Art Talent Show by A. Komrzy & T. Bojar
Czech sales company Filmotor arrives at IDFA with a slate of award-winning festival films and the international premiere of the home-grown Art Talent Show (A. Komrzy & T. Bojar, Luminous), which picked up the Fipresci prize at Karlovy Vary as well as sales to Slovakia and the US (Film Movement). The Peruvian title Steel Life is selected for Best of Fests. Both titles join Laura Sistero’s Tolyatti Adrift in Docs for Sale.
“We have 6 films in 2022 and now are looking for 2023 films already,” Filmotor MD Michaela Cajkova tells BDE. “If we have really good films that are easy to sell, I will prefer to have just 4- 5 titles per year. This year we visited some events online and some on site. For us it is good if festivals and markets outside of Europe, like Hot Docs have their online platform… it saves a lot of money for travels and lodging, it is sustainable.”
“Of course we [prefer] to visit events, markets, festivals in Europe. I am focusing on documentary events, planning Berlin, skipping Cannes and markets like MIP as we have very creative content, not that easy to attract the TV buyers,” she adds.
Her ‘creative content’ includes the Luminous pic Art Talent Show whose logline reads how ‘artistic endeavour isn’t about competing; even so, applicants still have to be placed in order of merit at the academy’s entrance exams. But how do you assess artistic talent? And what role can art play in today’s world? A layered, observational documentary which presents a portrait of an institution and a light generational statement in one.’
Manuel Bauer’s Steel Life (Peru/Spain, Best of Fests) comprises journey across Peru aboard a freight train, descending from an altitude of 4,800 metres in the Andes to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
The award-winning Tolyatti Adrift (Laura Sistero, Spain/France) tells the story of Tolyatti, once the symbol of socialist pride, now the Russian Detroit, a limbo city where there is no future for the youth.
Despite her targeting of creative docs and eschewing some of the TV markets, the small screen is a lifeline for Cajkova. “From my experience we managed to close more TV sales than in 2021. However, the time for the sales that includes theatrical release are not the same as before the pandemic times. I have noticed that theatrical distributors are offering lower or no MGs and everyone keeps saying that audience is not back at cinemas. The majority of our films are theatrical documentaries, or hybrid, and this is not ideal of course.”
“This year we work for the first time with FAST (free ad-supported TV) rights, more VOD platforms and even the TV channels are asking for FAST rights which I do not remember two years ago. More platforms prefer to do revenue sharing deals only and we try to adapt in some cases to it,” she adds.
Not at Docs for Sale, but very much on the Filmotor slate, are three recent festival hits. Tizian Buchi’s Like an Island, about two watchmen who patrol the river that runs through a neighbourhood in Lausanne, won the Grand Prix of the International competition at Visions du Réel. Adnane Baraka’s Fragments from Heaven (Morocco/France), about a nomad meteorite hunter, was selected for Locarno and DOK Leipzig. The CPH:DOX pick Sami´s Odysseys (Robin Dimet, France) tells the remarkable story of the titular hero who translates Greeka dn Roman myths into Amharic, the Ethiopian official language.
“I want to keep working with creative films and festival bestsellers,” Cajkova underlines. “The whole catalogue is built up by one person [Cajkova herself] and this brings me a lot of joy and freedom to choose the films I am passionate about and would love to work with – zero compromises!”
