Fourth Annual “Global Entertainment Showcase 2021” Held During Cannes Spotlights the International Film Scene

Fourth Annual “Global Entertainment Showcase 2021” Held During Festival de Cannes Spotlights the International Film Scene

Panel Featured Auteur Academy Founder Ali M. Aksu, Filmmakers Anna Fishbeyn and Eva Lanska, Filmmaker/ Producer Bertrand Normand, and German American producer Christina Rose; Moderated by Awards Writer, Moviemarker Magazine, Rehna Azim

On July 11, 2021 at 10 am PST (7 pm CET/France), Cloud 21 International (www.cloud21.com) and Kultura PR International (www.kulturapr.com) presented the fourth annual "Global Entertainment Showcase,” a special virtual event held during the time of the Festival de Cannes.

The kick-off to the third annual French Riviera Film Festival, the by-invitation-only online event that was watched by more than 3,000 viewers from the global entertainment community featured the top names and rising stars of the global film industry. The event inspired a dynamic discussion with a truly global panel, featuring Auteur Academy founder Ali M. Aksu and award-winning filmmaker Anna Fishbeyn live from the United States, filmmaker Eva Lanska and German American producer Christina Rose live from Cannes, and filmmaker/producer Bertrand Norman live from Paris. Rehna Azim, awards critic of Moviemarker Magazine, moderated from the United Kingdom.

Showcase highlights:

Ali Aksu on what Auteur Academy offers a new filmmaker…

‘How to make money with the film (laughs). And I think it’s important to see different perspectives when it comes to filmmaking. Independent filmmakers usually tend to fail to see a studio executive’s perspective and I think those are very important to understand in the industry.  98% of the films that we watch in the theatres are produced by studios; only 2 % are independent filmmakers. In order to understand the industry, you really have to understand the studio system as well.’

Bertrand Normand on his attraction to the Russian culture…

‘I think it is the intensity of the artists, the Russian soul is very contrasted, it has a lot of great things and a lot of evil things and I think that it is great for art, and probably less good from politics or business. The best artists that we’ve had in history come from Russia.’  

Anna Fishbeyn on wearing the many hats of director, actor and writer…

‘I learned that there’s an incredible synergy between all of those hats actually, and I loved both directing and acting at the same time. That was an amazing experience for me because I was very afraid to do it in the beginning… I actually found that it was amazingly empathetic, and I was able to be empathetic to the actors…. We had switched gender roles. We had to imagine what it would be like to be in the other person’s shoes.’

Eva Lanska on making a film exploring the topic of The Abraham Accords…

‘For me this is an argument about peace. This is our duty as a filmmaker to support this (The Abraham Accords). This Accord has actually changed the history in the Middle East. So, for me it was important like was a mission to find out what’s really going on. So this year, I visited and I filmed in Israel and The Emirates…. This is my way to support this agreement because it’s very fresh.’

Bertrand Normand on his attraction to the Russian culture…

‘I think it is the intensity of the artists, the Russian soul is very contrasted, it has a lot of great things and a lot of evil things and I think that it is great for art, and probably less good from politics or business. The best artists that we’ve had in history come from Russia.’ 

Christina Rose on how to navigate the festival circuit…

‘I think you start off with one, just the goal of wanting to say, where do you want to end up with your project? And even if it doesn’t end up at Cannes or any of the big film festivals, there are a lot of other good film festivals that might be the perfect fit, that might have the same genre, or topic, or same people that you want to interact with anyways….It’s not always about the big ones, it’s also just being able to network.’ 

Watch the full event here: 

Participant Biographies:

Ali M. Aksu is an international film producer, director and entrepreneur. He is the executive producer of several groundbreaking projects, including the first-ever Hollywood feature film to cast digital media talent, that was distributed by Universal Studios. He is the founder of FilmCapital.io, a community focused Hollywood crowdfunding platform that was incubated at Singularity University, and Auteur Academy, an educational platform to empower independent filmmakers. Aksu is the Southern California Young Professionals Ambassador at the United Nations Association of America. He is an MBA candidate at Chicago Booth School of Business. He holds a B.A. in economics, with a minor in film, TV and digital media from UCLA, and earned executive-level degrees from MIT, Wharton and Singularity University.

Anna Fishbeyn, Founder and President of XOFeminist Productions and Anteriya Films (Russia/USA), is an award-winning star of stage and screen, a filmmaker, director, author and actress.

Her movie Galaxy 360: A Woman’s Playground, which she wrote, directed and starred in, will be released in theaters and on major streaming services this year. The pre-release version of the film screened to a packed house at the Cannes and Big Apple film festivals and was a finalist of the Sundance New Frontier Exhibition.

Anna’s first play Sex in Mommyville premiered in New York City and was recommended by Bloomberg News, while CBS Radio pronounced her "a comic genius.” Her second play My Stubborn Tongue played off-Broadway at NYC’s New Ohio Theatre and went on tour to the West End in London at the Soho Theatre.  Her solo cabaret show at the Metropolitan Room in NYC Anna on Fire and Uncensored was recommended by CBS News New York, Jewish Week, and NiteLife NYC.

