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Hosted by Mark Vega, Esq. |
Film Finders, Inc. knows more about film productions than anyone at the AFM, and President and creator Sydney Levine is making her customary market rounds to make sure all the buyers and sellers don't forget it. Levine founded the company in 1989 as a consultant for the acquisition of feature films in all media by implementing a constantly growing, changing, moving database of all independent, exportable English language (and notable foreign language) feature films in production around the world. The database information is obviously invaluable to buyers who must keep abreast of future product and be able to make preemptive bids to beat out their growing number of competitors. At first Film Finders was merely a blessing for international sales agents and distributors, but not long ago, Levine's hard working staff began attracting the attention of much bigger companies who realized the incredible value of the service. Dreamworks SKG, William Morris Agency, Universal, Disney, Sony and Turner are now counted among the company's many clients.
Levine, who had worked in acquisitions for 15 years, including her last position as VP at Republic Pictures, started the company because she identified a need that was simply not being met. Few companies have the manpower, time and contacts to maintain a database of films in production. While the trade papers contain production charts, some of those entries may be placed by anxious producers following the credo that "if you act like your movie is being made, your movie will be made." Such entries, while inspiring for the individual producers, are meaningless to international buyers and agents who are lining up their next potential acquisitions for the next market. According to Levine, the company she envisioned in 1989 "is exactly the company that's operating today." The database is maintained by the Film Finders 4-person staff by old-fashioned super hustle. Each logs at least 75 calls every day and goes into overdrive about four weeks before each major market.
The database tracks approximately 2,000 new titles every year, including independent features and top non-English language films, all of which are available for distribution and/or co-production. Clients can arrange or retrieve information by many categories, including genre, budget, rights available and producer and/or director. Many of the titles are not represented in the international marketplace and are available for pickup or equity investment. The end reports can be purchased from Film Finders in a number of formats. Independent Tracking Reports are published quarterly, monthly and weekly. The quarterly and monthly reports are available via disk and hardcopy, but the weekly "Friday Report" is sent via hard copy only forty times a year. Big on the list of many clients is also the "Market Preminder" that is delivered two weeks before MIFED (including the London Screenings), AFM (including the Berlin Film Festival) and Cannes. These reports contain a list of all screenings, with times and venues, and identifies the available rights in various territories. Buyers can review the slates of hundreds of International sales agents, and distributors are able to more efficiently schedule their screening and meeting times. The price of a subscription ranges from $7,500 to $17,450, depending upon the frequency of receipt of the reports, the detail required and the delivery system requested. Included in the high-end rate is a $5,000 fee for electronic delivery of all database information and updates via disk or Compuserve.
Levine personally attends a flurry of festivals and markets that keep her traveling six months of the year. Every year, Levine travels to the International Film Finance Conference (IFFCON) and Sundance Film Festival in January, Rotterdam and Berlin Festivals and AFM in February, Cannes in May, then possibly to Czechoslovakia, San Sebastian or other festivals on occasion, then to the Toronto Film Festival before the International Feature Film Market (IFFM) and the London Screenings and MIFED in September and October. Obviously, Levine is known on a first name basis not only by the myriad buyers and sellers, but probably the international flight crews on her favorite airline too!
In December, 1995, Film Finders expanded its West Hollywood based operations to include two upper level executives, one in the United States and one in France. Peter Belsito is Executive Vice-President of the company and heads daily operations and company development and Edith Grant was hired to run the company's European operations through an office in Paris.
Independent producers are welcome to make submissions to Film Finders at no cost. The form can be filled out on-line at http://www.movienet.com or can be submitted by telephone to the office in West Hollywood at (310) 657-6397 or Paris at (011-33-1) 49-52-83-45. Also, make sure you introduce yourself to Levine the next time you're at a festival or market. It's her business to get to know you. She's good at it because she enjoys it.
