interested investors to discuss their goals.
The Co-Production Market this year has films in languages like Garo, Bhojpuri, Konkani, Dzongkha and Nepali alongside those in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and English.
The Work-In-Progress Lab
The Work-In-Progress Lab is a chance for films already in production to pitch themselves to industry participants for finishing funds and sales and distribution support. This year there are 5 films in the Lab that include two films in Hindi, and one each in Nepali, Assamese and Malayalam. 4 of these films are also part of the FBR. Interestingly, all the 5 films in the WIP Lab this year are debut films.
The films include Ajeeb Budhee Aurat (Strange Old Lady) (directed by Kislay), Eeb Alle Ooo (directed by Prateek Vats), Nimtoh (directed by Saurav Rai), Rukuni Koina (Jadab Mahanta), Run Kalyani (directed by Geetha J).
The Knowledge Series
The Knowledge series is a series of specially curated presentations, panel discussions and lectures by filmmakers, producers, top executives of film organizations involved in content production, aggregation and distribution.
There are interesting panels on ‘decoding block chain for films’ which will be focused figuring out how IPR can be secured for those involved in the process of filmmaking. The panel will see Orlando Pedregosa (Co-Founder, Babeika) and Simran Mulchandani (Co-Founder & CEO, Mach One) in a conversation moderated by filmmaker Rohan Sippy.
While filmmakers Ramesh Sippy, Vishal Bhardwaj and Abhishek Chaubey will talk about crafting films that focus on the hinterland and their journeys from directing to producing and mentoring films, producer Siddharth Roy Kapur will talk about ‘crafting a brave new world’ of content for the future. Sriram Raghavan will take the audience through his foray into the world of pulp and noir in another session that is sure to have the crowds lining up at the gate.
The ongoing evolution of the OTT game will be discussed threadbare in a panel involving leading participants from the industry including those from ZEE5, Arre, Film Collaborative and Vista India. This panel will also include actor Rasika Dugal, currently in news for her performance in the Amazon series Mirzapur.
The other panels will see Jeff Gomez (Founder & CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment) and Steele Filipek (Executive Editor, Starlight Runner Entertainment) speak about creating ‘fantasy worlds across platforms’, top festival programmers and film critics discuss the emergence of South Asian cinema and international film executives share their insights on ‘how films can help bridge cultures’.
Film Bazaar Recommends
Film Bazaar Recommends is a specially curated section of films recommended by the Film Bazaar from amongst the films submitted for the Viewing Room. The filmmakers of these 24 FBR films will get to show their trailers and pitch to investors at 10.30 am on 22nd Nov.
This year the Film Bazaar Recommends presents 24 films (including 22 fiction features and 2 documentaries) out of the entire slate of 153-feature length filmswhich includes films in 14 languages including those like Gondi, Khasi and Marwari.
Industry Screenings
Industry screenings provides an opportunity to filmmakers to book one of the three digital theatres at the market venue to showcase their films to a select audience of festival programmers, sales agents, distributors and producers.
This year there are 34 pure industry screenings in this section alongside screenings of projects in Work-in-Progress Lab. Some of the industry screenings are of films like Mahanati (dir: Nag Ashwin) Ashok Vatika (dir: Rahul Mallick), No Father in Kashmir (dir: Ashvin Kumar), The Last Audience (dir: Adi Pocha).
Film Facilitation Offices
Film Facilitation Offices were started in 2015 to provide State Tourism bodies with a chance to pitch their states to filmmakers and producers for filming their films.
The Film Facilitation Office will be conducting workshops focusing on Ease of Filming on 21st and 22nd November for participating State Government officials and Industry stakeholders.
This year the following states are participating in the program
Uttar Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana and Karnataka.
Filmmakers’ Pitch
The Filmmakers’ Pitch is a new initiative designed to increase visibility of films which are present at the Bazaar. It is a non-curated section and is open to the first 20 films from amongst those in the Viewing Room and Industry Screenings which book their slot and complete the payment process. These 20 films will get a chance to pitch themselves to a room full of buyers, distributors, content aggregators, film programmers, producers, financiers and other registered delegates attending the market.
This year Film Bazaar is introducing a new platform in order to increase visibility of films playing at the Viewing Room and Industry Screening sections. This is the Film Clips segment on the Film Bazaar website. This segment will showcase trailers/ film clips of films which are part of the Viewing Room this year.
The Viewing Room
The Viewing Room is designed to present films seeking finishing funds, world sales, distribution partners and film festivals to film programmers, distributors, world sales agents and investors. Those interested can view the film on individual computer screens in segregated booths. They can also access detailed information about projects they are interested in as well as contact the relevant filmmakers through this software.
NFDC Film Bazaar 2018 has a whopping 217 films in the Viewing Room this year, the highest so far which includes 153-feature length films (135 fiction features and 18 documentaries) and 64 short films.
There are films in 35 languages including in languages like Gondi, Muria, Shertukpen, Nagamese and Armenian and a record 160 World Premieres in the Viewing Room this year.
There are 108 debut films in this section which indicates the value of the Bazaar as a platform for young, independent filmmakers.
The Producers’ Workshop
The Producers’ Workshop is designed to help emerging producers cultivate a sense of vision to maintain a fine balance between the creative and financial aspects of filmmaking while providing an overview of the challenges as well as the opportunities that the ‘Producing’ landscape offers to those foraying into the business of cinema in both mainstream as well as Indie spaces. This year the focus is on the ‘The Good Pitch’.
Spread over five days, the Workshop will involve multiple sessions on the different facets of producing films, conducted by key industry experts and professionals – some of the best from across the world. While leading film producer Siddharth Roy Kapur (Producer & Founder, Roy Kapur Films) will talk about ‘the elements of a good pitch’, another panel headlined by executives from Facebook & Instagram will explain how the digital platforms can be leveraged for distributing movies.
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Ajay.K.R
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