For this special 2020 edition of the Locarno Film Festival, dedicated to the future of the cinema, Locarno Pro is launching the SwissBiz Round Table. A space for discussion online, scheduled during the event itself – on Monday 10 August from 6.00 to 7.30 pm – in which Swiss film professionals can share points of view on current and future scenarios for the industry. Organized in collaboration with Cinébulletin, the debate will be open to a professional audience and moderated by journalist Pascaline Sordet.
Today, venues and viewing modes for presenting films to the mainstream public can vary considerably, impacting heavily on viewers’ perception of individual titles. In an increasingly fragmented global landscape, featuring advance world premieres online and partnerships between movie theaters and streaming platforms, what does the future hold for the Swiss film industry? Will the domestic marketplace come through the crisis brought on by the global pandemic, which has effectively already torn up the theatrical release calendar for 2020?
Another highly topical issue in the Swiss context is that of new incentive schemes for the cinema, which under the performance-based program Succès Cinéma will allow festival appearances to be included as a parameter alongside box-office receipts in calculating a film’s success.
Nonetheless, not all releases – advance premieres at festivals, theatrical screenings, TV or streaming premieres – can bring the same results in terms of quality, audience type, interaction, financial returns or visibility. Amid the extreme variations of the current context, issues such as the value of a theatrical release, distribution strategies and timing of circuit release schedules are becoming ever more important.
These crucial questions will all be addressed at SwissBiz, a 90-minute round table during which five players in the Swiss film industry will intervene as speakers with their respective points of view, followed by a Q&A session with the online audience.
The line-up of speakers for 10 August is as follows:
Joel Fioroni, Exhibitor, LUX art house
Andreas Furler, Founder and Managing Director, Cinefile
Karin Koch, Producer, Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion
Jela Škerlak, Head of Exhibition and Diversity and Eurimages Representative, Federal Office of Culture (FOC)
Thierry Spicher, Distributor, Outside the Box
To join the audience (max 500 users), apply online here.
The working languages will be French and German, with no translation.
SwissBiz Round Table is possible with the support of the Federal Office of Culture (FOC) / MEDIA Desk Suisse and thanks to the collaboration of Cinébulletin.
Here for the version French and in the version German version of the Press Release a SwissBiz Round Table.
www.locarnofestival.ch
