Twenty European distributors - including U.K.’s Artificial Eye,Spain’s Vertice and Italy’s Bolero - will attend a 3-day event at San Sebastián, organized by Europa Distribution, an umbrella organization with 110 members from 26 countries.

Participants will visit the fest’s Cinema in Motion and Films in Progress sidebars and take part in a closed 2-day VOD workshop on Sept 18-19.

VOD workshops over recent years have been primarily forward-looking, chasing the elusive long tail. But this workshop promises a nuts and bolts approach - providing operational information on the market, including new business models, legal practices, key platforms and technical issues.

“We’ve been talking about these trends over the last few years, but things are now coming to a head, with global players finally arriving in the European market”suggests tworkshop moderator Pierre-Alexandre Labelle, co-founder of French VOD aggregator, Under the Milky Way, that has inked deals with platforms such as i-Tunes.

Europe’s two most advanced VOD markets are the U.K. and France, with estimated 2011 revenues of ?200 million ($273.4 million) each, in which Apple’s i-Tunes platform has already carved out over a 15% market share.

Other global players that will soon be vying for major VOD business include Netflix, Google and Sony - which operates Video Unlimited and has inbuilt VOD services in its Bravia TVs and Playstation consoles.

Isabella Lindell from Sweden’s Non Stop Entertainment will discuss her company’s experiences with simultaneous theatrical and VOD releases, such as Morgan Spurlock’s product placement doc The Greatest Movie Ever Sold which is currently playing on Scandinavia’s biggest VOD platform, SF Anytime.

Pierre-Alexandre Labelle will talk about his company’s simultaneous VOD release in seven European territories of Austrian documentary Pianomania.

Frances Harvey of U.K.’s Soda Pictures will explore how to maximize VOD opportunities for independent, art house and world cinema titles and profile her dealing with four key U.K. VOD platforms – FilmFlex, i-tunes, Blinkbox and LoveFilm.

“At present there’s a major power play in the market associated to who needs who,” Harvey explains. “Platforms need content and distributors need revenues”.

Other workshop speakers include Nicola Weissman (Frenetic,Switzerland),Juan
Carlos Tous (Filmin, Spain), Cécile Despringres (Society of Audiovisual Authors,
Belgium) and Ania Jones (Vertice,Spain).

Given the focus of the attending distributors, one of the main goals will be to analyze how art films can maximize their access to the main VOD platforms and orchestrate new marketing approaches designed for a global audience.

MARTIN DALE