StepIn

StepIn 2018

Brave New World

StepIn is an interdisciplinary and international think tank where distributors, exhibitors, producers, sales agents, funding agencies, marketing professionals and streaming platforms, as well as film festivals and film markets representatives, take part in closed working sessions to discuss the state of the film industry.

A selected group of 40+ European and international industry key players, chosen among various profiles for their experience, were invited to exchange their point of view and propose practical ideas and strategies to overcome the most pressing challenges they are facing. StepIn is organized in partnership with Variety.

The event’s goal is to offer an intimate space where professionals can openly and freely share their own experience, interact, get inspired by one other, and look at how they can implement new behaviors, practices and business models.

Entitled “Brave New World” – a nod to the dystopian novel written by Aldous Huxley in 1931 and set in a futuristic world where mankind seem threatened by the great technological accomplishment of its own society – StepIn 2018 intends to tackle directly and fearlessly the seismic shift that has hit our industry.

In just a couple of years, a handful of giant super-platforms have completely changed the landscape of the film industry, overshadowing even the Major Studios with their production and acquisition budget, and radically changing the media consumption habits of audiences worldwide. Now that this is a consolidated reality, it’s time to assess what’s left of the “old” traditional world of independent cinema - and figure out how to transition to the new era.

On the bright side, independent producers can take advantage of the deal-making and content-creation potential that these global platforms represent. On the dark side, what’s at stake is the survival of the theatrical experience as we know it. At the centre of this shift, film markets offer an interesting vantage point on where our industry is going. How are they addressing the changes? And how are they adapting to these new models?

Last but not least, changes in our business are not just economic and technological in nature. What do films say about our society on a whole from a cultural standpoint? Which kind of stories are we telling? But, most of all, which kind of stories people want to be told? Results at the box office for the past couple of years seem to paint a different picture than what it’s been assumed for decades, revealing audiences whom have been dismissed and underestimated for way too long. The future of the theatrical experience, perhaps, passes also through a better acknowledgement and understanding of our society.

The event opened with a keynote moderated by Nick Vivarelli (Variety). The keynote speakers are: Diana Elbaum (Producer, Beluga Tree), Matthijs Wouter Knol (Director of the European Film Market) and Franklin Leonard (Founder & CEO of The Black List). In four different roundtables, top international film executives faced some of the most pressing issues our industry is currently facing. Let’s see how independent producers, distributors, sales agents, exhibitors and film market professionals are ready to enter this Brave New World.

StepIn is organized in partnership with Variety and with the support of Eclair, Europa Distribution, Europa International and Europa Cinemas.

Project Manager:
Marcello Paolillo, marcello.paolillo@locarnofestival.ch

StepIn Program: Thursday 2 August 2018

Hotel Belvedere (Sala Granda) 11:30 am – 12:30 pm

OPENING KEYNOTE

Open to all Press, Professional and Industry accredited

Speakers:
Diana Elbaum (Beluga Tree, Producer)
Matthijs Wouter Knol (European Film Market, Director)
Franklin Leonard (The Black List, Founder & CEO)

Moderator:
Nick Vivarelli (Variety)

2:30 pm– 4:30 pm
PRIVATE ROUND-TABLE SESSION Reserved to StepIn participants

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
PUBLIC WRAP-UP
Open to all Press, Professional and Industry accredited

Four industry professionals present the results of the previous closed round tables session.

Moderator:
Nick Vivarelli (Variety)

Speakers

The Black List | Founder & CEO

Franklin Leonard

Franklin Leonard is the founder of the Black List, the yearly publication highlighting Hollywood’s most popular unproduced screenplays and the company birthed to continue its mission of identifying and celebrating exceptional screenwriting and the writers who do it. Over 300 Black List scripts have been produced as feature films earning 262 Academy Award nominations and 53 wins including four of the last ten Best Pictures and ten of the last twenty two screenwriting Oscars. Franklin has worked in development at Universal Pictures and the production companies of Will Smith, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Since 2010, he has been named one of Hollywood Reporter’s 35 Under 35, Black Enterprise magazine’s “40 Emerging Leaders for Our Future,” Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” and was awarded the 2015 African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA)’s Special Achievement Award for career excellence. He has been a juror at the Sundance, Toronto and Guanajuato Film Festivals and for the PEN Center Literary Awards. He is a member of the Associates Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

European Film Market | Director

Matthijs Wouter Knol

Matthijs Wouter Knol is director of the European Film Market (EFM). Since 2001, Matthijs Wouter Knol worked as creative producer on numerous documentary films in Amsterdam. He reorganized IDFA’s co-production and sales markets and founded its training programmes, including the IDFAcademy Summer School (2007-2008). Moving to Berlin, he headed the Berlinale Talents programme, also overseeing the 6 satellite Talents programmes around the world (2008-2014). He is a co-founder of the Berlinale Residency programme (2012). At the helm of the EFM since 2014, Matthijs’s main focus has been to adapt one of the world’s major film markets to the quickly changing world and film industry. Apart from adding niche markets (drama series), or new market programmes for producers and the documentary industry, the EFM has expanded its portfolio with the new innovation platform EFM Horizon, in which technology-driven changes in film distribution, sales and marketing are presented.

Beluga Tree | Producer

Diana Elbaum

Since her beginning in advertising and then film production, Diana Elbaum has produced a vast number of films, which where showcased and awarded in major festivals. Diana is known for her amazing skill for working with renown talents. She is deeply committed to develop the European film industry and spends time tutoring at the EAVE and EP2C. In 2009, she received the European Oscar for Best Producer (with mate Jani Thiltges). In 2017, Diana set up le Boost Camp, the first French speaking workshop for Women Directors. Diana set up her first Company, Entre Chien et Loup, in 1989. She worked with talents such as Chantal Akerman, Mahamat Saleh Haroun, Raoul Peck, Nabil Ben Yadir. In 2017, Diana Elbaum opened her new company, Beluga Tree, in association with the Caviar Group and, works with talents such as Ari Folman, Michale Boganim and new comer, Solange Cicurel.