French sellers have 10 titles in competition

by Fabien Lemercier

12/02/2010 - With half the Golden Bear contenders at the Berlinale in their line-ups, French international sellers are proving their dynamism and ability to attract productions from across the world.

In the Berlin competition, Doc & Film International is represented by Japanese director Koji Wakamatsu’s Caterpillar; Funny Balloons by French duo Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern’s Mammuth [trailer, film focus]; TF1 International (in partnership with UGC - see news) by German director Oskar Roehler’s Jew Suss: Rise and Fall [trailer]; and Films Distribution (see news) by Austrian filmmaker Benjamin Heisenberg’s The Robber [trailer, film focus].

Three companies have two films in competition: Memento Films (see news) has Burhan Qurbani’s German production Faith [trailer] and Natalia Smirnoff’s Argentinean/French co-production Puzzle [trailer]; Wild Bunch (see news) has Michael Winterbottom’s US/UK film The Killer Inside Me [trailer] and Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s A Woman, A Gun And A Noodle Shop; while Celluloid Dreams (see news) has Florin Serban’s Romanian/Swedish film If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle [trailer] and Apart Together by China’s Wang Quan An.

A total of 29 French sales companies have been in action since yesterday at the European Film Market. Fifteen of these are under the umbrella of the Unifrance stand, including Pyramide (see news), Le Pacte, Les Films du Losange, Other Angle Picture, Coproduction Office, Bac Films, SND/M6, Coach 14, Alfama Films, FTD, Wide Management and Umedia.

Other sellers in attendance at Berlin are StudioCanal (see news), Gaumont, EuropaCorp, Kinology, Rezo (see news), Pathé (see news), Elle Driver, Roissy Films, Insomnia and MK2 (see news).

Paradoxically, one of the two French initiative productions in competition, Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer [trailer], is not being sold by a French company. Across all the sections, French cinema is represented at the Berlinale 2010 by 23 features (and a short), while Claire Denis will take part in a masterclass at the Berlinale Talent Campus.

(Translated from French)