April 25, 2008, Radisson SAS Hotel’s conference hall hosted the Film Business in Ukraine First International Conference, organized by Media Resource Management Company.

                                            
Michael Schlicht, General Manager XX Century Fox, CIS.                      Listeners in Radisson SAS Hotel’s conference hall

Coffee break. From left to right: Jonathan Olsberg (Olsberg SPI), Vlad Ryashyn (Star Media), Iryna Kostyuk (Media Resources Management)

Panel discussion. From left to right: Jonathan Olsberg (Olsberg SPI), Oleg Malishevskiy (Yalta Film), Jane Wright (BBC Films), Kim Magnusson (Nordisk Film), Phillip Kreuzer (Bavaria Pictures GmbH), Richard Miller (Olsberg SPI)

Topics covered at the Film Business in Ukraine Conference 2008

General Director of XX Century Fox CIS Michael Schlicht spoke on the experience in the foundation and development of Hollywood major companies’ representations in Russia and prospects for their entering the Ukrainian market. Mark Lolo, Central Partnership Sales House Director General, reported on Russia’s experience in film production.

The speakers in the panel discussing governmental regulation of the film business were Sergey Lazaruk, Deputy Head of Russia’s State Cinematography Office, Maciej Karpinski, deputy director of the Polish Film Institute, and Anna Chmil, Head of the State Cinematography Office of Ukraine, describing the situation around state support for the cinema.

Ukraine was represented at the conference by leading Ukrainian producers, distributors, businesspeople, and representatives of the state bodies.

Oleh Kokhan, Sota Cinema Group film company director, dedicated his speech to film production in Ukraine. Oleksandr Tkachenko, co-owner of the Odesa Film Studio, spoke about the interaction between his studio and governmental bodies in Ukraine.

Oleksiy Naslednikov, director of the Kinosystema movie theaters network, spoke on behalf of theaters network owners.

Director of Yalta Film Group Oleh Malishevsky described the business model of Sapho, Ukrainian film which has recently made over $1,000,000 in BO.

The final section was framed as a panel discussion, an animated dialog between the participants: Jonathan Olsberg and Richard Miller of Olsberg SPI consulting company (Great Britain), Jane Wright, Commercial Affairs and General Manager with BBC Films Kim Magnusson, Managing Director of Nordisk Film’s movie production, and Philipp Kreuzer, Head of Film & TV Financing with Bavaria Pictures GmbH.

PARTICIPANTS OF THE CONFERENCE

The conference was attended by the representatives of around 85% of Ukrainian film companies, among them: leaders of the Ukrainian production sector Film UA, Star Media, Yalta-Film, Odesa Film Studio, Fresh Production UA, etc. Besides the conference was attended by other significant players of the media market: television channels proactively working on developing their own film production: 1+1 and STB. State institutions also were involved: among those registered to participate in the conference were even representatives of the Central TV and Radio Studio of the Ministry for Defense of Ukraine (!). Representatives of Central Partnership, XX Century Fox CIS, Cinemotion Group etc all attended the conference from Russia. Also attended the conference guests from Lithuania, France Polish national television (Telewizja Polska), and other countries.

The conference was covered by two dozens of Ukrainian publications, four TV Channels, including the national Inter channel, and also attracted the attention of foreign mass media: correspondents of the globally renowned Hollywood Reporter (the US) also visited the event.