07/02/2023 - Wielding upcoming movies by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Robin Campillo, and Catherine Corsini, as well as new works by François Ozon and André Téchiné, the French sales agent will be making a strong comeback

Having tightened its belt in the years of the pandemic, French international sales agent Playtime is now resuming cruise speed and making a beeline for the European Film Market - unspooling within the 73rd Berlinale (running 16 – 26 February) - with an enviably enticing line-up of 13 titles spanning all genres.

By way of market screenings, the team steered by Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, Sébastien Beffa and François Yon are set to wrap the already-significant sales achieved on François Ozon’s The Crime is Mine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: François Ozon
film profile] (released in France on 8 March) and on André Téchiné’s Soul Mates [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (released in France on 12 April, with Noémie Merlant and Benjamin Voisin in lead roles).

Playtime’s post-production contingent is similarly well-armed, with a new promo reel notably on the agenda for About Dry Grasses [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
film profile], by the multi-award-winning Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Combining the production prowess of Turkey, France, Germany and Sweden, the movie will revolve around Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in. Will his encounter with Nuray, herself a teacher, help him overcome his angst ?

Promo reels are also in the offing for two French filmmakers whose last opuses saw them competing in Cannes, and who are now ready for another trip to the Croisette: Red Island [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Robin Campillo and Homecoming [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Catherine Corsini
interview: Suzy Bemba
film profile] by Catherine Corsini.

Other post-production aces up their sleeves include No Love Lost [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erwan Le Duc
film profile] by French director Erwan Le Duc, It’s Raining Men by his compatriot Caroline Vignal, The Devil’s Bath [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
film profile] by Austrians Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (the duo behind Goodnight Mommy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Severin Fiala and Veronika …
film profile], which sent shivers through Orizzonti audiences in Venice 2014), the documentary Antarctica Calling [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by French director Luc Jacquet (March of the Penguins [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and the debut fiction feature films Quitter la nuit [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Delphine Girard
film profile] by Belgium’s Delphine Girard (starring Selma Alaoui, Veerle Baetens, Guillaume Duhesme and Anne Dorval), and For Night Will Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Céline Rouzet
film profile] by French filmmaker Céline Rouzet. All these titles are also set to be sold via promo reel.

The Hanged is another movie well worth a mention in post-production, by Brazil’s Fernando Coimbra (acclaimed for A Wolf At the Door), and in terms of finished films, Michel Ocelot’s animated title The Black Pharaoh, The Sauvage and The Princess [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

For the record, Playtime will also be attending Berlin via its subsidiaries: Germany’s Films Boutique (read news), Belgian firm Be For Films (offering up İlker Çatak’s German production The Teachers' Lounge [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: İlker Çatak
interview: Leonie Benesch
film profile] in the Panorama line-up) and UK outfit (Film Constellation).

(Translated from French)