8 JUN 2021

KEY BUYERS EVENT DAY 1: WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST ATTRACTIONS OF RUSSIA?

Several production services, co production opportunities and financing state and private support were the main topics discussed in the first day of the digital event.

8 JUN 2021
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Key Buyers Event: Day 1

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The first day of the Key Buyers Event: digital has initiated with the presentation of Key Russian companies that offer a range of very importante production services for national and international players.  Russian service and production companies work with local teams on budgets and schedules, recruit key players to spearhead training, advise on location scouting, provide legal and visa support, and offer the best editors, dubbing mixers, and designers who bring a wealth of experience to create international quality content at competitive prices.

Evgenia Markova, CEO of Roskino was the person chosen to present the list of key companies that offer production services and location; rentals; local talent and casting; VFX; Animation, sound design and localization services. The Russian companies that offer production services and location are: Vodorod Pictures; Amedia Production, Mosfilm Cinema Concern; LenFilm Studio; Kinopolis Film Studio; Pandora Film; Veles Media, Allegro Film and Kinodoctor. In the local talent and casting category, Markova described 123 Talents; 1-2-3 casting and DI Agency meanwhile Main Road Post; 1-2-3 VFX offer Post Production services.

In the Animation and color grading segment, the CEO of Roskino introduced 100 Kilowatt animation studio; Parovoz Animation Studio and Riki Group and Colorkitchen. In  the post production y sound design segment there are Flysound and Atmosfera and in the translation and localization services, Markova named Cyrillica; Rufilms; TR Publish; and she finally mentioned  Dobro, which is in charge of the credits of the audiovisual productions.

CO PRODUCTION OPPORTUNITIES

State support of co-production and private export funding is essential for driving the growth of Russia’s creative and digital industries and attracting international partners to pool their resources to produce a project. Leonid Demchenko, Head of Documentaries and Animation Cinema Department at the Russian Ministry of Culture; Anna Shalashina, Head of international Cooperation KINOPRIME Foundation and Mila Rozanova, Producer shared their knowledge on which international projects are eligible for government and private funding.

Leonid Demchenko gave an overview of current developments which includes new co-production treaties and state funding for minority co-production. "The Ministry took the decision to support the minority producers and the number of projects has increased since then. In 2019 three projects were supported and in 2020 two more projects received the Minister support", he explained. "In order to get this support the project has to find a Russian partner and it be considered a national project", he added.

Anna Shalashina spoke about the support that international producers can receive from the only private fund in Russia supporting modern cinema. "Each project can claim up to 50% of the production budget, but with a limit of 100 million rubles", she commented. "We are open to all genres, but so far we have supported many TV series but we are looking at that segment. Sometimes the projects that came to us already have a Russian partner and sometimes not, we helped them to find one."
On the other hand, Mila Rozanova shared her producer’s experience of developing the co-production project "Shake Your Cares Away" that was supported by minority co-production funding in Russia.

EXPORT SUPPORT

In other panel discussion, Alexey Fursin, Head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative development of Moscow; Svetlana Maximchenko, The Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation; Evgenia Danilchenko, Head of creative industries export, Russian Export Center JSC and Evgenia Markova, CEO of Roskino have explained how they support creative industries and encourage export contracts, and highlighted exciting opportunities the country holds for international filmmakers and how they are supporting following the huge disruptions and challenges of the global pandemic imposed on the global film industry.

Maximchenko said that The Ministry provides different supports and have different contests in order to promote the Russian contents abroad and promueve the international co-productions with Russia. On the other hand, Fursin indicated that the potential of Russia and Moscow is huge nowaday, "The Russian projects have to be not only high quality but competitive as well to have success abroad", he asserted. 

BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS

Star Media is participating at Key Buyers Event: digital, where presented a six-minute teaser of its full-length documentary film about the life of the Bolshoi Theatre, produced in partnership with Channel One Russia, the OTT streaming platform KION and in co-production with the German documentary film company Kinescope Film

The Bolshoi Theatre shows unique moments in the life of the theatre that audiences rarely get a chance to see and the rights to show the film had been purchased by the Franco-German channel Arte.



During the Key Buyers Event: digital, Star Media will also present international buyers the new season of its TV-series "Detective Anna", alongside detective TV-series "The Black Sea" and "Cold Shores", and the docudrama "The Rurik Dynasty".

Other big news announced during the Key Buyers Event: digital was the deal signed between the Russian SMF Studio and Jetpack Distribution which has acquired the Global Rights for "Claymotions". The deal comprises 62 two-and-a-half minute episodes of the edutainment preschool show that targets 2+ year olds.



"Claymotions" is an educational mini-series aimed at the youngest audience segment, teaching them through games and it was created with the support of one of Russian’s leading broadcasters, Channel 1. It has gained popularity in the Russian market after airing on Karusel, Russia’s top rated kids’ channel.

Jetpack CEO, Dominic Gardiner, says: “It’s so important for us to be building our edu-tainment offer right now. We instantly loved 'Claymotions'. The characters are full of heart and engage with young children in a way that makes learning fun. The show is a clever combination of clay stop motion and computer graphics, making it extremely unique and very cool!”

“We are delighted that 'Claymotions' has been so highly regarded internationally and will be brought to the international market by Jetpack, one of the best kid’s content distributors in the business. It’s especially gratifying for us to be bringing Russian animation to the market that features the diversity of animation techniques we employ. We set out with Claymotions to create a show that will not only entertain a young audience, but help educate these children as well, something we consider vital in their development”, said Yuliana Slashcheva, Chairman of the Board of the SMF Studio.