We're midway through Cannes Film Festival, so in step with the deal making on a rainy Croisette this week, we thought it timely to highlight a few international films listed on Slated, a handful of which are represented at the market now.

Sunrise is an international co-production helmed by Partho Sen-Gupta and is showcasing in Cannes at Marche du Film from May 15-24.  Producer Rakesh Mehra can be found at the India Pavillion during the market.  Sunrise’s European co-producers Bero Beyer (Netherlands) and Fabian Massah (Germany) are in Cannes for those same dates.

Shoplifters of the World, directed by Stephen Kijak will also have representation at Cannes by way of producer Olivier Aknin.  The project will be a UK/US co-production, produced by Lorainne Hall.

Javier Fuentes Leon’s The Vanished Elephant (El Elefante Desaparecido), with plans to shoot in Peru, will be repped by producer Rodrigo Guerrero.  Rodrigo is producing with Michel Ruben.  The award-winning Colombian film Undertow was this team’s last production together and garnered international critical acclaim. Undertow won the World Cinema Audience Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Eugene Nomura and Yoko Narahashi, producers on Ross Katz’s Japan/Europe/US co-production 29 Days are attending.  29 Days is written by Rob Travalino, and also produced by Chris Bongirne.  
 
Amongst other international projects, is the Irish/Canadian hybrid Fairytale, starring Kate Bosworth and Keifer Sutherland, with Lisa Katselas producing via her banner Katselas Films and executive producing with Rob Montrone.  
 
Notable as well is the Untitled Diego Maradona Project, written by Mark Monroe and to be directed by Paul Crowder, with Paul Martin and Morgan Sackett producing.  
 
So look out for more updates on these and other international projects, as this is the time of the year that highlights the talented filmmaking and hybrid production opportunities there are around the world. We are proud to have listed this strong selection of promising projects, some of which may very well be at next year’s Cannes. 

And if anyone would like to meet up regarding Slated, Susan Wrubel is currently representing us at Cannes.

Hello all,

It is my utmost pleasure to announce very first films for which Slated secured financing.  My sincerest congratulations go out to filmmakers Christian Camargo and Marina Zenovich and their entire teams for successfully using Slated to attract the finance needed for their films.

Christian’s currently Untitled retelling of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull and Marina’s Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out, a follow-up to the award-winning theatrical documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired, have officially become the first two feature film projects to raise significant portions of their production funding through our site.  

The film marks Christian’s directorial debut and has attracted a stellar cast that also includes Allison Janney, (Juno, The Help) who is set to play the role of a movie actress, the modern-day incarnation of Irina Arkadina in The Seagull.  Academy Award-winner William Hurt (Into The Wild, History Of Violence) will play her ailing brother, and Katie Holmes will play the temperamental daughter of the estate's caretaker.  Also in talks to join this ensemble are Russell Means (The Last of The Mohicans), Jean Reno (The Professional), Mark Rylance (Anonymous, The Other Boleyn Girl) and Juliet Rylance (Sinister).

Juliet is producing with Barbara Romer, the founder and CEO of New Globe Theater, and with Co-producer Ed Vassallo.

Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out is produced by Lila Yacoub, Odd Man Out explores the recent legal wrangling involved in trying to bring Mr. Polanski back to the United States after more than 30 years of exile.  A saga that plays out over two continents, Odd Man Out re-teams the original film’s executive producers Steven Soderbergh and Randy Wooten.

Christian’s Untitled film grabbed the attention of Mark Stewart, a film investor on Slated, who promptly began discussions with the creative team. As Mark kindly said, “Slated is a fantastic and much needed innovation in independent film finance. As a private investor it provides me the opportunity to be involved in high caliber films and such is the quality of the projects, I invested within a week of joining.”

In the case of Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out, the documentary gained traction with several investors almost immediately after it was listed.

Lila, producer of Odd Man Out gave us an amazing quote saying, “Slated investors were a great fit with the rest of our financing, and came together to support the project at a perfect time for us.  The ease in which Slated is able to match investors with the appropriate project is a testament to how well the Slated team understands the process of financing a film". Thanks Lila.

