Yahoo News AFCI Cineposium Returns to In-Person Confab
This year’s AFCI Cineposium, running from Sept. 20-22 in Bogota, Colombia, is significant for several reasons beyond the opportunity it provides film commissioners from around the globe to gather, learn and network. It marks first time the event has been held in two years due to the pandemic. More significantly, it’s the first time in the organization’s 45-year history that it’s holding its annual event in Latin America. For the film and TV community in Colombia, it’s an exciting opportunity to show off the growth of its production infrastructure, helped along by visits from high-profile American-produced movies including “Mile 22,” starring Mark Wahlberg; “American Made,” starring Tom Cruise; and “The Lost City of Z.” And its fortunes look to improve further with Netflix developing a series adaptation of native son Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s landmark novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” set to be shot in the country.
“In the last decade, the Colombian audiovisual industry has been strengthened thanks to a regulatory framework that benefits it, both to consolidate its own industry and to become the destination for international productions for Netflix, HBO, Amazon, among others,” says Ricardo Cantor, Bogotá film commissioner and director of the Bogotá Cinematheque.
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Colombia still struggles to overcome the reputation it developed in the 1980s as the center of cocaine cultivation and trafficking. That image was likely reinforced by the biggest production hosted by the country in recent years, “Narcos,” a fact-based series about notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar that ran on Netflix for three seasons. Some were reluctant to let “Narcos” shoot in Colombia, where it took advantage of a rich tax incentive program that currently offers rebates of 40% on audiovisual services and 20% on logistical services. But, in the end, it was reasoned that if they were refused, the producers would simply go elsewhere and Colombians would not only miss out on the influx of production jobs and money, they’d also forgo the chance to influence the way their country was portrayed.
“We were able to make the scriptwriters and the actors understand what happened in Colombia, what was the Colombian culture and the suffering of the people back in the time of narcotrafficking,” says Silvia Echeverri, head of the Colombian Film Commission and second vice chair of the AFCI board of directors.
From the AFCI’s perspective, awarding Cineposium 2022 to Bogota was about the city’s hosting capabilities, not correcting misconceptions. “Colombia had the strongest bid, highlighting the fact that they are a world-class destination for international conferences, with the ease of airport transportation, accommodations and sustainability,” says Marjorie Galas, AFCI senior VP of membership and industry relations.
Cineposium 2022 will present panels covering Colombia-specific issues, including case studies of the Tilda Swinton-starrer “Memoria” (2021), featuring the film’s producer Diana Bustamante, and the Spanish-language Netflix series “The Marked Heart,” featuring executive producer Ana Piñeres, exploring their experiences shooting in the country as international productions. Former Variety staffer David S. Cohen will moderate a panel on breaking location stereotypes. It will also offer more general interest panels focusing on initiatives, eco-friendly production and how to take advantage of tax incentives in various international jurisdictions.
“[Cineposium] is driven by education and film commissioners sharing ideas with one another, but it’s also about connecting to the industry leaders, the studio executives and filmmakers,” says Tim Clark, film commissioner of the Buffalo Niagara Film Office.
Going forward, there’s a chance that people could be making those connections at Cineposiums in other far-flung locales, says Bas van der Ree, Netherlands Film Commission chief and chair of the AFCI board of directors.
“I hope that this breaks boundaries and we can open up to the rest of the world,” says van der Ree. “We have a great film commission coming up in Mongolia, for example, and they’re very enthusiastic.”
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