How important is the Cannes Film Festival and its market for a company like Wild Bunch?
Vincent Maraval: It is the most important meeting of the year since it gathers the greatest number of business people and film professionals. That’s where we do between one third and half of our annual turnover. The American Film Market is purely a market, Venice is purely a festival, Cannes is the only event that manages to combine the two. Is having a film screen in official selection essential? To decide to put a film in the official selection and even more in the Official competition might be tricky. The risk is more important than the advantages. One must present films that are considered masterpieces and that will win several prizes (like The Son’s Room [trailer] and Fahrenheit 9/11) or films that are totally unexpected. Because if we deceive an audience with very high expectations, there will be no space for mercy, like what happened with Southland Tales and Charlie Says [trailer] last year. No one says Nicole Garcia’s film is beautiful, well done, well performed but a bit borin
