Agora Market Manual 2010

The 51st Thessaloniki International Film Festival continues this year’s edition ofthe Salonica Studio educational initiative for university students specializing inwriting and film directing/production, which was inaugurated in 2006. It is across cultural program, extending to participants from other European and Mediterraneancountries which is organised with the involvement of the School of Film Studiesof the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The program runs parallel to the other TIFFindustry related activities: the Agora-TIFF Market, the Balkan Fund-TIFF Script DevelopmentFund and the Crossroads Co-Production Forum, from 3rd to 7th of December,within the confounds of T.I.F.F.’s major film festival.In 2010, and for the third year, Salonica Studio is part of the Four Corners initialtraining scheme, supported by the MEDIA Program of the European Union. It bringstogether students and graduates from around Europe and helps them to develop, tofinance and to produce first feature films that will thrive and prosper in the Europeanand international market place. Twelve project teams attend seminars on internationalfunding and sales, special screenings and many of the festival’s developmental activitiesrelated to their career objectives. The central idea is to identify and nurture themost talented European film students (and eligible postgraduates) who can demonstratethe potential to create economically viable new films and programs that willfind audiences beyond their own cultures. The programme is run and taught by acclaimedpersonalities and specialists in the film industry, in matters of co-production,financing, rights, distribution and marketing.Each project group consists of 2-3 people, and each contains at least one writer andone producer. Eight of the groups come from the four partner members (Greece, Spain,Denmark and Bulgaria) while the remaining four groups (i.e., up to twelve people)consist of participants from other European film schools and countries (UK, Estonia,Poland, Croatia & Slovenia). The three previous workshops were held in Terrassa, Sitges(Spain) and Sofia (Bulgaria) while the programme will be completed with the fourthone, Salonica Studio, in Thessaloniki, Greece.Participants have taken their project through the development phase to the presentationto the market. There has been continuous work on the script, during, and inbetween, the workshops, supplemented by conferences on industrial and creative aspectsof the business.As an additional element to the development package, the programme offered thepossibility for project teams to produce, in conjunction with their home film schools,a short teaser trailer for their film. Four Corners offered award of up to €5000 each towardsthe production costs of the five best trailer proposals developed on the course.The teaser trailers will be presented at the Salonica Studio workshop during the finalpitch to the Agora’s experts panel on the 6th of December.Thirty one students from eight film schools in different countries are this year’syoung professionals to whom we show the whole process of producing a film in simulation:from the concept to the sales.SPECIALISTS:Isabelle Fauvel,Borivoj Dovnikovic-BordoLECTURERS:Dimitri Eipides,Christian Routh,Yorgos TsourgiannisFor further information visit the Four Corners site:www.four4corners.comContact Person:Themis VeleniCoordinator of Salonica Studio/Four CornersThessaloniki International Film Festivalveleni@tiff.gr