12/05/2015 - The firm has a super-size line-up, with five contenders for the Palme d'Or, 13 films in the various Cannes selections and an enormous number of forthcoming titles in reserve

A few days after it announced the founding of Insiders, an LA-based company that will sell independent US movies worldwide (including the upcoming films by Jeff Nichols and Sean Penn), the European mini-major Wild Bunch is about to come hurtling into the Film Market of the 68th Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off tomorrow.

With five titles from its slate duking it out in the competition (Marguerite et Julien [+see also:
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film profile] by French director Valérie Donzelli, Dheepan [+see also:
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Q&A: Jacques Audiard
film profile] by her fellow countryman Jacques Audiard – sales shared with Celluloid Dreams –, Our Little Sister by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-Eda, The Assassin by Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Chronic by Mexican director Michel Franco), Wild Bunch has confirmed its status as the number-one international sales agent for first-rate arthouse films from around the globe. For the record, since it was created, Wild Bunch has always been able to count (apart from in 2005) at least one film in the running for the top honour at Cannes (seven in 2006, six in 2013, four in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009 and 2014, three in 2000, 2011 and 2012, two in 2004 and 2010, and one in 2007).

In total, the team managed by Vincent Maraval and headed by Carole Baraton will be selling nine films being showcased in the Official Selection, with Love [+see also:
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film profile] by Gaspar Noé (Midnight Screening), the animated film The Little Prince [+see also:
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making of
film profile] by Mark Osborne (out of competition), The Treasure [+see also:
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interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
film profile] by Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu (Un Certain Regard) and the environmentally focused Ice and the Sky [+see also:
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film profile] by Luc Jacquet, which will bring the gathering to a close.

Also featuring on Wild Bunch’s line-up are two French titles in the Directors’ Fortnight (In the Shadow of Women [+see also:
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film profile] by Philippe Garrel – which will open the programme of the parallel section - and My Golden Years [+see also:
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film profile] by Arnaud Desplechin) and Les anarchistes [+see also:
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film profile] by Elie Wajeman, which will open the Critics’ Week out of competition. Lastly, the Cinéma de la Plage screenings include the world premiere of Rabid Dogs [+see also:
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film profile] by Eric Hannezo (starring Lambert Wilson, Virginie Ledoyen and François Arnaud in this remake of a Mario Bava film).

Purely on the market side of things, Wild Bunch will be launching pre-sales for a raft of new titles set to be shot in the coming months. Standing out among them are projects by filmmakers who have already won at Cannes, including the as-yet untitled upcoming film [+see also:
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Q&A: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Cristian Mungiu
film profile] by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu (revolving around the relationship between a father and daughter – produced by Mobra Films, Why Not and Wild Bunch) and The Unknown Girl [+see also:
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Q&A: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
film profile] by Belgium’s Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne (read the article – toplined by French actress Adèle Haenel).

It is also worth mentioning 150 Milligrams by Emmanuelle Bercot (who will open the Cannes Festival tomorrow with Standing Tall [+see also:
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interview: Emmanuelle Bercot
film profile]), a Haut et Court production that will star Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen) in an adaptation of the book Mediator 150mg, How Many Deaths? by Irène Frachon.

Also of note are two features staged by Les Productions du Trésor: From the Land of the Moon [+see also:
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film profile] by Nicole Garcia (based on the novel by Italy’s Milena Agus – starring Marion Cotillard and Louis Garrel) and The Dancer [+see also:
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film profile] by Stephanie Di Giusto (starring Soko and Elle Fanning in the lead roles as they perform at the Folies Bergères cabaret music hall in 1920s Paris).

This summer will also see the shoot and the launch of pre-sales for The Odyssey [+see also:
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film profile] by Jérôme Salle (starring Lambert Wilson as oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Pierre Niney as his son – produced by Pan-Européenne and Fidélité Films) and for the English-language project The History of Love [+see also:
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film profile] by Franco-Romanian director Radu Mihaileanu, based on the novel of the same name by Nicole Krauss (executive-produced on the French side by 2.4.7. Films, starring John Hurt, Gemma Arterton and Sophie Nélisse).

Finally, also being added to the slate is the animated film The Red Turtle by Oscar-winning Dutch filmmaker Dudok de Wit (with a screenplay co-written by Pascale Ferran – produced by Why Not Productions and Wild Bunch, co-produced by Studio Ghibli, Belvision, Arte France Cinéma and CN4 Productions, with Prima Linea as line producer), which is currently in production.

At Cannes, Wild Bunch will also be organising market premieres for The Sweet Escape [+see also:
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film profile] by Bruno Podalydès, the Australian-Irish co-production Strangerland [+see also:
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film profile] by Kim Farrant (revealed at Sundance) and Martyrs by US directors Kevin and Michael Goetz, while simultaneously continuing to work on several titles in production such as Snowden [+see also:
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interview: Oliver Stone
film profile] by Oliver Stone and The Neon Demon [+see also:
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Q&A: Nicolas Winding Refn
film profile] by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (sales shared with Gaumont), as well as those in post-production, such as Voyage of Time [+see also:
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film profile] by Terrence Malick, Evolution [+see also:
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film profile] by Lucile Hadzihalilovic (read the article), La peur [+see also:
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film profile] by Damien Odoul (read the article), La fille du patron [+see also:
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film profile] by Olivier Loustau (read the article) and La Dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil [+see also:
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film profile] by Joann Sfar (read the article). 

(Translated from French)