MK2’s Fionnuala Jamison Talks ‘The Worst Person In The World’ & How The Success Of ‘Moonlight’ Helped Tackle Prejudices In The International Market — London Film Festival
deadline.comMK2 Managing Director Fionnuala Jamison was the focus of the London Film Festival’s second ‘spotlight’ industry talk Wednesday, during which she provided insights on navigating the international film market, including how regional prejudices can impact how films are sold.
Jamison opened the discussion by speaking about the case of MK2’s 2019 film Atlantics, the debut feature from Mati Diop. The film is set in Senegal and features an all-non-white cast.
Jamison said MK2 knew the film could work in English-speaking territories and strong arthouse markets but would struggle with the rest of the world. “The very sad reality is that you still have a lot of countries in the world that are very racist, and as soon as a cast of a film is completely one color, it’s not for them.
The further East you go, the more problematic,” Jamison said. She added that attitudes in the market have improved, particularly following the success of Barry Jenkins’ 2016 best picture-winner Moonlight. “After Moonlight, all of a sudden you have a film that’s gonna be all non-white, and a distributor is like, ‘oh cool,’ and that just didn’t happen before Moonlight,” Jamison said.
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