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