Finance Trends across the Ecosystem

Industry Insights - The EFM Podcast

Industry Insights – The EFM Podcast is presented by the European Film Market of the Berlinale. Hosted by journalist, moderator and film festival consultant, it delves deep into the rapidly evolving film industry.

This special EFM Industry Insights episode meets top global film executives attending San Sebastian’s second-annual Creative Investors Conference, where industry experts Elisa Alvares, Carole Scotta, Juan Gordon, and John Sloss have gathered to discuss topics such as opportunities in the shifting US landscape; global trends across the film value chain; the outlook from leading streamers; specific challenges facing independent producers; examining the global marketplace for Spanish-language content; finding strength in new international collaborations; and future-proofing how the industry continues to evolve to best serve audiences.

Elisa Alvares is an all-rounded financier with over 25 years’ experience in international corporate and structured finance with a focus in Media & Entertainment/Media-tech. Further to a successful career across investment banking, asset management and commercial banking with the likes of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Bank, Taurus Finance and Bank Leumi, Elisa founded Jacaranda Group in London in 2018. Through Jacaranda Consultants, Elisa has advised VC-backed investment funds and family offices around the world on their investments into music, film, TV, games, interactive/EntTech. Over the years, Elisa has originated/executed on transactions in Media & Entertainment in excess of $1B. Jacaranda assists clients from new fund strategy phase to deal origination and structuring, including facilitating corporate governance, and overseeing deal negotiation, deal execution and monitoring as part of long-term strategies.

Juan Gordon is one of the founders of Morena Films, established in 1999. He was previously General Director of the production and distribution company ESICMA, where he produced his first feature film Lluvia en los Zapatos, directed by Maria Ripoll. Already at Morena, Juan has been responsible for the development and production of films such as: Intemperie (Benito Zambrano, 2019); Yuli (Iciar Bollain, 2018); Immersion (Wim Wenders, 2018); May God come down and see it (Curro Velázquez, 2017); One Hundred Years of Forgiveness (Daniel Calparsoro, 2016); The Olive Tree (Iciar Bollain, 2016); The Sheep Don't Miss the Train (Álvaro Fernández Armero, 2015); The Cave (Alfredo Montero, 2013). Recent credits include the Netflix original film Amor de Madre.

After graduating from Arizona State University, Carole Scotta founded Haut et Court in 1992 the same year she won the Fondation Hachette prize as best young producer. She first broke into the French distribution sector with the "Unreleased of America" which included among others Alison Ander’s "Gas, Food, Lodging" and Alex Cox’s "Highway Patrolman". In 1997 Carole Scotta produced "My life in Pink" by Alain Berliner, her first feature film (Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film). Since then, her company, Haut et Court, produced and distributed over 200 films most of which have won several awards in international festivals; among others the Palme d’Or in Cannes 2008 with "The Class" by Laurent Cantet and the International Emmy for Best Drama Series 2013 with "The Returned" by Fabrice Gobert. Carole also produced "Coco before Chanel" by Anne Fontaine with Audrey Tautou, which was the first French film on the international market in 2009. She is not only a producer and a distributor but also an exhibitor with the launch of the NOUVEL ODEON in 2010, a theater in the heart of the Quartier Latin in Paris and the LOUXOR, a renovated theater which first opened in 1921.

John Sloss is founder and CEO of Cinetic Media, and partner in Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo. Through Cinetic, John produces motion pictures and television, provides various content sales and corporate advisory services, and presides over a rapidly growing talent management division. He has produced or executive produced over 70 films including Richard Linklater’s Academy Award-winning BOYHOOD, LAST FLAG FLYING, and “BEFORE” Series, Todd Haynes’s THE VELVET UNDERGROUND, **WONDERSTRUCK **and I’M NOT THERE, Peter Farrelly’s Academy Award-winning GREEN BOOK, Errol Morris’s Academy Award-winning THE FOG OF WAR, Kimberly Peirce’s Academy Award-winning BOYS DON’T CRY and many more. John founded Producers Distribution Agency in 2010, a theatrical distribution company. He also founded the groundbreaking digital production and distribution company InDigEnt alongside Gary Winnick and IFC Films.

Wendy Mitchell is a journalist, moderator and film festival consultant. She is a contributing editor and Nordic correspondent at Screen International, the producer of the Sundance London film festival, the UK and Nordic delegate for San Sebastian, consultant for San Sebastian’s Creative Investors’ Conference, curator at LÜbeck Nordic Film Days and frequent moderator for Cannes Marché du Film and Berlinale’s European Film Market.

This podcast episode has been developed in collaboration with the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

The Berlinale’s European Film Market is the first international film market of the year, where the film industry starts its business. Industry Insights - The EFM Podcast puts a spotlight on highly topical and trendsetting industry issues, thereby creating a compass for the forthcoming film year. The year-round podcast is produced in cooperation with Goethe-Institut and co-funded by Creative Europe MEDIA.