Anna wrote and starred in the award-winning web series Happy Hour Feminism and directed and starred in Invisible Alice, a short musical film is currently on the festival circuit.

Pre-production has begun on her next movie How To Seduce Your Dinner Guest, as well as two optioned pilots for television, the comedy Healthy Nuts and the drama Infidelity Club.

Eva Lanska is a London-based director and screenwriter. After graduating from the London Film Academy, Eva has focused on producing both documentary and fiction films. She has directed several award-winning films recognized throughout Europe and America.

Across her films, Eva studies the concepts of acceptance and love in challenging circumstances. Her film, Little French draws attention to the global stigma against interracial marriages through the relationship of an Orthodox Jewish woman and a Muslim man.  In 2020, Little French Fish was selected by one of the world’s oldest and largest Jewish festivals, the Washington Jewish Film Festival. Her previous picture Okay, Mum, won Best Picture at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was selected for the Short Film Corner at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

She recently announced her first feature I Am Not An Actress, inspired by the philosophies of Brigitte Bardot, and will soon unveil her first documentary The Abraham Accords Change History: Women in the Middle East, filmed during the pandemic.

Bertrand Normand is a French filmmaker and producer. A graduate of Canada’s Vancouver Film School, he has directed both narrative short films and documentaries. 

His latest short film, The Photographer, has participated in more than 70 festivals internationally and obtained 13 awards. His most renowned documentary, Ballerina, a portrait of five Russian ballerinas from the Kirov Ballet, has been released worldwide. His latest documentary The Rocking Baritone has just been completed.

In 2016, Normand founded the production company Les Films du Jour Prochain, which has produced the short films The Taste of Ginger, by Jean-Robert Thomann and Iskra, by Adrian Replanski. He is currently developing and producing a number of narrative films and feature-length documentaries internationally.

CEO/Co-founder, MirrorWater Entertainment LLC (MWE) Christina Rose is an American-German director, producer, and screenwriter and is part of the new Hollyworld Movement, bringing entertainment to the global world. She has worked in North America, Europe, Africa (the famous Atlas Studios in Ouarzarzate), and Asia. Together with her brother Michael, she co-founded MWE.

Prior to setting up a production company, Rose worked at such prestigious companies as Arad Productions (The Amazing Spiderman), Exclusive Media (Rush, Ides of March), in distribution at ZDF-Enterprises, where she has developed numerous projects with Michael Hirst (Vikings) and William J. MacDonald (Rome). Most recently, she was an executive at the European network Sky, acquiring new projects for development.

Rose has produced a number of documentaries and TV shows for the international market and is currently finishing her anticipated six-part documentary series Wonder Women where we meet young women leaders in underrepresented industries around the world who are redefining leadership for a better future. The series will premiere this August at the 10th Anniversary of "Kat Kramer's Films That Change The World,” which is themed this year as "Sheroes For Change." 

 
The panel was moderated by Rehna Azim, a London-based practicing lawyer and freelance journalist who writes mainly about film and lifestyle topics. She was previously the editor of a glossy women's magazine and is currently awards editor at www.moviemarker.co.uk. Her site www.itsalawyerslife.com is a lifestyle and wellbeing blog for lawyers by lawyers. She has written and produced four short legal dramas.

French Riviera Film Festival celebrates short film and short-form content from around the globe, featuring the works of filmmakers from more than 20 countries. The full list of finalists in the categories of Drama, Comedy, Documentary, Sci-Fi/Horror, Animation, Experimental, Music Video and Fashion is available at: https://frenchrivierafilmfestival.com/finalists-2021/

The festival culminated on Bastille Day (July 14) with a special online awards ceremony that aired the official website (www.frenchrivierafilmfestival.com), featuring live and pre-recorded segments, celebrity hosts and guests, musical performances, and some surprises.  Special Lifetime Achievement and Industry Excellence awards were presented in person at an exclusive reception at the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel.  

Event partners include Beverly Hills Hotel, Bel-Air Fine Art,  Chateau de Berne, Bijoux Macarons, Indie Entertainment Media and filmfestivals.com.  Gift bag partners include AMPower Energy Bars,  For All skincare, incann CBD, Kitchen Crafted spice blends, Lunalis Cosmetics, My Bougie Bottle, No Fade Fresh temporary hair color, SLIMXLIFT organic slimming cream, and You Squared journals.

Cloud 21 PR International and Kultura PR International have produced numerous successful industry special events, including the annual “Global Film Showcase” in partnership with ROSKINO during the Cannes Film Festival and Marché du Film, the annual “Production Without Borders” event during AFM, the annual “Indie Entertainment Showcase” in Park City, and “A Salute to Akira Kurosawa” with China’s Jinke Entertainment in Cannes in 2017, plus many others. The companies have co-produced events and worked with top entertainment and technology brands, including E! Entertainment Television, Eurocinema, Metan Global Entertainment Group, 8K Miles Media Group, Maverick Entertainment, Sony Interactive, Oculus, Cinando, Euromed, ECU Film Festival, Creative Coalition, Davines North America, Vesilind, FanVestor, plus many others.

Photos Courtesy of Cloud 21 and Kultura PR.