TORONTO — They say it’s a global business, so Australia and New Zealand producers are for the first time taking part in Producers Lab Toronto at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.
Aussie producers Melanie Coombs of Optimism Film and Mathew Dabner of Gate 41 will join Kiwi counterparts Fiona Copland of filmwork and Robin Laing of StellaFilm, plus 10 European producers and 10 more Canadian movie producers at the fourth annual co-production forum.
Coming to Toronto from Europe is Pandora da Cunha Telles of Portugal’s Ukbar Filmes, Yael Fogiel of France’s Les Films du Poisson, David Grumbach of Luxembourg’s Juliette Films and Katie Holly of Blinder Films in Ireland.
Europe will also be represented by Croatia’s Sinisa Juricic of Nukleus Film, Leila Lyytikainen of Finnish producer Fisher King Production, Kim Magnusson of Dansk film Kompagni in Denmark, David Matamoros of Zentropa International in Spain and Leontine Petit from Lemming Film in The Netherlands.
The handpicked producers will incubate ideas for possible co-productions that share risk and resources to save on production costs and increase a film’s international box-office reach.
The Canadian contingent in Toronto will include Matthew Cervi of Mad Samurai Productions, Anne-Marie Gelinas of EMAfilms, Jennifer Holness of Hungry Eyes Film & Television and Anna Stratton of Triptych Media.
TIFF, as in past years, will encourage Canadian film producers to partner with European counterparts from smaller markets, including in southern and central Europe, so they go beyond traditional co-production partners in the U.K., France and Germany.
Producers Lab Toronto is supported by the Toronto festival, European Film Promotion, the Ontario Media Development Corp., Screen Australia and the New Zealand Film Commission.
The Toronto International Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 5 to 15.
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