Piece of Magic CEO Caspar Nadaud
What do you do if you’re running a global theatrical distribution company and all the cinemas close down suddenly during a pandemic? This was the challenge facing Caspar Nadaud, CEO and founder of Piece Of Magic Entertainment, whose goal is to bring “a diverse range of world class documentary cinema and special event releases to the global cinema market place.”
This time last year, Nadaud was getting ready to announce worldwide release plans for King Otto, a feature documentary about how German football coach, Otto “King” Rehhagel took the little-fancied Greece team to Euro 2004 – and startled the world by winning the competition. The aim was to have the film in cinemas in the summer, in time for Euro 2020. Then COVID happened and the tournament was eventually postponed.
King Otto was held back and should finally reach cinemas, COVID-permitting, later this summer for when the Euros have been re-scheduled, a year later than planned.
“To be very honest, it has obviously been very challenging for everyone,” Nadaud acknowledges of a turbulent 2020. “What happened basically is that we had to constantly change our plans. But one of the things that for us is a positive is that we are a worldwide distribution company. Certain territories were closed but certain [others] weren’t. We would constantly assess the market. Where we could do business, we did. In other territories, we postponed the release.”
In spite of the health crisis, Piece Of Magic has generated decent box office returns in countries where cinemas were still open. “It is not at the same level that it was but we were fortunate enough still to be able to do business because we are spread across multiple territories.”
One hit was David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, seen by cinema goers in such territories as Benelux, Scandinavia, Australia/New Zealand and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Piece Of Magic successfully released Swedish hip-hop doc Yung Lean: Inside My Head in 12 territories during the pandemic.
“Something for me that was a strong positive was that, with the strong content we had, people actually went to the cinema,” the CEO reflects. “That comforted me in our vision which is that theatrical is there to stay. If you had content and there was demand for it, even with the restrictions that were in place, people would go to the cinema.”
Founded in 2017, the Amsterdam-based outfit distributes its docs theatrically across a network of screens in more than 90 countries. It also has a traditional Benelux releasing arm through which it picks all rights to selected documentaries. The company has posted astonishing figures with its event release of André Rieu concerts. The so-called “king of the waltz” has even sometimes beaten Marvel superhero movies at the box office.
However, the Piece Of Magic line-up is also full of auteur-directed docs like Nick Broomfield’s Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love and critics’ favourites like Apollo 11.
Last summer, one release, Lauren Greenfield’s The Kingmaker, about the Marie Antoinette-like excesses of Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos, posted over 20,000 admissions in the Netherlands. The usual supply of Hollywood blockbusters had been cut off by the pandemic. That meant cinemas were ready to support films like The Kingmaker more strongly than they would normally have done.
Although commentators have been making dire predictions about the exhibition business, Nadaud remains confident that the sector will bounce back. Piece Of Magic is therefore continuing to expand. The company has just opened a London office under its new Head of Acquisitions and Business Development, Charlie Kemball, formerly International Sales Director at Altitude.
Nadaud is at pains to point out that Piece Of Magic is not setting up a distribution company in the UK. It works with locals partners on many of its UK release. (For example, Altitude handled the Attenborough doc.) However, the UK remains a key market. In pre-COVID days, Nadaud would be travelling to London two or three times every month. The CEO sees establishing a “permanent base” there as a logical next step.
Piece Of Magic is also adding to its slate, picking up titles both for international release and for Benelux.
Among recent acquisitions is Alex Winter’s Zappa, about the “private life behind the mammoth musical career,” of legendary rock star, Frank Zappa.
Piece Of Magic has taken Benelux rights on Maya Sarfaty’s Love It Was Not, a startling doc about the relationship between a beautiful young Auschwitz inmate and an SS officer. This was sold by Cinephil, as was another Benelux acquisition, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets.
In one of the company’s most eye-catching recent deals, Piece Of Magic pre-bought Ed Perkins’s much hyped new feature documentary, Diana, described as “an emotionally charged re-examination of the life and untimely death of Diana, Princess of Wales.” This is produced by the team behind Man On Wire and Searching For Sugar Man. The release won’t be until next year, the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death, but Piece Of Magic came on board early.
“It is what you see in the market, that documentaries are becoming more and more of interest. There is really a commercial element, within the theatrical space but also outside of that,” Nadaud observes of the Diana doc, sold by Altitude and which Piece Of Magic picked up during Virtual Cannes 2020.
“You also see an appetite [among] exhibitors more and more. They see there is an audience for this [documentary] and they are also building with us that audience.”
Even as he acknowledges the difficulties caused by COVID, Nadaud emphasises that he “never, never had a sense that it was the end of theatrical.” The aim is “to weather the storm and come out strong.”
“I do think, however, things will change,” the Piece of Magic founder predicts. There will be a shake-up in programming, maybe less reliance on US studio product and some of the “less strong” multiplex sites will close.
“The only worry is how long it is going to take,” Nadaud says of the ongoing pandemic and when cinemas will re-open properly. No, he doesn’t anticipate business being back to normal until late 2021 or the beginning of 2022 at the earliest, but he remains confident that cinemas will re-open. When they do, he is sure that feature docs are going to be an increasingly important part of their programming.
