At the halfway point, Cannes 2021 has not seen the expected flurry of deals at the festival’s concurrent Marché du Film.
buyers are here for all the competition entries, and they’re active,” said Stuart Ford, CEO of the production and finance entity AGC Studio.
An interesting observation from Ford noted the ongoing struggle for indie productions to obtain pricey COVID-19 insurance, which can eat as much as 20% of already lean budgets.
On the international front, Asian companies have seen a limited physical presence at the Marché.
The larger fear in these markets, according to knowledgeable insiders, is that border closures and quarantine conditions will prevent travel for many months to come.
When it gets really serious, you have to be there.” Schumacher has been championing the independent model in Cannes, but streamers will continue to be key players as the industry claws its way out of the pandemic.
Without studios and the SVODs, productions won’t be able to nimbly adapt to ongoing coronavirus outbreaks and ever-changing protocols.