The photographs from Venice all look the same, in the best possible way: a gown, a flashbulb, a stretch of water somewhere behind it. Scroll past enough of them, and you could believe a film festival is a very long, very elegant party.
It isn’t. It is a shop, and the red carpet is the window display.
Two festivals this September made that plainer than usual. Venice handed its top prize to a film about marrying into money, and Toronto stopped pretending altogether by opening an official market.
Venice picked a story about money
The 83rd Venice Film Festival closed on 12 September, and the jury, chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal, gave the Golden Lion to Woman Unknown by the Danish director May el-Toukhy. As Euronews reported, it follows Marie, a nanny and housekeeper in Denmark after the Second World War, who marries her wealthy employer. Her new security depends on a secret staying buried. Mathilde Arcel won Best Actress for the role.
I haven’t seen it yet, and I will. But the premise alone is a financial story. Marie’s comfort is real; it is borrowed. It comes through someone else, on terms she did not write, and it is only as safe as the thing she is hiding. That is a very old plot, and it is still a very modern money lesson.
Toronto stopped pretending
The Toronto International Film Festival ran from 10 to 20 September, its 51st edition, and it launched its first official market, TIFF: The Market. Deals have always been done in Toronto, mostly in hotel bars and over late dinners. Now there is a formal room for it, following the path Berlin set with its European Film Market and Cannes with its Marché du Film.
The Canadian government spent C$23 million behind the launch, the largest single public investment TIFF has received since it built its Lightbox headquarters. More than 6,000 industry participants were expected, and the organisers paid travel and accommodation for over 200 of them to widen who was in the room. That is not a party budget. That is a trade fair budget.
Where the money changed hands
The biggest publicly disclosed deal of the festival was River, a debut slasher from Josh Giuliano, which sold to Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster for around $10 million. It is the second year running that a horror debut has topped Toronto’s sales, after Obsession last year. Prestige wins the prizes. Fear, it turns out, pays the rent.
Look at the smaller deals, and you see how the business really works. Films are rarely sold once. The rights are sliced up and sold by territory, so one buyer takes North America, another takes Europe, another takes Asia. The comedy Babies, for example, went to Roadside Attractions and Vertical for the United States, with separate buyers across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. One film, many revenue streams, each negotiated on its own terms.
What this means off the carpet
There are two lessons here, and neither needs a ticket to Venice.
The first is to know which room the money is in. The public sees the premieres. The wealth is made in the market ‘next door’. Personal finance works the same way. The headlines are the red carpet, all flash and adjectives, while the boring room, with its costs, ownership and its small print, is where your outcome is actually decided. It’s the same thinking behind The Long Lunch as a power move: the valuable conversation is rarely the one on stage.
The second is Marie’s lesson, told the other way round. Security that arrives through someone else is only as strong as the terms attached. The filmmakers who keep the rights to some territories keep their options, and the same is true for the rest of us. A skill in your own name, an income stream you control and investments held in your own account are all ways of owning your rights rather than renting them.
Where I land
I will keep enjoying the photographs, gowns and all. But when I look at them now, I find myself wondering what was being sold in the room next door, and who kept the rights. It is a surprisingly useful question to ask of my own finances too.
The Jacqueline Brand — knowledge builds confidence, and confidence builds wealth. This is editorial commentary for information and education only. It is not financial, investment or professional advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any investment. The Jacqueline Brand is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The value of investments can fall as well as rise, and past performance is not a guide to future returns. Figures were correct at the time of publication. Always do your own research and consider speaking to a regulated adviser. Where cryptoassets are discussed, they are high risk and largely unregulated in the UK, and you could lose all the money you invest. The Collection
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