25/05/2012 - Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s Golden Palm contender is now licensed to more than 20 territories – Escape goes to US, Australia, UK and four others

Danish international sales agency TrustNordisk has reported strong trade from its Cannes catalogue, spearheaded by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s Golden Palm contender, The Hunt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile] – his return to Cannes 14 years after his Festen (The Celebration) won the Jury Prize on the Côte d’Azur.

“Both the reviews and the interest from the buyers have been overwhelming,” said TrustNordisk CEO Rikke Ennis of Vinterberg’s Mads Mikkelsen starrer, which has so far sold in more than 20 territories, including Italy (BIM Distribuzione), in addition to the UK (Arrow Film Distributors), Benelux (Wild Bunch Benelux) and France (Pretty Pictures). Also covered are Russia (Russian Report), Poland (Kino Swiat), Romania (Independenta Film ), Czech Republic, Slovakia (CinemArt), Greece (Seven Films), Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay (Speed Well), Israel (Lev Cinemas), Colombia (Babille Ciné) and Former Yugoslavia, Albania (Cinemania).

“Here is one of our bestselling titles at Cannes,” Ennis said of Norwegian Cold Prey [+see also:
trailer
interview: Roar Uthaug
film profile] director Roar Uthaug’s Escape, which was screened to buyers only and picked up by Entertainment One (North America), Rialto Distribution (Australia), Momentum Pictures (UK), Koch Media Gmbh (Germany), Aurum Producciones S.A (Spain), Film Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia) and Gulf Film (Middle East). Opening in September, the medieval horror flick set in plague-ravaged Norway 1663 is about a family attacked by robbers who spare only the life of the daughter. And she wants out.

Swedish Kurdish-born director Karzan Kader’s first feature, Bekas, was introduced by the trailer, yet it enjoyed immediate sales to Arrow Films (for UK), Rialto Distribution (Australia, New Zealand), Cineart (Benelux), Israel (Lev Films), Sonamu Pictures (South Korea), Serenity Entertainment (Taiwan) and Falcon Films (Middle East). From Sweden’s Sonet Film AB-Producer on the Move Sandra Harms, the winner of the Silver Student Oscar is set in Iraqi Kurdistan during 1990s Saddam Hussein regime, following two homeless Kurdish boys who have watched Superman in the local cinema, then decide to run away to the US. It will be launched in November.

After screening a two-minute promo of Icelandic director Reynir Lyngdal’s Frost, TrustNordisk sold the sci-fi thriller to UK’s Momentum Pictures, Canada’s Entertainment One and Russia’s Big Movie. Shot entirely on a glacier in the Icelandic highlands, Lyngdal’s second feature follows a young couple arriving at a drilling camp only to find it abandoned; soon they realise they are up against “a deadly force”. Produced by Ingvar Thórdarson and Júlíus Kemp for Kisi Production, it will be released in September.