I once again extend our warmest congratulations to these teams.  This is the reason we exist and we are thrilled that Slated has helped unlock film financing for these films as they have all the values we believe in and have made it our mission to support: talented creative teams that develop and package viable projects for today’s market.

Duncan Cork

CEO, Slated, Inc.

This is a busy season for Slated. Not only are three films showing in Tribeca Film Festival right now, but we have some great news from our growing community.

Firstly, two incredible actors have signed on for Jim Rash and Nat Faxon's directorial debut, The Way, Way Back. Congrats to Jim and Nat for corralling Steve Carrell and Toni Collette, who join an already stellar cast including Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney and AnnaSophia Robb. 

Seasoned industry leader Peter Newman, whose films have appeared in all the most competitive festivals worldwide, has just joined the community. Newman is currently working on a film based on the life of Janis Joplin.  Also newly welcomed is producer Grace Loh, whose instant teenage cult classic “Hot Tub Time Machine” (2010) highlighted her aptitude with comedy. Loh also produced the 2008 political satire "War, Inc." and the 2007 drama "Grace is Gone” with her producing partner John Cusack.  The same knack for both comedy and heartfelt drama can be found in Lucy Donnelly, who most recently produced "That's What She Said." Donnelly is also known for Academy Award-nominated "Pieces of April" (2003).  
 
New member Nick Morton, whose most recent “Fat Kid Rules the World” received an audience award at this year’s SXSW, and best known for “Ray,” starring Jamie Foxx as the legendary Ray Charles (2004).  We also welcome Hunter Gray, Producer of the 2011 Sundance award winner “Another Earth” (starring none other than Slated co-founder William Mapother).
 
In addition we are pleased to welcome actor/producer/director Adrian Grenier, perhaps best known for his starring role in the popular HBO series “Entourage” as well as his roles in “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006) and “Drive Me Crazy” (1999).

Thank you for your continued participation in Slated, and we hope this update has helped inspire you to pursue new projects and partnerships.

Team Slated

Another fortnight has passed, which means it's once again time to single out some of the new members who have come aboard this fantastic project of ours, and welcome them to the community.

As we've mentioned previously, though, it's not just producers we love to see (although, there is another notable producer-director Marina Zenovich, who gave us "Roman Polanksi: Wanted & Desired"), but anyone involved in the making of movies. To wit, hardy tidings are offered to casting director Heidi Levitt ("JFK," "Nixon," "Natural Born Killers," "The Artist") and distribution and new media focused agent Liesl Copland, of WME Global Finance and Distribution Group.

While we are not highlighting new projects this time around, it doesn't mean they aren't any new ones on the site. We're just waiting for you to tell us more about them. You have two weeks until the next report to feature you and your latest magnum opus!

Until then, this is the Slated team, signing off. See you in two weeks!

The chill of winter has faded and spring is here. Another two weeks have passed and we are proud to announce more members of esteem and prestige that have joined our ranks on Slated 
 
The beginning of spring means the anticipated arrival of the Tribeca Film Festival - the annual beacon of independent film that takes over lower Manhattan for 10 days every April. Slated is proud that a trio of films featured on our site have been honored with selection at the 2012 Fest: “High Tech, Low Life," “Future Weather” and “Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey." We congratulate these three films on this incredible achievement. 

