Preferring to be based half-way between the Potsdamer Platz and the Martin Gropius Bau, instead of having a stand at the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival, French international sales outfit Wild Bunch – who have been a little sour about the absence in official competition of Laurent Tirard’s Molière [trailer] – are still one of the major players at the market that begins on Thursday.
Its line-up features over 40 films, by Claude Chabrol, Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh, Luc Jacquet and Alain Corneau, among others.

The Wild Bunch team, headed by Vincent Maraval, expects to do good business with Chabrol’s La fille coupée en deux (see news), starring Benoît Magimel, Ludivine Sagnier and François Berléand. The title has already been sold to France, Switzerland, Portugal, the former Yugoslavia and German-speaking territories in Europe.

New films featuring at the market include Olivier Jean-Marie’s animated title Tous à l’ouest, une aventure de Lucky Luke, Vera Belmont’s Survivre avec les loups (a Stephan Films film co-produced with Belgian outfit Saga Film) and Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs (Saint Ange), a mysterious story about the kidnapping of a child and its murderous consequences 15 years later.

International projects in the promising line-up include Soderbergh’s Che, Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream (in post-production), the upcoming film by Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Orphanage (produced by Guillermo del Toro), Korean director Im Kwon Taek’s Beyond the Years, Hana Makhmalbaf’s Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame, La Zona by Mexico’s Rodrigo Pla (Student Oscar winner for Best Short with El Ojo En La Nuca), Puffball by UK helmer Nicolas Roeg, D. Jud Jones and Risto Topaloski’s animated feature Film Noir and Howard McCain’s Outlander.

As for French productions, Wild Bunch has a more abundant offer with a teaser for Corneau’s Second Wind [trailer] (with Daniel Auteuil, Monica Bellucci and Michel Blanc), preview screenings of Jacquet’s Fox & the Child and Actrice, directed by and starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, as well as promo reels for Marc Caro’s sci-fi thriller Dante 01, Samuel Benchetrit’s J’ai toujours rêvé d’être un gangster and Olivier Doran’s Pur week-end.

Documentaries also feature in the line-up, with Gilles de Maistre’s The First Cry and Barbet Schroeder’s Terror’s Advocate, and another animated film in the line-up is directing duo Sam and Fred Guillaume’s Max & Co.

Market screenings that will make their international premiere are Laurent Tirard’s Molière, Pierre Salvadori’s Priceless [trailer] and Éric Barbier’s The Snake [trailer], as well as David Gordon Green’s Snow Angels (in competition at Sundance) and, last but not least, Emanuele Crialese’s Venice prize-winner Golden Door [trailer, film focus].