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Cannes Festival Executive Director Comes to Town

By Joel Rosen

Published: Tuesday, July 29, 2008

As the Sarasota Film Festival continues its campaign for national-scale repute, a new pair of ears is perking up.
 
 





This time, they’re French.

Late last night, Jerome Paillard, executive director of the Cannes Festival's governing business organization Le Marche du Film, rolled into town, apparently for a private meeting with new Sarasota Film Festival board president Mark Famiglio.


Jerome Paillard
www.filmfestivals.com

Though the two refused to provide specifics, the meeting came amid speculation that Paillard might be offering business advice to the local president. Famiglio described their most recent discussion as an opportunity to "brainstorm possible symbiotic relationships."

"We're talking about instituting new programs and new aspects" of Sarasota's festival, he explained, "including the marketplace here."

Since 1999 when he assumed the executive role, Paillard's accomplishments for the Cannes Festival have included certain technological expansions and an enhanced user-friendliness at the prestigious May event. In the first four years of his tenure, the Frenchman created MITIC (Marche International de Technique et d'Innovation du Cinema), a chance, he says, "to help the film community understand what was happening with digital" aspects of film production.

Otherwise, his focus has been on expanding niche programs, like earlier this year, when he spearheaded several financial collaborations with the Dubai International Film Festival.

In his 10 years overseeing the Marche du Film at Cannes from his Paris office, he says he has expanded the market by 500 percent: this year's festival included 11,000 participants, 4,000 films and 16,000 screenings.

Paillard, who will stay in Orlando for two months as he obtains an instrument rating for his pilot's license, would not speak about why he was in town, though he said his friendship with Famiglio dates back to the early '90s, when Paillard served as an associate producer for the French movie "Seven Sundays."

The film took place in Sarasota. Famiglio knew "Seven Sundays" producer Tom Garrett.

Dining with Famiglio yesterday at Michael's On East, Paillard admitted that he wasn't sure exactly how far the Sarasota festival's reputation reached internationally. "Honestly, I can't say a lot of French people know" of the city, he said. "There are many thousands of festivals in the world."

However, he wasn't sure the extent to which international renown matters, either.

"I'm not saying it's important that a festival is known outside the community it's in," he said. "What's important is that producers know it's a useful festival."