21/05/2005

Undoubtedly the star of the Cannes market, the European co-production Merry Christmas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Carion
interview: Christophe Rossignon
film profile] allowed the international sales team of Films Distribution, headed by Nicolas Brigaut-Robert assisted by François Yon and Didar Domehri to shoot to the summit. The film by Frenchman Christian Carion was bought by Sony Pictures for distribution in the U.S., the U.K., South America and Italy. This sale ranks as one of the most important of this year’s market and probably places the film’s opening day before the end of October in order to put it on course for the 2006 Oscars or in December to tie in with the feature’s subject matter. Bought by UGC for France, Cinéart for Benelux, Future Film for Scandinavia and Filmtrade for Greece, Merry Christmas will also be distributed in Germany (Senator) and in ex-Yugoslavia.

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Elsewhere, Films Distribution kicked off pre-sales for Lady Chatterley’s lover directed by French woman Pascale Ferrand, which seduced notably Future Film for Scandinavia, Rosebud for Greece and Toshiba for Japan. Sold too in advance to Japan, Return to Normandy, the next documentary by Nicolas Philibert, has a line of buyers eager to see the first images. For its part, Cache cache [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Yves Caumon was bought by Cnc (the New Cinema Cooperative) for Belgium, a territory for which Les Films de l’Elysée pre-bought I saw Ben Barka get killed by Serge Le Peron and the next Colline Serreau film (Saint Jacques). Finally, the French sales outfit completed its booty with L'Esquive [+see also:
trailer
film profile] acquired by Notro Films for Spain and Un Fil à la patte by Michel Deville, bought by, among others, Cinefile for the U.K.

(Translated from French)