The 5th edition of the BIF Market, a genre film market, will be held online with some 210 participants of 38 different nationalities and 25 work in progress from 18 countries.
The BIF Market is primarily aimed at professionals in the sector. Virtual meetings are scheduled every evening at 7 pm: New projects...future films? (7/4), Belgium in the picture (8/4), Post-Pandemic new cinema (9/4). A debate on the future of virtual reality (7/4 at 3pm) is also scheduled. All these events are intended to facilitate the meeting (virtual this year) between film professionals in a context where interractions are very complicated to set up given the pandemic context.
But that's not all, the BIF market is also a unique opportunity to create connections with all the actors involved in the creative chain, be they producers, post-producers, distributors, directors or scriptwriters. The various governmental actors such as screen.brussels, Wallimage, Screen Flanders, Casa Kafka or Eurimages are also present. There are also many Brussels companies such as Octopods Agency, Shadow Film and special effects specialists such as Be Digital or Digital Golem.
The BIF Market is obviously an opportunity to discover the films of tomorrow. Although they come from all over the world, the list also includes several local productions such as the next offbeat project by Brussels' Jérôme Van De Wattyne entitled The Belgian Wave, Matthieu Reynaert's first feature film Discordia, Maxime Pistoro's Belladonna and Sacha Feiner's The Propangandasaurus.
The regional organisations and screen.brussels are 100% behind this initiative launched by the BIF in 2016. In 5 years, the audiovisual industry has evolved significantly and this transition has accelerated over the last 12 months. In this context, Brussels has not lost its appeal and, on the contrary, is becoming an increasingly attractive city for film creation.
screen.brussels is actively participating in the BIF Market 2021 by offering explanatory videos on the mechanisms that operate in Brussels. The screen.brussels fund offers assistance to audiovisual productions that are at least partly set in our capital. As we saw in their speeches during the opening video of BIFFF Online 2021, Mr. Rudi Vervoort, Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region, Mrs. Barbara Trachte, Secretary of State of the Brussels-Capital Region, as well as Philippe Close, Mayor of the City of Brussels, fully support the BIF Market and all the projects that allow Brussels to continue its development despite the difficult context that we are all experiencing.
The BIF Market takes place online from 7 to 10 April 2021.