Locarno Film Festival, Fest21.com, CFC Media Lab and Telefilm Canada are proud to premiere our Future of Cinema Salon Series at the Locarno Film Festival.
We will be hosting the Future of Cinema Panel on Digital Distribution that brings together international voices around the table, plus a special hands-on demo of some of the most innovative works coming out of Canada and Switzerland, including Late Fragment a critically-acclaimed dramatic interactive feature film which premiered last year at the Toronto International Film Festival..            

Future of Cinema Panel on Digital Distribution
in association with XDC The Hollywood Reporter and Cineuropa.org 
Saturday August 9th, 2008: Forum, 11:00AM - 12:30AM  

The key issues to be addressed by our panelists.
What is the current International panorama of D Cinema, how many screens?
State of the art technology.
Digital post production issues (master for theatre, DVD, TV...)
Will technology change sub title print offers in the market?
Which business models prevail in Europe (Digital Screen Network, state/capital funds, VPF...)? 
What is the status in Switzerland?
Which content from film to opera and sports in the theatres?
Which new consumers' habits?
Will D cinema really help indie filmmakers reach a theatrical audience?
What has 3D brought to the industry?
Which impact for length of theatrical first-run, number of screens and span of media windows?
New opportunities (through joined-up campaigns for theatrical and DVD releases) for DVD and VOD markets?
Which Impact for the business of film rights and sales?
Any impact on re releases, back catalog, series, festivals?
Who are the new players to watch?
Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) has played a decisive role in setting up standards, what is the role for the coming years?
Will digital advertising be a next bonanza for theatres?
New challenges for marketers?
Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) has played a decisive role in setting up standards, what is the role for the coming years?

FEATURED SPEAKERS INCLUDE

Elisabetta Brunella (Mediasalles Secretary General),
Amos Gitai (director)
Brian Jones (Managing Director Pathé Switzerland)
Bruno Chatelin (filmfestivals.com & fest21.com co-founder; former distributor UGC-Fox, Sony)
Fabrice Testa (XDC International VP)
Jean Labadie (Founder Le pacte, distributor)

The General Industry Issues
The Industry recognizes unanimously that Digital Distribution has brought major breakthrough solutions to distribution and exhibition of content in tomorrow's theaters and will overcome many of the limitations listed below.

High Distribution Costs - The cost of sending films out to theaters across the country and around the world is fixed today based on the cost of the film prints themselves, anywhere from $1200-2000 per theater.

Lack of Security linked with 35 mm prints - Distributors have little control over a film once it leaves their facilities. They have to hope that it's delivered safely to the appropriate theaters and doesn't fall into the wrong hands or is damaged along the way.

Degradation Issues - As a movie is screened it becomes progressively more scratched and dirty, eventually demanding a replacement print.

Limited Programming Flexibility - Currently theater owners are only set up to receive 35 mm films. Since the cost of film production is so high there's little content beyond major independent and studio movies that can afford to take advantage of a theater screening.

Inflexible Advertising - Advertisers love advertising in theaters because they have a captive audience. But today's theater advertising is limited to slide shows and rarely a filmed ad. But again, given the costs of film distribution not many advertisers can afford to send a 35 mm reel to each theater and even if many advertisers did so, the theater owners aren't equipped to switch from one ad reel to the next.

Streamlined Distribution - The distribution process will no longer involve bulky expensive film reels. Films can be sent digitally over the IP network to targeted theaters without ever having to duplicate a 35 mm reel. This streamlined distribution will pave the way for new programming options including concerts, sporting events, distance learning and more. Theater owners can program content quickly and easily, moving content from one auditorium to many, meeting market demand in a way they are currently unable to.

Integrated Digital Rights Management - Digital theater content will be secured before it ever leaves the content owners facility. DRM will enable tracking and license serving so theaters and content owners know exactly when and where the content is accessed.

Digital Preservation - The one thousandth time a digital movie is screened provides the same quality as the first time. There is no breakdown in the digital file as there is with film.

Demographically targeted advertising - Digital ads can be served from one location and targeted to specific theaters based on content being shown in that theater to a particular demographic.

key links

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/distribution/distribution1.html BFI guide to Britain film and TV history

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/ - includes latest news on the digital screen network
http://www.digitalcinema-europe.com/ - European Digital Cinema Forum
http://www.bksts.com/ - The Moving Image Society

http://www.launchingfilms.com/distribution/digitalfilm.html UK cinema's digital dawn. FDA (Film Distributors Association) offers this snapshot of D-cinema, and its potential advantages and implications.

