CILP/TIFF: Lecture on International Film Financing & screening of Hotel Rwanda with producer Martin Katz

Friday, October 4, 2013 - 10:00 to 13:00
Location: 
TIFF Bell Lightbox 350 King Street West, Toronto, Canada

Hotel Rwanda

When: Oct. 4 10:00am – 1:00pm
Where: TIFF Bell Lightbox 350 King Street West


MK Headshot

Photo by Caitlin Cronenberg

There are war stories behind every war story. In 1994, Martin Katz (U of T Law ‘84) negotiated a pioneering international feature film coproduction when he brought together investment from investors in the UK, Italy and South Africa with two American studios to make the Academy Award and Golden Globe multi-nominee Hotel Rwanda. Since then, his company, Prospero Pictures, has specialized in this type of film financing, once thought impossibly complicated for feature films because of the uncertainty, difficulty of raising capital quickly, and differing cultural agendas and nuances — any one of which is sufficient to kill a project. Katz has produced or executive-produced many award-winning feature film and television productions, including Michael Winterbottom’s The Claim and Bronwen Hughes’ Stander, which the London Observer called “the greatest heist film since Reservoir Dogs.” Katz’s long-term collaboration with celebrated director David Cronenberg includes the critically acclaimed Spider, starring Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Richardson; A Dangerous Method, starring Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender; and 2012’s Cosmopolis, starring Robert Pattinson, Paul Giamatti and Juliette Binoche, the first Don DeLillo novel to make it to the big screen, as well as the forthcoming Maps to the Stars, starring Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska.

Mr. Katz’s talk on the lawyering behind the international financing of films will be followed by a screening of Hotel Rwanda and a Q&A with the audience.

For more information, contact Jennifer Millson at j.millson@utoronto.ca