CineCoup Announces The Big Deal from Banff
The next level begins now for Regina’s Wolfcop, selected by the inaugural CineCoup Film Accelerator to receive up to $1 million in financing and a guaranteed Cineplex release in 2014.
Wolfcop’s filmmaking power trio Bernie Hernando (Producer, Marketing Strategist), Lowell Dean (Director, Writer), and Hugh Patterson (Producer), earned the accolade today at the Banff World Media Festival where the CineCoup Final 5 pitched their projects to an audience of 200+ industry decision makers and an esteemed panel of industry professionals. Panelists Michael Kennedy, EVP Cineplex Entertainment; Robert Lantos, Producer, Serendipity Point Films; and Noah Segal, Co-President, Entertainment One put filmmakers on the high stakes hot seat asking tough questions about their projects and teams. CineCoup “SuperFan” Natalia Napierski of Toronto represented CineCoup indie film fans around the world, asking questions submitted via Twitter.
“It has been an intense 15 weeks and it’s only the beginning for CineCoup filmmakers,” says J Joly, CineCoup Founder and CEO. “The calibre of independent talent and entrepreneurship this country has is undeniable. A big congrats to Wolfcop, the CineCoup team is stoked to be working with them and our partners to bring their concept to the big screen for 2014. As for the other nine optioned projects, we are committed to continuing to develop them and are getting interest from producers, studios and distributors from home and abroad – so watch this space for more news soon.”
Wolfcop will go into production in the upcoming months with guaranteed release by Canada’s largest motion picture exhibitor, Cineplex Entertainment, in 2014.
“CineCoup is changing the way movies are made and discovered,” says Michael Kennedy EVP, Filmed Entertainment at Cineplex Entertainment. “The quality of fan engagement and public awareness that CineCoup is generating for their films both on and offline is unprecedented. Building the audience and getting them involved this early will not only help the filmmakers make the best film possible, but it will also help position the film’s theatrical release in a more informed way that makes sense to fans. I look forward to premiering Wolfcop in Cineplex theatres in 2014.”
Adding to this, Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director, Carolle Brabant says, “marketing is on everyone’s mind, from our recent successes at Cannes, Berlin and the Oscars, Canada obviously has the talent and the quality… the question is how do we leverage this success at home? Thanks to CineCoup we can promote the next cinematic gems through our New Ways of Discovering Canadian Talent initiative. CineCoup is very innovative in reaching out directly to audiences, in discovering talented new filmmaking teams, and in bringing new sources of private finance into the equation.”
The June 10 announcement is the culmination of a demanding 15 weeks in CineCoup’s accelerator program. 90 filmmaking teams (270 filmmakers) from across Canada applied with a concept trailer for a feature film. Each week, filmmakers produced content to package their projects and build audiences on CineCoup’s social web platform. Indie film fans watched videos and earned votes to help teams advance through gateways at 60, 40 and 15. CineCoup optioned 10 projects for development and ultimately selected one for production financing.
CineCoup expects to announce its next cycle of intake for applications at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2013. It is also actively pursuing partnerships to launch the platform in global markets. Stay tuned more headlines around the
