I hope you've had a great week! As for me, I'm sad to be leaving Cannes..... it's been a fun-filled learning experience to say the least. And the best part I have to say are all the conversations I had with various people - there's just such enormous value in going to markets like this and having the opportunity to meet people face-to-face, plus bump into people that you may not have ever met otherwise.

Bear with me as I'll be downloading bits and pieces from Cannes to you all over coming weeks -- there's so much information and so many new trends I picked up on, that I don't want to overwhelm you with everything at once.

For example, there's no denying the fact that one of the hottest topics at Cannes this year was all about India as a booming market, and the great opportunities to distribute non-Indian films there. All of a sudden they are paying TOP DOLLAR for the right kinds of films (mainly films they can release theatrically in their multiplying multiplexes). Lions Gate signed a big output deal with an Indian Distributor (Eros), and another very large Indian distributor signed a Billion Dollar deal with a handful of U.S Production companies (George Clooney's and Jim Carey's for example) to keep constant content in their pipelines. India is hungry for films and now's the time to get in there.

On another note, there was a lot of discussion about how U.S theatrical distributors just aren't that hungry for films right now, and are going home empty handed. Mostly they are still being super selective on what they acquire and whatever they acquire MUST have a very distinct target audience for them to market to. Otherwise, they are saying there are just too many films in the U.S market and they can't compete with their marketing dollars UNLESS the film speaks to a very specific audience.

So those are just a few tid-bits that stood out to me this week......however in the usual tradition, I have very carefully hand-picked a Top 10 2008 Cannes Buyers List for you. I paid special attention to choose 10 separate countries, so you can approach distributors for your film for 10 separate territories. As always, contact details are included - but I would wait until mid next week to start contacting them as you'll want to give them a few days to settle back in to their offices. Here's where you can get your hands on the list (by the way, these are all new buyers that do NOT appear in our Distributors Database on the site): http://www.filmspecific.com/members/642.cfm

And finally, MORE VIDEOS! Tours of the Sales Floor and the Pavilions....narrated by yours truly :) Check 'em out here: http://www.filmspecific.com/public/660.cfm

Alright gang, back to packing. I'm off in the morning to London where I'll be doing an event with Chris Jones on Sunday, and a Book Signing at the British Film Institute on Monday. For all you Londoners out there, I hope you can join me at one of these events!

To your success, Stacey