Why film markets are so important.

As many of you know I made foolish mistakes when younger.....OK idiotic ones sometimes.  

I ventured forth to once to the Cannes Film Festival when I was young and just starting out. Upon my arrival I found I  was totally out of my depth, did not know what to do and such was my silly ego that I kind of thought " fuck you Cannes I do not need you. I am an artiste this is all business I am not coming again”. 

I wasn't the first and I won't be the last to think like that.

As I had been a successful actor, who then became a producer, I thought only about art and not the commerce. The truth of the matter was I did not know how the film industry worked and like a fool I would not learn. Because I was not keen on what I found, because it did not fit in with my daft idea of what I thought the film industry should be, I ignored the truth and for a long time worked in isolation. Its amazing I ever made anything.   

Thus, I made a huge mistake and did not return to Cannes for a very long time.

I meet many young producers and filmmakers today who have a similar attitude to mine back then. They visit once and never return but still try to produce outside the market place.

Apart from the fact you can learn so much about the industry from observing and reading the trades it never ceases to amaze how chance meetings can lead you down other avenues.

This Cannes I was talking to director/ actor/ producer/ writer Stuart Brennan and he introduced Elizabeth Venezia who has acted in two of his films. I started talking about one of my current projects and totally out of left field she has introduced me to someone via email who can help my project, but not in a way I had ever thought of.

It’s not money or distribution but a PR aspect that had not even occurred to me, and it might never happen, but it is something I thought could never come about in Cannes of all places, but it could work well for the film. All from a random conversation. 

Every year in Cannes or Berlin or the Galway Film Fleadh or the AFM a thousand such random connections are made that help move your project along in ways you never thought. It might not happen this year, or the next but something will come from them in the future. 

As I always say you can’t be dealt the winning hand if you are not at the table.

I know filmmakers who have visited Cannes for the very first time and walked away with every penny they need to make that film. I know many, the majority, who go away with nothing more than 100 Facebook connections.....but they are start. A start that will lead somewhere. Where, is kind of up to each person. 

I have even been offered acting roles by established directors whilst in Cannes, and I stopped acting back in 1980. Because I said no it made them want me more. The old mind games practise of the more someone turns you down the more you want them. If they want to do it instantly the more they go off you. 

I know that for many of you money is so tight, it was one of the reason I stayed away from Cannes for a couple of decades, but you really do have to give it your best shot if you want to succeed in filmmaking and that best shot is that you need to be in the thick of it.

Network, network, network.

These film festival markets are just trade fairs that provide a wonderful networking service.

I mention all of this because I spent two days talking to a young producer at Cannes for the first time. She did not like it and moaned a lot. She so reminded me of me almost 40 years ago. I wanted to shake her out of it.

However, I don’t think I have to now. I saw her this evening and she has turned a corner. She is now understanding that the system will not change for her. She will have to make that system work for her.

I wish I understood that way back when.

As the Americans say “ you can’t fight City Hall”. I did for a long time and I lost.