The director of Cannes, Thierry Fremaux, will give a master class at Ventana Sur

Co-organized by the Cannes Film Festival and Market and Argentina’s INCAA film and television agency, at the end of November. South Window The market seems to have at least one star: Cannes’ own director, Thierry Fremaux.

Presenting the Cannes Film Week, an extraordinary showcase of 2023 winners headlined this year by Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall,” and bowing Nov. 27 with Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” Fremaux usually directs or hosts on-stage conversations with Cannes winners, which of course bring together a significant portion of the world’s greatest filmmakers. In Argentina, a country with a huge cinematic tradition and one of the largest market shares for national films until the economic crisis and pandemic decimated state funding, visiting authors have been treated like rock stars, even social realist directors as inflexible as the Dardenne brothers. .

This year, however, the spotlight will fall on Fremaux himself, who will speak about the “Cinema (of) tomorrow.”

“After the pandemic it was said that cinema was dead. From there we have shown that cinema did not die and, better yet, there are enough reasons to maintain hope,” it was briefly explained accompanying the announcement of the masterclass, held on Friday by the INCAA of Argentina.

Fremaux’s master class comes just weeks after disappointing markets in Toronto and the American Film Market, where only a small group of high-profile films, such as the AGC Studies Toronto duo “Hit Man” and “Woman of the Hour,” achieved significant traction in sales. absolutely.

This led senior sales agents to suggest that the traditional sales model, underpinned by the strength of TV ancillary sales in Europe, has now broken down. Streaming services, led by Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video, have become effective gatekeepers to international movie sales, and that door remains very narrow.

However, whether Fremaux will approach his topic in industrial terms is another question. As reasons for hope, he could point to his own experiences programming events not only at Cannes but also at the Lumière Festival in Lyon, where screenings of classic films, presented by French stars or renowned American directors, can be packed to capacity. bumpers.

Or you could cite the growing global film scene, such as in the Persian Gulf, as you did with Variety in his first interview this year in the next cannes festival. Or highlight the growing place of women in cinema, although still far from parity, talking about Triet’s victory in Cannes.

Or maybe none of these reasons for hope: it’s hard to guess Thierry Fremaux’s concentration on stage, other than that he’s probably entertaining.

Cannes Film Week will take place from November 27 to December 3 at the Gaumont Cinema in Buenos Aires. Other screenings include “Fallen Leaves” by Aki Kaurismäki, winner of the Jury Prize; “Monster,” by Hirokazu Kore-eda, winner of the best screenplay award for Yuji Sakamoto; Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses,” which won best actress for Merve Dizdar, and Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar contender “Zone of Interest.”