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CANNES 2016 Market

Scorsese's The Irishman for Lucky Red

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- CANNES 2016: The firm's catalogue also includes Larrain's Jackie; Cinema will distribute Toni Erdmann, Microcinema and Film 9 The Handmaiden, Notorious Escobar, and I Wonder Pictures The Student

Scorsese's The Irishman for Lucky Red
Natalie Portman in Jackie by Pablo Larrain

The Irishman by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino, perhaps the most sought-after title at the Cannes Film Market, was bought for Italy by Lucky Red. “For us it was a question of pride, the recognition of a piece almost 30 years in the making about a hitman,” said Andrea Occhipinti, the founder of Italy’s biggest independent distributer. 

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In addition to the previously-announced winner of the Grand Prix, It's Only the End of the World [+see also:
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by Xavier Dolan, and The Salesman [+see also:
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by Asghar Farhadi, which won the awards for Best Actor and Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, Lucky Red bought Jackie, the latest film by Pablo Larrain starring Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy in the days following the assassination of JFK and The Death and Life of John F Donovan, the first English-language film by Xavier Dolan starring Kit Harington, Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain, Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates. It also purchased Meridiano di sangue by James Franco, Flammable Children by Stephen Elliott, and one of the most eagerly anticipated animated films, Early Man [+see also:
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 by Nick Park (executive producer of Shaun the Sheep [+see also:
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) by Aardman Animation with Studio Canal.

In addition to Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake [+see also:
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 by Ken Loach and Loving [+see also:
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by Jeff Nichols, which was shown in competition, Valerio De Paolis’ company Cinema will also be handling the Italian release of Toni Erdmann [+see also:
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Q&A: Maren Ade
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 by Maren Ade (sold by The Match Factory), and Paterson [+see also:
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 by Jim Jarmusch (presented by K5 Media), which were both shown in competition. Cinema’s catalogue also features The Together Project [+see also:
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 by Solveig Anspach (sold by Le Pacte), which was shown in Directors' Fortnight where it won the Sacd prize.

Microcinema and Film 9 Srl bought The Handmaiden, the latest film by Park Chan-Wook, which was shown in competition at Cannes and is based on the book Ladra by Sarah Waters. Notorious Pictures, meanwhile, has announced that it bought 11 films at the Cannes Film Market, “all of which are characterised by high levels of artistic content and significant commercial potential”, pointed out Guglielmo Marchetti, the president and CEO of Notorious. “These films were made on budgets that were on average higher than films we have bought in the past and feature casts with some very famous faces, and we believe they will allow us to take a huge leap forwards from our previous offering”. Marchetti is referring in particular to Hostiles by Scott Cooper, starring Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike and Wes Studi; Escobar, a drama/biopic by Fernando Leon de Aranoa starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz; Black Butterfly, a thriller by Brian Goodman starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Antonio Banderas, which Notorious is also executive producer for; Official Secrets, a British political thriller by Justin Chadwick starring Natalie Dormer, Paul Bettany, Martin Freeman, Harrison Ford and Anthony Hopkins; and Amy Winehouse by Kristen Sheridan, starring Noomi Rapace as the singer. The films will be distributed in Italian theatres between in either 2017 or 2018. 

Last but not least, I Wonder Pictures bought three fictional films and two documentaries for the 2016/2017 season. Glory [+see also:
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interview: Petar Valchanov
interview: Petar Valchanov, Kristina G…
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 is the new film by Bulgarian directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov (The Lesson [+see also:
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interview: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Val…
interview: Margita Gosheva
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), which will have its Italian premiere at the Biografilm Festival (Bologna, 10-20 June 2016) before being released in theatres by I Wonder and Unipol Biografilm Collection. Screened at Cannes and scheduled for release in Italian theatres next autumn, The Student, directed by Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, got critics and audiences' tongues wagging in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, where it won the François Chalais prize (previously awarded to Son of Saul [+see also:
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Q&A: László Nemes
interview: László Rajk
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 and Timbuktu [+see also:
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). I Wonder also bought the third film by Polish documentary maker Michal MarczakAll These Sleepless Nights [+see also:
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, and Zero Days by Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney, awarded at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Creature Designers - The Frankenstein Complex by Alexandre Poncet and Gilles Penso meanwhile brings us an interesting encounter with the most famous monsters in film, venturing into the history of special effects through the accounts of directors and experts, from Guillermo del Toro and John Landis to Joe Dante and Kevin Smith. 

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(Translated from Italian)

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