List of digital cinema players

Access Integrated Technologies, Inc. (AccessIT) - theater system integrator

Arts Alliance Media (Arts Alliance Digital Cinema) - theater system integrator

Barco - digital projector manufacturer

Christie - digital projector manufacturer

d2 - digital cinema integrator

Deluxe Digital Studios - distributor and theater system integrator

Digital Genius - digital cinema integrator

Doremi Cinema - manufacturer of digital cinema servers and mastering systems

Dolby Laboratories - theater system integrator

intoPIX - JPEG 2000 compression for theater system

Kodak - theater system integrator

Motion Picture Solutions - Digital Cinema Mastering

NEC - digital projector manufacturer

RED Digital Cinema Camera Company - digital cinema camera manufacturer

Sony - digital projector manufacturer

Technicolor - distributor and theater system integrator

Texas Instruments - developers of DLP projector technology

Qube Cinema - manufacturer of digital cinema servers and mastering systems

XDC - theater system integrator (partner of Cannes and Locarno Festival)

Ymagis - theater system integrator

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Amos Gitai (Director, Locarno Lepoard of Honour 2008)

Amos Gitai  will receive the Leopard of Honour at the 61st Locarno International Film Festival. Several Amos Gitai films will be shown during the festival to mark the occasion.

Born in Haifa in 1950, with forty mid-length and feature films to his credit, Amos Gitai first made his name as a documentary director. A member of the official jury at Locarno in 1992, his work has featured several times in the Filmmakers of the Present section, notably with The Arena of Murder, about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (1996). In parallel, his fiction films, often constructed as trilogies, have won him world-wide recognition and been screened at the most important international festivals, from Esther (1985) to Free Zone (2005), via Berlin-Jerusalem (1989), Kadosh (1999) and Kippur (2000). Disengagement, featuring Juliette Binoche, was screened at the Venice Festival in 2007, and One Day, You Will Understand, with Jeanne Moreau, was shown at the last edition of the Berlin Festival.

Frédéric Maire, Artistic Director comments, "Amos Gitai occupies a very special place in the landscape of contemporary cinema. Deeply rooted in a geography and a history - that of Israel - his work constantly interrogates both past and present, current events and memory, travel and exile, man and his homeland. But above all, every one of his films confronts us with the infinite complexity of reality, whether it be via political documentary, economic treatise, historical or mythological panorama, a story of war or social portrait. A highly prolific filmmaker, Gitai is above all a civic-minded free spirit, for whom film is first of all the expression of a critical look at the world."

The Locarno International Film Festival's Leopard of Honour pays tribute every year to a major director who is still active. Previous recipients of this prestigious award include Jacques Rivette, Manoel de Oliveira, Samuel Fuller, Jean-Luc Godard, Bernardo Bertolucci, Joe Dante, Daniel Schmid, Ken Loach, Ermanno Olmi, Terry Gilliam, Abbas Kiarostami, Wim Wenders, Alexander Sokurov and, in 2007, Hou Hsiao-Hsien.

ABOUT THE PARTNERS

The CFC (Canadian Film Centre)
CFC celebrates 20 years of launching Canada's most creative ideas and voicesin film, television and new media to the world.  As Canada's largest institution for advanced training in film, television and new media, CFC proudly has more than 1000 alumni working in Canada and abroad. A leader in the rapidly changing entertainment landscape, CFC is committed to promoting and investing in Canada's diverse talent and during this anniversary year will launch new programs that will continue to bring inspiring storytellers to the world.  For more information please visit: http://www.cfccreates.com/

The CFC Media Lab (formerly Habitat New Media Lab) created in 1997 provides a unique training, research and production think-tank environment for emerging new media artists, content developers and practitioners.  An internationally acclaimed and award-winning facility, graduates of CFC Media Lab emerge as leaders in the world of interactive media and launch careers as new media producers, interactive media designers, business development professionals, and creative entrepreneurs. CFC Media Lab has been directed by Ana Serrano since its inception.

Contact: Ana Serrano
aserrano@cfccreates.com
http://www.cfccreates.com/
Tel: +1 (416) 44 51 446 EXT 275

Telefilm Canada
Developing and promoting the Canadian audiovisual industry

Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Parliament through the Department of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montréal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry by means of four regional offices located in Vancouver, Toronto, Montréal and Halifax.

