Variety’s Cannes Digital Daily, Day 1: Big Projects Hit Virtual Market

Public media station WETA Washington, D.C. and the National Alliance on Mental Illness are teaming to host a one-hour virtual town hall to launch Well Beings, a public media campaign to address the health needs of Americans with a focus on the Youth Mental Health Project.

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorEXCLUSIVE: Last year, Sony ruled the Independence Day box office frame with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, and this year again, they can tout that they won the holiday period with their reissue of the 1984 classic Ghostbusters which grossed $550K over the 3-day weekend, and $656K since its re-opening on July 1.And if you want to get technical, it’s been 36 years since Ghostbusters rode a top of the weekend box office, the last time

Andreas Wiseman International EditorEXCLUSIVE: Pablo Larrain’s Princess Diana movie Spencer, which is set to star Kristen Stewart as the former royal, was a hot seller for FilmNation out of the Cannes virtual market.The New York-based firm all but sold out on the project, closing deals for the UK, France, Italy and Benelux (STX Entertainment), Germany and Switzerland (DCM), Australia/NZ (Roadshow), Latin America, Spain and Portugal (Sun), South Korea (Green Narae) and Japan (Tohokushina).Buyers

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterThe latest project from acclaimed independent filmmaker Justin Chon, “Blue Bayou,” has been acquired by Focus Features, Variety can report exclusively.The studio brokered a worldwide deal for the film’s distribution rights out of the Cannes 2020 virtual market, which was financed by MARCO and Entertainment One.

Cannes has declared its first and, if things go as planned, last virtual film market a success. Just more than 10,000 film professionals took part in the five-day event, which wrapped up June 28, according to official figures released Thursday.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentCannes’s virtual Marché du Film, which wrapped on June 26, attracted more than 10,002 participants over the course of five days. The U.S.

The global film industry is betting that eventually there'll be a box office rebound. Studios and streamers, international distributors and global sales agents were doing business at the Virtual Cannes Market, the two parallel online film markets held June 22 to 28 in lieu of the canceled physical festival, as if the future were bright.

Television trade group NATPE on Monday unveiled a new online marketplace, NAPTE Virtual, that will launch alongside its industry events this year. The virtual market is pitched as a one-stop shop for television producers, sellers and platforms, online and off.

The WinnersCannes’ Marché du Film and the Hollywood agency-led A Demain Platform initiative delivered on the dealmaking front, re-invigorating the market after months of anxiety-inducing lockdown. The number of participants, projects launched and deals closed showed that the industry is still standing – in spite of the massive disruption created by the pandemic.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorHello, and welcome to International Insider, Jake Kanter here. Well done on making it to Friday, here are the six things we want you to know about the global film and TV business this week.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterThis year, more than ever, we step back and take an extra moment to appreciate the influential women in our lives. Variety’s “Power of Women: Frontline Heroes,” presented by Lifetime, celebrates the courageous women on the frontlines of the pandemic, including doctors, nurses, teachers, researchers, among others.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterSince you can’t be in Cannes this year, Variety is bringing Cannes to you. We’re publishing daily digital editions, running June 22-25, of coverage from the Cannes market, spanning the Marché du Film Online as well as the agency-led A Demain Marché.To read Day 4 coverage, please click below. Catch up on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.Want to read more articles like this one?

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentBeta Cinema has closed numerous deals on its Cannes virtual market slate, spearheaded by all-rights deals on Berlin competition entries “Berlin Alexanderplatz” to Le Pacte for France and “My Little Sister” to Weltkino for Germany, as well as “The Auschwitz Report” to Signature Entertainment in the U.K./Ireland.As well as the French deal, Burhan Qurbani’s new adaptation of Alfred Döblin’s “Berlin Alexanderplatz” was picked up by distributors in

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterSince you can’t be in Cannes this year, Variety is bringing Cannes to you. We’re publishing daily digital editions, running June 22-25, of coverage from the Cannes market, spanning the Marché du Film Online as well as the agency-led A Demain Marché.To read Day 3, please click below.

Martin Dale ContributorOne of Latin America’s biggest genre propositions, the Latido Films-sold “Virus 32,” from Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernandez (“You Shall Not Sleep”), was unveiled Tuesday on the A Demain Cannes market platform.The $1 million pic is a 50-50 Argentina-Uruguay co-production between Aeroplano, run by Sebastian Aloi, and Mother Superior Films, run by Hernandez and Ignacio García Cucucovich.In addition to subsidy support from Argentina and Uruguay, the horror-thriller has

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterSince you can’t be in Cannes this year, Variety is bringing Cannes to you.

Carole Horst The Cannes Marché du Film, along with a sales initiative led by Hollywood agencies, is hosting the first major virtual market since the start of pandemic, starting on June 23. Distributors and sales agents are looking forward to it: the turn-up for the online Cannes Marché du Film is significant with more than 7,000 accredited participants as of mid-June.“As nobody can leave their house, a virtual market is the next best thing.

Chris Pine is set to star in a brand new thriller movie, called Violence Of Action.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterFull credit to organizers of the Cannes virtual Marche (June 22-26), who by and large pulled off with relative smoothness day one of what will be a technically challenging and largely unprecedented event.There were a few hitches here and there, however, which caused scattered moments of frustration and, in one particularly bizarre incident, some hilarity among delegates.Earlier today, Neon aces Tom Quinn and Elissa Federoff logged on for an insightful

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