FFF BAYERN GREETS GUESTS FROM CANADA IN CANNES

Around 60 guests followed FilmFernsehFonds Bayern’s invitation to their annual Business Lunch this year in Cannes. FFF managing director Klaus Schaefer welcomed an international crowd, including Carolle Brabant (president of Telefilm Canada), Karen Thorne-Stone (CEO of the Ontario Media Development Corporation), and Monique Simard (CEO of SODEC). Producers from various regions in Canada and Bavaria were also among the guests of this year’s event, including Wasiliki Bleser (Starhaus Filmproduktion) whose FFF-funded film THE GIRL KING will be released in US cinemas this year. The Bavarian-Canadian-Swedish-Finnish co-production was realized with Tryptich Media (Canada) and Galafilm (Montreal) under the direction of Mika Kaurismäki with a star-studded cast in Turku and Bavaria. Michael Coldewey, who recently opened a branch office of his company Trixter in Toronto and produced the FFF-funded TV format HEXE LILLI as a Bavarian-Canadian co-production with Viva Vision (Montreal), was also on hand. Constantin Film, represented at the lunch by Martin Moszkowicz and Christine Rothe, shot parts of LOVE, ROSIE (which was seen by over 500,000 cinemagoers in Germany last year) in Toronto. Another big Constantin Film project, RESIDENT EVIL, shot several parts in Toronto, Brampton, Hamilton and Winnipeg. Constantin Film is also currently producing the fantasy series SHOWDOWHUNTERS (based on the best-sellers The Mortal Instruments) for the US cable channel ABC Family and is shooting in Toronto.