“Opening Forum”
Wednesday May 16 at 2:30 pm РPalais des Festivals (salle Bu̱uel)
Cinema : towards the audiences of tomorrow…

Cannes, France (rushprnews) May 5,2007On the opening day of its 60th anniversary, the Festival de Cannes is proposing a moment of reflection on the opportunities and challenges of the next decade.

Film industry representatives, new media players, journalists and sociologists from around the world will share their experiences and views on how the fast evolving digital economy is shaping new roles for directors, producers and distributors while offering exciting opportunities to creators and audiences.
They will debate on the evolution of audience practices and on the ties between cinema creation and new promotional and broadcast platforms.
The following questions will be discussed:
• From an audience perspective, how has the digital revolution changed the way
films are selected, viewed, watched, interpreted and communicated? Will the film
theatre continue to be the reference for cinema viewing?
• What will the new medias for cinema and the audiences of tomorrow be: Web 2.0,
screenings on demand, DVD-HD, VoD, Social communities, Blogs, Vlogs, Mobile
Media, Virtual Worlds…?
• Will tomorrow’s marketplace be split between different categories of films:
blockbusters, film-events, author films, niche films…? What new promotional tools
are being developed and what are the new business models that are emerging? What
could the role and the implication of the duo creator-producer be and what will the
impact on the role of the distributor be? How can film festivals play a positive role in
accompanying creators in this new environment?
Guest Speakers:
Colin Brown, Editor-in-Chief, Screen International will moderate the discussion between the
following guest speakers:

• Danah Boyd, Ethnographer and researcher of social media networks and doctoral
candidate in the School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley (USA)
• Bernard Collard, Senior Vice President, General Manager XDC International (Belgium)
• Emmanuel Ethis, Sociologist in cinema and cinema audience, University of Avignon
(France)
• Michael Gubbins, Editor, Screen International (United Kingdom)
• Thomas Hoegh, Founder and Chairman, Arts Alliance Media (United Kingdom)
• Neeraj Roy, CEO, Hungama Mobile (India)
• Adrian Sexton, EVP Digital, Participant Productions (USA)
• François Yon, Founder and Partner, Films Distribution (France)
This conference, open to all festival-goers, is taking place Salle Buñuel (Palais des Festivals)
on Wednesday May 16 2007 from 2:30pm to 5:30pm (Simultaneous translation English-
French will be made available). Capacity being limited, RSVP is requested by email at:

conference@festival-cannes.fr

This Opening Forum is organised in collaboration with Reed-Midem and Screen International.
BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GUEST SPEAKERS