We were also thrilled to welcome Mark Ordesky to the rolls, the founding partner in Amber Entertainment and Court Five Productions. Speaking of esteem, during Mark's tenure at New Line Cinema, he acquired or executive produced over 60 films, including the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Along with Mark, we welcome award-winning producer and founding partner of Protozoa Pictures, Eric Watson, who produced “Pi” and “Requiem for a Dream,” and is attached to direct “The Savage,” “Diesel” (with Kenny Wormald and Taryn Manning) and “Anika,” as well as Tommy Pallotta — who produced Richard Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly” and “Waking Life,” and directed the Emmy-nominated transmedia thriller “Collapsus” — and Jamie Patricof, Lynette Howell’s partner at Electric City and producer of “Blue Valentine” and “Half Nelson.” Likewise, it’s nice to have another renaissance man on the team, Scott Macauley, who holds a series of titles that include producer, executive, writer, editor and journalist, editor-in-chief of Filmmaker Magazine and co-president of Forensic Films, with credits including “Raising Victor Vargas,” “Gummo,” “The Chateau” and “Idlewild.” We welcome all to the Slated community. 

Which brings us to the end of another update. It goes by so quickly, doesn’t it? If you want to see yourself or your film featured in one of these bi-weekly messages, keep updating your profile to alert the fantastic and growing community of creative people that we are. 

See you in two weeks!

The Slated Team

Has it been two weeks already? It seems like no time has passed since our late update, and yet so much has happened in that time! 

We also wanted to congratulate Nat Faxon and Jim Rash for their Oscar win for "The Descendants" - best adapted screenplay. One of our favorite Oscar moments was, while director Alexander Payne was accepting on behalf of his co-writers, Rash (who is so brilliant on "Community") stuck out his leg in a spot-on impression of Angelina Jolie. The duo of Faxon and Rash are working as writer-directors on "The Way, Way Back," and produced by Kevin Walsh ("War of the Worlds," "The Hours," "The Royal Tenenbaums"). We're proud to have their film on our site. 

The expanding list of executives who have joined the roster includes Mike Elliot, a partner and producer at Capital Arts Entertainment, producer and founder of Cine Mosaic Lydia Pilcher ("The Talented Mr. Ripley," "Amelia," "The Darjeeling Limited") co-president of Film Independent Josh Welsh, co-president of Bold Films Gary Michael Walters ("Drive," "Legion"), EVP of finance at IM Global Michael Roban, and Dana Harris, who only happens to be the editor-in-chief of Indiewire. When you look at the list of films and TV shows for which these people and companies are responsible, the mind reels.

As if all that weren't enough, veteran film journalist Colin Brown wrote a fantastic piece about Slated this past week - featured here in CNBC Business.

Which brings us to the end of another update. As always, our goal with our updates is to alert the Slated community to the new arrivals, freshly listed projects, and new features. So until the next one...

The Slated Team

Read The Hollywood Reporter's exclusive article.

As an addition to this fantastic piece by THR, I'd like to add that this would not have been possible without the collaboration of co-founders William Mapother, Gavan Gravesen and Stephan Paternot, or all the hard work and dedication of Jennifer Anderson, Mark Chackerian, Matt Semanyshyn, Susan Wrubel, Christin Roman and the guys at Type/Code. 

We will continue to strive to increase efficiency and capital in independent film. See you online.

Duncan Cork, CEO

After many sleepless nights and working on weekends, all of us at Team Slated are all excited to finally have you here. This is our first blog, our initial opening, our genesis...so I'd like to take the chance to let you know what's been happening at Slated HQ.

Over the summer, we sent out a mailing to those that may have wanted a Private Beta invitation. Our initial outreach resulted in an overwhelming response, and we've been inundated with thousands of requests for invitations from investors and filmmakers.

For those of you that made it...welcome. For those that didn't, we do apologize. We had very limited availability but we will be opening up the site in the coming months and will let you know when that happens.

As a company, we are very mindful of the importance of meaningful business relationships. Right now, we are very focused on helping our community to increase network reach, manage dealflow, and get in front of quality vetted films and a trusted network of filmmakers, investors, distributors and sales agents.

We have a lot more in store for you and will continue to grow and improve this site as rapidly as we can. And if you are one of the pioneers to use Slated, your opinions are invaluable, so please do not hesitate to send your comments to us through our feedback system found on the bottom right corner of the site. We'd love to hear from you.

That's all for now. I look forward to seeing you online. 

From now till then

Duncan Cork, CEO