The Second International Conference "Film Business in Ukraine" has taken place!

 On June 1, 2009 the Second International Conference "Film Business in Ukraine" organized by  Media Resources Management was held in the conference-hall of the President Hotel. The  fact of the conference being held for the second time (in the very heat of the economic downturn) indisputably proves that this event is a healthy and strong organism and that it is much needed by the market that supported and confidently received both its speakers and numerous audience.  The conference was attended by about 130 people among who were all the key producers of the TV and film product in Ukraine as well as representatives of other segments of the film market of the country, guests from Russia, Bulgaria, and Great Britain. The event itself was covered, among others, by two national channels - Inter and ICTV.

    The Conference became a platform for making a very significant decision which was very important for the film market: a first step was made on the way to establishing a new industry association of film producers. The Conference became a platform for meetings of top executives of the three leading producers of film and TV-product in Ukraine – Victor Mirsky (Film.UA), Victor Prikhodko («Pro-ТV») and Vlad Ryashin («Star Media»). In the course of the meeting a decision on establishing a new organization of TV and film producers of Ukraine was taken.

Vladimir Zelensky from the 95-Distrist Studio and Lev Nicolau from the Russian company "Leopolis"

   The Second Conference differed from the First one, because during the First Conference its organizers made an emphasis on the situation at the market in general, while the Second Conference was dedicated to the present-day economic conditions. The Conference was to become a visual aid on how to hold on in the circumstances of economic decline, and how to highlight the hidden possibilities in the time of the crisis, which may be not evident at the first glance, and the ways to take up the free niches.

   The first speech of the Conference was dedicated to the statistics of the Ukrainian theatrical market for the last year and was presented by the Russian company "Planet Inform".

   During the 1st section speeches were delivered by the representatives of companies from all the four (main) spheres of the film and theatrical business: production, distribution, cinema studios and movie theaters.  Distributors were represented by deputy director general of the Russian company "Central Partnership Sales House" Andrey Radko. A famous Russian producer Sergey Chlyants could deliver speech on many topics due to his rich experience as an independent producer who knows much about cooperation with the state bodies and as a hired employee of a large cinema company Russian World Studios. But this time he was speaking as a distributor for in the crisis circumstances his new employer Russian World Studios risked establishing a new department of cinema production and cinema distribution. Dmytry Rudkovsky, director general of Fedor Bondarchuk's company Art Pictures Studio disclosed that his company was working on a production of Alexander Pushkin's poem "Onegin". It's worth mentioning that in this case the Art Pictures will be making a screen version of the Russian classical story in cooperation with the Hollywood major – the 20 Century Fox Studio.

   Three speakers – Igor Stavchansky (director of the National Cinema Studio of Alexander Dovzhenko), Victor Prikhodko (general producer of the "Pro-TV" company) and David Synek (the "Gаtteo" cinema studio from Prague) – commented on the situation on the Cinema Studios market, each from his own point of view.

Igor Stavchansky director of the National Cinema Studio of Alexander Dovzhenko, David Synek the "Gаtteo",Victor Prikhodko general producer of the "Pro-TV" company

    One of the brightest moments of the conference was a panel discussion on the joint Russian and Ukrainian project - the "Love in the Big City" movie. Besides Alexander Bogutsky (director general of ICTV channel), the moderator of the first section of the conference and its investor, Lev Nicolau from the Russian company "Leopolis" that bought the movie script from the 95-Distrist Studio and actually produced the movie was present too together with the leading Ukrainian star of the movie and the co-writer of the script Vladimir Zelensky.

       Alexander Bogutsky (director general of ICTV channel), Vladimir Zelensky from the 95-Distrist Studio and Lev Nicolau from the Russian company "Leopolis"

   In general, the second and the third sections of the Conference were almost fully dedicated to the issue of new opportunities. Besides, all the new things are well forgotten old things. That's why many speakers pointed to well-known ways of optimization of functioning of the industry which are however overlooked. Thus, Lev Nicolau, general producer of the group of companies "Leopolis" (Russia) mentioned one opportunity that arises with the crisis. Lev said that with the crisis the number of viewers in Russia's movie theaters increased. Their number (taking into account the enormity of Russia and specific ratio of urban and country dwellers) is comparable to the number of movie theaters at the developed markets. According to Mr. Nicolau, it is a good piece of news for the Russian producers who doubt as to whether they should produce movies counting on selling them domestically.

   Such conferences are always positive for they demonstrate the present-day tendencies at the market. This Conference marked out two interesting and absolutely opposite tendencies: while Hollywood is localizing its production, domestic (and Russian) companies make movies with an end of selling them at the foreign markets. Vadim Sokolovsky, director of the cinema production and acquisitions of the Walt Disney Company CIS -- the Russian company that was specially established by the Hollywood major in Russia to produce the Russian movies for the Russian viewers -- supported this observation. The first project of the company in Russia "The Book of Masters" is Russian in its nature, and the company doesn't plan to sell this movie to other states (expect for the CIS members). A totally opposite aim was set by the Russian company Russian Film Group (represented at the conference by Mikhail Rashodnikov, its Vice-President). His company is producing the movie "Viy" with a view to distribute this movie at the foreign markets.

   A separate part of the conference was dedicated to a very general problem for the film production and the ways of its solving. However each of its participants gave concrete recommendations what and how the companies should act to make the production easier and better. The panel was held by the director and script-writer Roman Balayan, Mikhail Raskhodnikov, Vice-President of the Russian Film Group, and producer Sergey Chlyants.

   A report of Ksenia Leontyeva from St.-Petersburg's «Nevafilm» is well worth mentioning. She talked about the opportunities offered by the digital cinema demonstrations – the technology that will take the place of film.

   The conference ended on a patriotic and enthusiastic note by the speech of Oleg Malyshevsky from the "Yalta-Film" Studio. He said that Ukraine was an established film producing state and that we were already shooting movies, so despite all the hardships mentioned above we would have bright future.