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Market Ready 2024

15th - 19th April 2024

What is it about?

The purpose of this programme is to equip participants with the skills and support they need to understand the film market landscape better, to plan and target their approach to meetings, how to take full advantage of the market offerings and leave the market with the best possible results.   The course is designed to impart a greater knowledge and understanding of the interconnected film value chain. ​

​The programme will include a 4-day intensive module followed up with a Market Preparation Day, a 4-day mentoring support during the participants’ EFM visit, closing with a Market Review Day.  The programme will therefore run 10 days over 4 months in total. The teaching modules are bolstered by 3 mentoring sessions throughout the course. Each participant will be assigned a mentor, who will work with them on a tailored strategy for their project. ​

Who’s it for?

This intensive practical short course has places for approx 16 participants.   It will bring together filmmakers, distributors and sales agents at the earlier part of their career.  By having a mixed cohort, it will also increase awareness of each other’s roles and help build stronger networks for the future. Filmmakers need to be in late stage development, post-production or have completed their first feature film or documentary. Sales, distribution and marketing executives will have typically a minimum of one year’s experience in their role. ​

Course outline

Course Outline: ​

  • Individual Work on Project/s being taken to market  ​
  • Improve their knowledge of international markets, how they differ, who attends what and why; ​
  • Identify the most suitable market(s) for their own individual projects and film slates; ​
  • Develop tools and strategies for successful market engagement; ​
  • Improve their skills, knowledge and confidence in packaging, pitching, negotiating, selling, understanding and closing deals; ​
  • Achieve effective follow-through and maximise the benefits of international relationships and opportunities. ​
  • Mentoring / Expert support  ​

Course Leaders

Julia Short Square

Julia Short

Course Director

Course directors Julia Short and Satesh Mathura each bring a wealth of experience to the programme. Julia is a distribution and marketing expert, former Director of Content on high profile courses such as Inside Pictures. Satesh is a distribution and financing expert, former Chief Operating Officer of Icon Entertainment International.

Venue / Location

The course will be delivered at The Impact Hub Vienna. Dates and Times are TBC

Course Fee

Fee TBC, included are the sessions, mentoring, and networking, such as catering in Vienna. Excluded are the market attendance costs (travel, accommodation, accreditation) ​

Scholarship

Thanks to Creative Europe Funding, ISI has partial scholarship support available for participants who wish to attend this course from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

If you are not from a Low Capacity Country and can give us a good reason that you are in need of financial assistance and your national screen agency does not fund training in principle, please contact us before submitting your application to discuss whether you can apply for financial support. We have very limited funds available for a limited number of participants in genuine need.

For working parents who have childcare responsibilities, we have a childcare bursary available and a bursary for participants who need extra assistance due to disability or impairment available.


Financial Support

We actively encourage participants to research and apply for financial support with your national/regional funding bodies first who may have bursaries and grants to cover training and professional development.

Please ask the MEDIA Desk in your country if there are any funding opportunities available. Kindly inform us if you apply to a national or regional fund.

We are currently reviewing all the national funds available in Europe. Below are a few examples: