I first met independent Assamese filmmaker Rima Das in 2017 at the Marché du Film or Cannes Film Market, when her second feature, Village Rockstars, was featured in the ‘HAF Goes To Cannes’ initiative. Having been part of the Work In Progress Lab of Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), it had made its way to the market’s prestigious platform which provided Das the opportunity to look for post-production funds and pitch to sales agents and other festivals. Goes To Cannes, one of the tailor-made official programmes at the Cannes Film Market, aims to discover promising, new-generation talents through their works-in-progress, selected and curated by partner festivals like the HAF.
Thanks to it, not only did Das get a great mentor in the famous editor, Jacques Comets, who guided her with the first cut of Village Rockstars, but found the world opening its door for her modest indie. About a free-spirited and rebellious 10-year-old village girl Dhunu who dreams of owning a guitar and makes herself Styrofoam one till she gets a real one, the film played at hundreds of international festivals thanks to the initial exposure at Cannes. At Toronto and San Sebastian, it was the first film from Northeast India to be featured in the official selection. It won the National Award for the best film in 2018 and went on to represent India at the Oscars.
This year, the debut feature of Tribeny Rai—a Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute graduate—Shape of Momo was showcased under the same section. Rai is from Sikkim and her Nepali-language film is set in her home state. She was looking for gap-financing, post-production funds and interactions with sales agents and festival programmers. Whether Shape of Momo will also follow the same trajectory of success as Das’s film can’t quite be predicted. But what’s amply clear is the significance of the market for independent Indian filmmakers trying to strike their own course in the international arena, away from the claptrap and constraints of commercial Indian cinema.
Cannes is not just about the aesthetics, creativity and artistry of cinema, but also about the commerce that propels it. Held parallel to the festival, the Cannes Film Market is the biggest in the world. This year, it saw the participation of 15,000 professionals from 140 countries, platformed 250 events, 1,500 screenings and 4,000 films and projects. With labs and training sessions and targeted programmes like Producers Network, Streamers Forum, Investors Circle, Spotlight Asia, and Frontières Buyers Sowcase, it’s not just about striking immediate deals, but about the interactions and meetings that can lead to partnerships in the future.
However, the Indian filmmaking fraternity, comfortable in its age-old ways, is yet to exploit such platforms to the fullest. To be fair, despite the industry’s humongous size, the presence of Indian films has been too sporadic to catch any steady attention at the Cannes market.
The only consistent engagement has been governmental, through the India Pavilion, now called the Bharat Pavilion. The culture ministry uses it to pitch the International Film Festival of India and now the World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit to the world.
The ministry has also been aggressively pitching India as a warm, welcoming, easy and viable shooting destination at panels on policies and cross-sector partnerships. Roundtables with international festivals, market heads and film commissions, and evening networking events are aimed at providing opportunities to upcoming filmmakers. Ultimately, it can’t just be a government effort, but about individuals down the film value chain—producers, studios, financers, distributors, exhibitors and, of course, filmmakers—to strategise.
Last year proved crucial, with Payal Kapadia’s Grand-Prix winning France-India-Netherlands-Luxembourg-Italy co-production All We Imagine as Light snapped by the Paris-based international sales agency Luxbox Films, leading to sweeping global distribution deals.
This year, Neeraj Ghaywan’s Un Certain Regard contender, Homebound, produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions with Martin Scorsese as executive producer, was jointly boarded by Paradise City Sales and WME Independent. Ad Vitam, a leading Paris-based distribution company, is releasing the movie in France.
A significant new initiative at the Cannes market this year, powered by the Indian filmmaking community itself and aimed at helping young professionals, came from Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga Kapoor. Three rising women producers from India—Tillotama Shome, Rucha Pathak and Dimpy Agarwal—were chosen for the fellowship programme of Women in Film, India chapter, that took them to Cannes to access the Producers Network at the film market. The idea was to provide mentorship and networking opportunities to them to make them understand the global financing and co-production scenario. WIF India is backed by Women In Film Los Angeles and Women in Film and Television International.
So, ideally, the approach to the Cannes Film Market should not be about short-term gains, but a slow, steady and thought-through investment aimed at building an enviable cinematic portfolio in the long run.
Namrata Joshi
Consulting Editor
Follow her on X @Namrata_Joshi