Swiss digital projects win over Cannes

The second Beyond Cinema: the Swiss Digital Revolution event was a great success, with a series of meetings between the companies invited and international investors.

With some 40 meetings set up between cinema and entertainment industry-related investors, the four start-ups invited by Engagement Migros, Geneva International Film Festival Tous Ecrans and the Swiss Digital Alliance, the Beyond Cinema: the Swiss Digital Revolution match-making event was a great success on the Croisette. Moreover, thanks to the support of Pro Helvetia, several hundred festivalgoers were able to try out Birdly and Real Virtuality at the NEXT Pavilion – the digital innovators’ hub at the Cannes Film Festival. Finally, more than 170 professionals came to celebrate Swiss creativity at an aperitif organised in conjunction with other Swiss talents present in Cannes, including the team of the acclaimed film My Life as a Zucchini.

The 12,000 or so professionals at the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film were thus given the opportunity to discover Birdly by SOMNIACS, Real Virtuality by Artanim and Spatial Stories by apelab – all projects which represent important breakthroughs in the promising field of virtual reality. Over four days, the matchmaking programme enabled project leaders – as well as producers of the interactive film Late Shift by CtrlMovie – to meet up with key international stakeholders, including Orange, China Eden Investment, MK2, Kinepolis Group and ARTE. ‘The matchmaking went really well, said SOMNIACS’ CEO Michel Zai. Organisers helped set up meetings with decision-makers at the Festival. A first exclusive distribution contract in a European country for Birdly might well be signed in the next few weeks and many other international opportunities look promising.’ Apelab CEO Emilie Joly added that ‘more than half of the meetings in Cannes will lead to other meetings’, while Artanim President Caecilia Charbonnier remarked that the Film Market ‘is showing real interest in the technology we are developing.’ CtrlMovie CEO Baptiste Planche also highlighted the significance of such initiatives in an event as large as the Cannes Film Festival saying that ‘the matchmaking programme is really helpful, as it is extremely difficult to have access to key stakeholders. We have made some great contacts with distributors in France and Canada, who might even do more for us than just distribute our interactive film.’