Ahead of this year’s European Film Market (EFM), Business Doc Europe spoke to Kathryn Bonnici, Head of Acquisitions and Development of Java Films. Founded in 2005 by the late Roch Bozino, the Paris-based sales agency rapidly established itself as one of Europe’s leading independent distributors, handling both pre-sales and distribution for documentaries. The firm sets sail to Berlin with a rich slate of completed films and projects in the works.
“We’re really proud to be returning with Venezuela: Country of Lost Children because it was at the last EFM that I first came across the project,” Bonnici tells BDE. Directed by Juan Camilo Cruz and Marc Wiese and produced by Dreamer Joint Ventures, the picture was commissioned by ARTE and SWR and explores closely the struggles within today’s Venezuela, whose corruption and mismanagement has turned it into a failed state with over six million fleeing the country in recent years. Cruz and Wiese’s film follows two single mothers and their children over several months as they do what it takes to survive.
“Other highlights [of our slate] include Lie to Me and the recently completed Tax Wars, a film about the battle to ensure multinationals pay – at least some of them – their taxes and which every day seems more relevant,” Bonnici continues.
Dag Mykland’s Lie to Me is the story of how tech nerd and blockchain expert Bjørn Bjercke overturned the OneCoin pyramid scheme, the biggest crypto-fraud in history. Bjercke’s story is supported by rich archive material, interviews with fraud victims from Oslo, London, Stockholm and Uganda as well as experts in crypto and branding, fraud hunters and journalists. Since the fall of OneCoin, Bjorn has been working with authorities all over the world in exposing new and upcoming frauds. Hacienda is producing with Nordic pubcasters NRK and SVT attached as commissioners.
Meanwhile, Tax Wars promises to take viewers “behind the scenes of a global effort to put people before profits, hold multinationals accountable, and make the world’s most powerful corporations pay their fair share of taxes.” Along with world-renowned experts such as Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty and Eva Joly, Hege Dehli’s feature examines the limits of the international agreement on the taxation of multinationals announced in October 2021. A Mechanix Films and Yuzu Productions presentation commissioned by ARTE, the project is now ready.
Bonnici also highlights Peter Porta’s The Click Trap: The Dark Side of Digital Advertising. By analysing the impact of Google on thousands of people worldwide falling prey to cybercriminals and unscrupulous companies who use Google Search’s opaque advertising system to promote their scams, Porta asks the audience if it is time to regulate online advertising. Produced by Polar Star Films and Yuzu Productions, the project is complete.
Other buzzy, timely titles in the Java line-up include the likes of Elisa Jadot’s Turning Childhood into Content: The Dangers of ‘Sharenting’; Stéphane Bentura’s Abramovich: An Oligarch in the Shadow of Putin; Linda Bendali’s Click Bet; Jessica Le Masurier and Roméo Langlois’ Your Face is Ours: The Dangers of Facial Recognition Software; Daniel Andrew Wunderer’s Flash Wars: Autonomous Weapons, AI & the Future of Armed Conflict; and Charles-Antoine de Rouvre’s Turbulent Times: The Future of Aviation.
Zooming in on the current climate for doc sales, Bonnici tells us: “Unfortunately, it’s getting harder and harder to sell theatrical documentaries to television, especially if they are heavily subtitled or haven’t premiered at a major festival. There are fewer and fewer longer slots available, budgets are getting smaller and the golden age of the streamers fighting over festival documentaries is over.”
“On the other hand, there will always be a market for relevant and timely documentaries and the AVOD market is really booming. The market for current affairs documentaries is also pretty consistent.”
Bonnici underlines how buyers are looking more and more often for “films that directly speak to their audience, either because they have a direct relevance to their lives or because the characters are so strong.”
“They also want films that explain and go beyond the headlines,” she adds.
Each year, Java Films handles “from 8-10 longer festival documentaries” and about “40-60 hours of TV content.” Usually, the team covers 15-20 events, including major industry gatherings such as CPH:DOX, IDFA, MIPTV, MIPCOM, Sunnyside of the Doc and Le Rendez-Vous.
Speaking about acquisition strategies, Bonnici explains: “We take a very personal approach to every film and director, first discussing their priorities and vision for the documentary with the filmmaking team and being very clear about what we can – and can’t – do, and how we would market the film. Sometimes we take on films that we really love but don’t expect to have much commercial success because we want to give them a platform.”
“Other times, we balance that by taking on more commercial films. Our focus is on having a balanced catalogue rather than acquiring a certain genre of film. So sometimes we turn down films that might seem an obvious fit for us because we’re already working on something generally. But generally, our priority is acquiring global investigations, ideally with some kind of exclusive element.”
Towards the end of our conversation, Bonnici tells BDE that she considers EFM “more of a networking event” during which one can think through marketing strategies other than a pure sales and acquisition market. “A successful EFM would be to come out of it with new ideas and contacts that will lead to sales, as well as more festival selections,” she sums up.
