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BERLINALE 2014 Market / France

EFM: How the French sales agents are faring, an initial overview

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- Deals and new titles include the next Nanni Moretti, Robert Guédiguian and Maïwenn projects

EFM: How the French sales agents are faring, an initial overview

At the 64th Berlinale European Film Market, business is booming for the go-getting French international sales agents; since the beginning of the market, they have been announcing the addition of new and enticing titles to their selections, thus sealing an impressive number of deals. Here is a non-exhaustive overview of the main announcements.

Films Distribution (see news) began pre-sales for Mia Madre, by Italian Nanni Moretti, which is currently being filmed and stars Margherita Buy, John Turturro and the director himself. It is being produced by Fandango and Sacher Film, with Le Pacte (which will distribute the film in France) and Film Boutique (Germany).

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Another Italian feature that has been added to the line-up of the French international sales agent Indie Sales (see news) is Senza Pieta, by Michele Alhaique. Already in post-production, the film, produced by Lunta PKO and co-produced by Rai Cinema and the French company cine@, features Pierfrancesco Favino in the lead role.

MK2 International (see news) began pre-sales for Don't Tell Me the Boy Was Mad by Robert Guédiguian (see news), an Agat Films production that will begin filming next July and will be distributed in France by Diaphana.

StudioCanal (see news) added Rien ne sert de courir by Maïwenn (Polisse [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maïwenn
film profile
]
) to its line-up. This is a feature film produced by Les Productions du Trésor, which will begin filming next month and is set to star Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Bercot.

At the EFM, Memento Films International began selling Hubert Canaval’s Energized, the new documentary by the producer (Allegro Film) of the hits More Than Honey, We Feed the World and Let's Make Money. The French sales agent also added the American project The Free World by Jason Lew (starring Cillian Murphy and Bryce Dallas Howard) to its selection and continues pre-selling for Still Alice by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (a US project currently in pre-production and starring Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin and Kate Bosworth) and for Mr. Kaplan by Alvaro Brechner (a movie in post-production, co-produced by Uruguay and Germany).

Wild Bunch also did business with an international audience this year as it began pre-sales for Home Coming by Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

In terms of sales of completed films, the impressive results included those obtained by Gaumont (see news) with the Franco-German co-production Diplomacy [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Volker Schlöndorff (which was bought by Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Finland, Israel, Australia and Japan). Bac Films is also doing very well with Human Capital [+see also:
trailer
interview: Paolo Virzì
film profile
]
by Italian director Paolo Virzi (bought by the UK, Germany, Austria, Poland, Benelux, Switzerland, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Canada, Australia, India and China). Lastly, Rezo Films sold the Cannes title Tip Top [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Serge Bozon
film profile
]
, by Serge Bozon, to Kino Lorber for the USA.

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(Translated from French)

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