The 71st edition of the MIFED was being held from 12 to 16 october 2004. The filmmarket took, as usual, place at the Fiera di Milano. But this MIFED wasn’t usual at all. Only 136 exhibition companies attended, about half as many as last year. 447 buyers were registered. There were 30 screening rooms available, each having 4 screenings a day. Many films were selected in Venice, San Sebastian and Toronto this year. But the hallways were empty and getting emptier during the week, so it seemed that many buyers already left MIFED on the third day.
Why? This year has been a rumorous year for the filmmarket business. The American Film Market in Santa Monica, normally being held in February, switched their date to November. The switch was made because of several reasons, for example the time slot problems with the European Film Market in Berlin and the possibility of attaching the AFM to the AFI fest in Los Angeles. But the real reason, according to many filmmarket attendees, is the elimination of the MIFED. Especially the Americans are tired of travelling to at least three markets a year, so the attack on th MIFED was officially opened last year when they announced the shift.
The long-predicted war between MIFED and AFM got even more aggressive when it appeared that the MIFED was being boycotted by several American and British companies. The members’ association IAFT (the Independent Alliance of Film and Television, a trade group formerly known as the American Film Marketing Association), is supporting the AFM, and it appeared they offered its members large discount to partecipate in the AFM, only applicable if the companies didn’t attend MIFED. Not just the IAFT members didn’t come. Significant players as like Miramax Films, Myriad Pictures and Focus Features didn’t sign in, and sellers like Fortissimo Films, Wild Bunch and UGC decided to skip the MIFED as well.
But the Italian market tries to fight back. The first response was to change dates, from its traditional November slot into October. This shift has forced companies to either make a choice between the two markets, or attending both, adding to their expenditure of costs and time. Many companies chose to take a reduced sales team to MIFED and share a stand or buy half the exhibition space.
The second response was to lure buyers with invitation, free hotel rooms and a long pre-screening weekend on Lake Como. Although some buyers had positive thoughts, many just didn’t want to spend a weekend in a hotel with 100 buyers. The attempts to get people to come are another difference between the Americans and the Italians. It seems that MIFED has been trying to seduce the buyers, while the main goal of the AFM marketing campaign is about making sure the sellers are there. This problem about who you really have to invite to make sure the others will come is a hard game to play. Distributors say they will go where the films are and sellers say they will be wherever their clients want them to be. Market organisators have to find a way to invite the most important buyers, but make sure the sellers are there as well. So the advertising AFM is doing right now could be working out.
The Milan market did tell the sellers that renting a stand this year meant getting great advantages next year. So what about next year? There are voices saying that MIFED has finally admitted defeat by presenting the new plans. A week before the start of MIFED 2004, Audiovisual Industry Promotion (which runs MIFED) announced that the 2005 edition will be linked with the Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica, and taking place in late August. The first part of the market will be held in Milan as usual, and the second part will be moved to the Lido for a market more adapted to the films screening at the Mostra. The infrastructure at the Lido is one of the main problems for creating a proper market, so that is why the first part of the market will be in Milan. When the right infrastructure will be arranged in Venice, MIFED will be merged into the Mostra and move completely to Venice.
The industry is sceptical. The organizational talent of the Italians is one major problem. The festival in Venice gets many complaints about its organization, and so does the MIFED. But maybe morphing two bad organized events into just one isn’t that bad after all. The MIFED could be only defeating itself, but the industry will gop to Venice after all, so if they keep on inviting buyers and making sure the sellers are there, they might have chance to grew better. The problem is that they have to start from zero again, and win the confidence of their participants. They better succeed, or Italy will lose one of its most important filmevents.
 

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