London Gears Up For The Screenings As Hundreds Of Buyers Descend On The English Capital
deadline.comA palpable sense of excitement has settled upon the English capital’s TV community as the London Screenings prepares to welcome hundreds of buyers next week.With optimism over the future of Covid-19 and restrictions now virtually all at an end, senior sources say the number of buyers coming from mainly Europe, the U.S.
and Australia is exceeding expectations from when the event was first being planned late last year, at a time when Omicron was raging.“A few weeks ago, the organizers were thinking ‘Oh shit’ but now everyone is excited,” one senior distribution source states plainly. “It’s a snowball effect.
When buyers realize the competition is coming, they all want to come.”The Screenings are organized by a quintet of some of the world’s biggest distributors and are taking place from Monday February 28.All3Media International, Banijay Rights, ITV Studios, eOne and Fremantle will each host a separate event for buyers, while several smaller distributors such a Passion Distribution, Cineflix and BossaNova also host screenings and there are a wealth of networking opportunities and cocktail parties in the diary.Deadline can reveal that eOne is the only one of five main distributors to be hosting an all-virtual event, with a set of bespoke virtual presentations tailored to buyers in London and around the world.A separate BBC Studios Showcase is taking place virtually in the earlier part of next week.
This Showcase gave birth to the Screenings around four years ago, as rival distributors were having informal meetings with buyers during the Showcase and wanted to formalize these meetings into a week-long event.Ruth Berry, ITV Studios’ Managing Director, Global Distribution, predicts attendance numbers will be at pre-Covid
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