The “Davos” of the Catholic Film in Menton, France

The Summit

The weekend 13-14 October 2018 has seen gathered in Menton (French Riviera), in the beautiful Belle Epoque rooms of the Palace des Ambassadeurs, the leaders of the Catholic cinema world.

The occasion was the Summit called “The Catholic film and its place in the film industry”, organized by the Caficom (Catholic Film International Content Market), and hosted by Mirabile Dictu, the International Catholic Film Festival.

Producers, distributors and broadcasters from 12 countries spent two days in workshops, round tables and film screenings. They analyzed the importance of their Catholic film productions (also called “ethical films”), as a means of evangelization but also as an important reality in the film industry.

Internet Sales Platforms

An important news was announced during the Summit. It is the creation of two independent online sales platforms for Catholic (ethical) films: one owned by Goya Producciones (Spain) for Spanish-language films and the other owned by Mirabile Dictu (Italy) for selling the Catholic films in DVD in all the other languages.

Mirabile Dictu has allocated an important advertising budget to announce the existence of its platform, which is a Netflix of ethical films.

At the beginning, the platform will sell DVDs, and from the third year onwards it will add the VOD to its services. In addition, this platform also offers a section dedicated to sacred music. The online set-up of DVDs is free for producers and distributors, the platform will receive 30 percent from the DVDs sells.

The Catholic Film Market Today

Mirabile Dictu, the most important Festival dedicated to ethical films in the world, has the great merit of having drawn attention to the existence of this kind of film and of the extraordinary action that the Catholic film exerts on society.

More and more ethical productions are bought by televisions and screened in cinemas.

“The time is ripe for creating an international network that brings together the main players of this genre. The Summit gave the opportunity to those present to discuss this necessity and to decide the imminent creation of a consortium for the sector”, said Liana Marabini, president and founder of Mirabile Dictu and creator of the Summit.
She herself produces Catholic films (Mothers, La Croce e la Stella, Vivaldi the Red Priest, The Gardener of God, The Unseen World, Il Cuoco del Papa are just some of the titles of her films).