The big news circulating inside the SLS Hotel, which this year housed the L.A. Screenings Independents, was the sudden and confusing departure of Darío Turovelzky as CEO of Telefe, which he helped make into Argentina’s most popular broadcast TV network.
When asked about the new venue, the SLS Hotel (a favorite of Portugal football/soccer ace Cristiano Ronaldo), which replaced last year’s Roosevelt Hotel (which, in turn, superseded the Century Plaza Hotel), the general opinion was favorable. However, before committing to another year, L.A. Screenings organizers sent out a survey among participants to solicit their opinions.
In terms of exhibitors — split between hotel suites and meeting tables — the number listed on the board by the elevators remained the same as last year at 55, however, according to official figures, the total number of companies was 107, including those firms that replaced other companies that canceled at the last minute (such as Ledafilms), and those who attended without registering or exhibiting. The exhibitors listed on the board came from 12 countries, in addition to the U.S. Also significant was the Latin trade media presence, together with a large group of U.S. public relations agents.
As for the number of TV content buyers, it has been reported that the event will attract over 700 of them to the studios. Many — an estimated 180 (mostly from LatAm, with a few from Hispanic Canada and the U.S.) — were at the SLS Hotel for the indie portion, which started briskly on Thursday, May 14, but slowed down on the second and final day, Friday, May 15.
Even though the L.A. Screenings independents market ended on May 15, Argentina’s Telefilms held down the indies’ “fort” with its own screenings and party on the following day, held at the same time that the major U.S. studios started their own screenings and parties (full report in VideoAge‘s Water Cooler on Thursday, May 21).
Finally, returning to the ex-Telefe bigwig Turovelzky, the unconfirmed rumor circulating at the L.A. Screenings Independents was that he was first allied with his old boss Gustavo Yankelevich, who also bid to buy Telefe from Paramount, but lost to the current owners.
Pictured above, from top l.: Media Hub’s Elif Turna, Calinos Entertainment’s Firat Gulgen and Insurgence’s Niccolo Messina, Inter Medya’s Sinem Aliskan and Beatriz Cea Okan, GRB Entertainment’s Liz Levenson and Gary Benz, Jorge Balleste of Future Today, Kanal D International’s Duda Perman, Hemisphere Media Group’s Jimmy Artega, Alejandro Leda of Runtime Media, Sheila Morris of Morris PR, and VideoAge‘s Dom Serafini
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