Bero Beyer: Last News

Naman Ramachandran The Unifrance cocktail event at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, held in partnership with Variety, saw a heady mix of film executives and artists mingle at the sea terrace of the plush Excelsior hotel. Presiding over proceedings was Unifrance executive director Daniela Elstner and artists present included director Romain Gavras and actor Ouassini Embarek, whose film “Athena” is in the main competition at the festival. Also attending were actor Swann Arlaud, César winner for “Bloody Milk” and “By the Grace of God,” who is at Venice with his new film “Beating Sun,” by Philippe Petit, who was also present; and filmmaker Audrey Diwan, who won the Venice Golden Lion last year for “Happening” and is serving on the jury this year.

Ann-Marie Corvin As The Netherlands, under lockdown, celebrated the first half of 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam’s online, the physical half – set to take place in June with real audiences, panels and talks without Zoom links attached – still feels like a long way off.Meanwhile, the industry is hopeful that the swift and pragmatic measures taken by its national funding agency, The Netherlands Film Fund, will be enough to see it through until the end of this year.In January, the fund, headed by former IFFR director Bero Beyer, confirmed €30 million ($36.1 million) in new government support – double the amount that was available last year – to help the industry ride through its third national lockdown and beyond.

By Elsa Keslassy