Colin Brown is the editor-in-chief of “Screen International”, whose weekly magazine,
festival newspapers and daily news service “screendaily.com” are regarded as the leading
authorities on the international film business. Based in New York City, Colin has been with
the publication for twenty years. During that time he has been a frequent commentator on the
cinema industry for numerous business and consumer publications as well as TV networks,
both in the US and Europe. He has also served on numerous film festival juries and industry
advisory committees.
Bernard Collard is Senior Vice President – General Manager of XDC International. His
mission statement is to build the first pan-European digital cinema network initiative for
digital distribution and projection with full logistical services for distributors and a
complete package for European exhibitors. The XDC Company employs a little more than 45
persons. Bernard has a very eclectic back ground through various experiences connected to
different worlds such as private radio station management, public relations, project
management, sport marketing, events management, communication and sales, cinema
management… in other words, marketing and communication in the very large perspective.
Mid 2000, he was invited to join EVS Group to launch EVS Digital Cinema introducing
CineStore, the new end to end digital cinema server solution, into the worldwide market.
Danah Boyd is a doctoral candidate in the School of Information at the University of
California-Berkeley and a fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Communications. Her
dissertation focuses on how American youth engage in networked publics like MySpace,
YouTube, Facebook, Xanga, etc. This work is funded by the MacArthur Foundation as part of
a broader grant on digital youth and informal learning. Prior to Berkeley, danah received a
bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brown University and a master’s degree in
sociable media from MIT Media Lab. She has worked as an ethnographer and social media
researcher for various corporations, including Intel, Tribe.net, Google, and Yahoo!
Emmanuel Ethis is a Professor in Communication and Information Sciences at the
University of Avignon where he is the deputy vice-chancellor of the board of administration.
A sociologist of the arts and culture, he is a specialist of cinema and cinema audiences, and
also of the audiences of internationally acclaimed festivals. He recently edited two collective
works: Avignon, le public réinventé. Le Festival sous le regard des sciences sociales
(“Avignon, the audience reinvented. The festival under the scrutiny of the social sciences “,
2002) and Aux marches du Palais – Le Festival de Cannes sous le regard des sciences
sociales (“At the palace steps – Cannes film festival under the scrutiny of the social sciences”,
2001), both published by La Documentation Française. He is also the author of Pour une
po(ï)étique du questionnaire en sociologie de la culture, le spectateur imaginé (“The
conception of questionnaires in the sociology of culture. Imagining the spectator”, 2004) and
of Les Spectateurs du temps, pour une sociologie de la réception du cinéma (“The time
watchers, for an analysis of social reception of cinema”, 2005), both published by
L’Harmattan, and of Sociologie du cinéma et de ses publics (“A sociology of cinema and
cinema audience”, 2006), published by Armand Colin. He also edited, together with Jean-
Louis Fabiani, the latest issue of Culture et Musées : Body is Comedy, Figures du corps au
cinéma (“Culture and museums : body is comedy, images of the body on screen” (Actes Sud,
2007). Two new titles will soon be released: Les Belles ténébreuses, une sociologie des stars
au cinéma in collaboration with Joel Chapron (“The beautiful mysterious ones, a sociology of
cinema stars”, Armand Colin) and Les oreilles recollées, sociologie de l’acteur en devenir
(“Corrective ear surgery, a sociology of the actor in the making”), a work in collaboration
with the actors Gianni Giardinelli and Samuel Perche (PUG). The latest interview of
Emmanuel Ethis can be found in the May issue of Studio Magazine “All films are political!”
Michael Gubbins is the Editor of Screen International, ScreenDaily and the respected daily
newspapers to be produced at Cannes this year. Based in London, he has been writing about
digital transformation for the last three years. He also makes frequent keynote speeches and
chairs conferences around the world on the issue, most recently Berlin, Rotterdam,
Stockholm, Montreal, Paris and London. He is a regular commentator on radio, TV and the
press in many countries. Gubbins has been a journalist for 20 years, working mainly in daily
newspapers. His career included three years editing the UK’s leading business technology
magazine. As a student, he was the recipient of a prestigious Fuji Film Scholarship, as a
director.
Thomas Hoegh is Founder and Chairman of Arts Alliance Media and Chief Executive
Officer of the parent company Arts Alliance. Arts Alliance is involved in a number of creative
industry related businesses with a technology angle. It owns cinemas, film production and
distribution companies, tv-stations, mobile and in-store media, a film school… Thomas spends
most of his time on building businesses and some of his time making large-scale outdoor
multimedia performances. Arts Alliance Media (AAM), based in London, is Europe’s leading
provider of digital film distribution services, dedicated to building a European digital network
to deliver film to the cinema, to the home and between industry players. AAM is the largest
single shareholder of LOVEFiLM International, Europe’s largest online DVD rental company.
For digital home, AAM’s Vizumi Network provides rights cleared content and the technology
to distribute digital video content over the internet. The Network carries content from the
major studios and independents, and provides download services to partner sites including
LOVEFiLM, Tiscali and Empire. Thomas holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and
a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre from Northwestern University.
Neeraj Roy is Managing Director & CEO of Hungama Mobile. Hungama are the owners of
the three biggest entertainment portals in South Asia, Hungama.com and IndiaFM.com, The #
1 Bollywood portal in the world and GamingHungama.com. Hungama Mobile has an active
Mobile Entertainment and Marketing/Applications business, which has been engaged with
over 300 brands and developed over 1000 interactive campaigns. Hungama has won over 52
awards in Digital Marketing, including 4 ABBY Golds, PMAA-Singapore and the Globes in
Miami. Hungama Mobile is the largest aggregator, developer and publisher of
BOLLYWOOD content in the world. They hold the worldwide exclusive license to over
200,000 music titles, 20,000+ videos and have worked on over 500 movie games, etc.
Hungama Mobile has now launched a Bollywood channel with over 70 operators in 25
countries on networks such as SingTel, Maxis, MTN, O2, Telis etc and also internet based
services such as Apple iTunes, MSN Music, Yahoo! Music, etc. Neeraj was recently voted
amongst the ‘50 Most influential People in Mobile Entertainment’ globally.
Adrian Sexton joined Participant Productions, as Executive Vice President in charge of
Digital, in January, 2007. Sexton most recently consulted with Participant on the DVD
release of the Academy Award ® nominated documentary “AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH,”
Richard Linklater’s “FAST FOOD NATION” and “THE WORLD ACCORDING TO
SESAME STREET.” Sexton comes to Participant from TAG Strategic, a digital media and
entertainment agency he co-founded with EMI veteran and digital pioneer Ted Cohen.
TAG’s diverse client roster has included Lionsgate, Eyespot, Qualcomm, Revver, Sandisk and
LivePlanet. Before forming TAG, Sexton headed Digital Media at Lionsgate. He oversaw the
digital campaigns for such movies as the Best Picture Academy Award ® -winning
“CRASH,” Oscar ® -winning “MONSTER’S BALL,” as well as “FAHRENHEIT 9/11,” and
the “MADEA’S FAMILY REUNION” and “SAW” franchises. A pioneer in the creation of
studio blogs for emerging directors and audience participation, Sexton released the first
MPAA-approved age-gates for online content, and negotiated an innovative digital cinema
deal with BMW Films around Lionsgate titles “SHATTERED GLASS” and “THE
COOLER.” Sexton identified multiple-platform marketing, distribution and sales
opportunities for the studio’s 8000+title film library in such high-growth markets as
broadband, mobile, digital cinema, peer-to-peer and IPTV. Sexton also was part of the team
which secured the $350 million credit facility involving the acquisition of Artisan
Entertainment.
François Yon is founder and partner of Films Distribution a sales company which has
contributed to the worldwide successful distribution of award-winning films including
Indigènes » by Rachid BOUCHAREB, « Flandres » by Bruno DUMONT, « La Raison du
plus faible » de Lucas BELVAUX, « La Tourneuse de pages » by Denis DERCOURT,
« Avida » by Benoît DELEPINE and Gustav KERVERN, « Vas vis et deviens » by Radu
MIHAILEANU, « Joyeux Noël » by Christian CARION, amongs many others. François
holds a Master in Broadcast Administration from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts
from Clark University.

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