Telefilm mandate
Telefilm Canada is a federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian audiovisual industry.

The Corporation acts as one of the Canadian government's principal instruments for providing strategic leverage to the private sector, supplying the film, television and new media industries with financial and strategic support. Telefilm's role is to foster the production of films, television programs and cultural products that reflect Canadian society, with its linguistic duality and cultural diversity, and to encourage their dissemination at home and abroad.  Telefilm offices are located at the Canadian Pavilion

Contact: http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/

Fest21.com and FilmFestivals.com
published by M21 Editions

fest21.com is the latest blog platform powered by filmfestivals.com (edited by M21 Editions) The link for the film & festival community for talent, festival panache, video ambience and discovery. The site is a B2B destination for filmmakers attracted by the festival circuit who need exposure from festivals professionals.
The site offers a platform for festival blogs and dailies delivering video, photo and text ambience from the major festival destinations. The beta version already counts over 1500 blogs with a wide spectrum of festivals such as Cannes:
cannes.fest21.com  croisette.fest21.com Berlin, Sundance, Tribeca, Fantasporto, Bahamas, San Francisco, Miami, New York, Cinequest ... and many other special events like http://futureofcinema.fest21.com/ fest21.com launches a french speaking community for Cannes.

FilmFestivals.com is the number one portal site for festivals and film news created in 1995 it has affiliated some 4000 festivals and film events worldwide. The portal reaches a professional audience of hundreds thousands unique visitors a month (peaking in Cannes up to 700 000).  Filmfestivals.com's mission is to be the premiere online entertainment destination dedicated to showcasing film festivals around the world and fostering new film and filmmaking talent.
Filmfestivals.com has been a partner of Cannes since 1995 and has brought to Cannes Market in the last years the Market Webcafé, the Short Film Digital Avenue...

Contact: Bruno Chatelin
bruno@m21editions.com
http://www.filmfestivals.com/
http://www.fest21.com/

XDC Cinema
XDC is the leading digital cinema service company in Europe and an official sponsor of Locarno Festival

Created in 2004, XDC is a global provider of digital cinema solutions in Europe. 
XDC manages operations for the deployment of digital cinema systems in theatres (based on different business models: VPF, leasing ...), as well as preparing and delivering digital content which is distributed in cinemas.  XDC also manufactures advanced digital cinema products: servers, theatre management systems, central libraries, and more. 

XDC is the Official Partner of the Cannes and Locarno Film Festivals for digital cinema, and a founding and active member of the European Digital Cinema Forum. The company has offices in Belgium, Germany, Spain and France.

XDC is backed by EVS Broadcast Equipment (Nyse Euronext EVS.BR) and several leading financial investors.
Contact: Fabrice Testa
fte@xdcinema.com
http://www.xdcinema.com/  

The media and Supporting Partners

The Hollywood Reporter became the entertainment industry's first daily trade paper in 1930. In a rapidly changing industry, entertainment executives, from producers, directors and distributors, to financiers, lawyers and politicians, look to THR for the most comprehensive analysis of what's happening today and where the entertainment business is going tomorrow.  From content trends to marketing strategies, film finance & locations, and digital distribution, there's no other information source more focused on the evolving landscape of entertainment in the 21st century.

Contact: Tommaso Campione
Executive Director International

Tommaso.campione@thr.com / +44 77930 90683

Cineuropa.org: The European Cinema Portal

Site dedicated to European cinema, European films, European actors, European filmmakers, European professionals, producers, distributors, sales agents, scriptwriters, film finance and the film industry as a whole...
Cineuropa.org is co-funded by the MEDIA Plus Programme of the European Commission, the Ministry of the French Community of Belgium, Dipartimento dello Spettacolo, the French Centre National de la Cinématographie, the ICAA, Swiss Films, Filmunio, German Films, Luxembourg Film Fund, Malta Film Commission and the Irish Film Board.

Contact: Valerio Caruso
http://www.cineuropa.org/
caruso@cineuropa.org
 

Film and festivals Magazine is the place to find out the latest news of what is happening in the world of UK and international film festivals and independent filmmaking.
The latest issue contains interviews with Paul Andrew Williams, Charlize Theron, John Sayles and Nik Powell. Other features include Turkish cinema, Inside Hamas, a debate on the value of film school plus previews and reports from US, UK, European and Asian film festivals.

Contact: Rose Chamberlain
http://www.filmandfestivals.com/
rose@filmandfestivals.com
+44 (0) 7985248419