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BERLINALE 2018 Market / Italy

A barrage of Italian sales and acquisitions at Berlin

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- BERLIN 2018: Successful sales were racked up at the German gathering for Paolo Virzì’s Notti Magiche and Ferzan Ozpetek’s Naples in Veils

A barrage of Italian sales and acquisitions at Berlin
Naples in Veils by Ferzan Ozpetek

Topping the list of sales by the Italian international sales agents at the European Film Market in Berlin (to date) is the incredible success of Magical Nights [+see also:
film review
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by Paolo Virzì, which was pre-sold by Bac Films International for seven territories based on its screenplay and some early images (see the article about the production of the film). Virzì’s movie, which is now in post-production, has been acquired by Time Vision for China, Imovision for Brazil, Against Gravity for Poland, Strada Films for Greece, Lev Films for Israel, Filmarti for Turkey and Filmcoopi for Switzerland.

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Some impressive sales figures were also racked up for Naples in Veils [+see also:
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by Ferzan Ozpetek, which has raked in €5.7 million in Italy in its first four weeks on general release. True Colours has sold it to Prokino for German-speaking countries, Aurora for Poland, Stars Media for the territories of the former Yugoslavia and Albania, and Swallow Wings for Taiwan.

The comedy Like a Cat on a Highway [+see also:
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by Riccardo Milani (€9.3 million at the Italian box office) will be distributed in Spain (Caramel Films) and Greece (Weird Wave). Luca Miniero’s I Am Back [+see also:
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was acquired by Seven Films (Greece), Augusto Fornari’s The Family House [+see also:
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by Alfa Pictures for Spain, and L’ora legale [+see also:
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making of
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by Kairos for Germany. True Colours also sold the documentary Michelangelo-Infinito to First Run (South Korea) and Weird Wave (Greece).

But it was I Wonder Pictures that secured the Italian distribution of the film that won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, bagging the rights to Touch Me Not [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adina Pintilie
film profile
]
by Adina Pintilie (also awarded for Best First Feature). The company headed up by Andrea Romeo also acquired Museum by Alonso Ruizpalacios, which was crowned with the Silver Bear for Best Script. I Wonder Pictures, which was also present at the EFM in the guise of a sales agent, states that the acquisition of these two movies is part of an editorial policy that homes in on “today’s most interesting subjects and auteurs on both the international and the Italian scene”.

One of the acquisition deals signed for Italy at the EFM (which have been made public so far) is the one inked by Officine Ubu, which bought The Kindergarten Teacher by Italy’s Sara Colangelo, a director working in New York, from Protagonist Pictures; the movie stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gael García Bernal, and was awarded for Best Director at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. At the Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, which took place at the end of January, Officine Ubu acquired the comedy Jalouse [+see also:
film review
trailer
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by David and Stéphane Foenkinos. At the EFM, Adler Entertainment purchased the second instalment in the British-German series of animated films Monster Family by Holger Tappe, which is due for release in 2020, as well as the thriller Black Water: Abyss by Andrew Traucki. BIM bought the biopic What Is Life Worth by David Frankel (Collateral Beauty), starring Michael Keaton; and The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, a comedy based on a Broadway play, directed by Andy Fickman and starring Sharon Stone. Lastly, let’s take a look at Eagle Pictures’ acquisitions: it bought the family film Mia and the White Lion [+see also:
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by Gilles de Maistre, starring Melanie Laurent, and the comedy Le Grand Bain [+see also:
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by Gilles Lellouche, starring Mathieu Amalric and Guillaume Canet, from StudioCanal; plus other titles such as The Other Woman, a comedy directed by and starring Daniel Auteuil, alongside Gerard Depardieu; the family title Show Dogs [+see also:
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, helmed by Raja Gosnell and starring Stanley Tucci; and Green Book by Peter Farrelly, toplined by Viggo Mortensen.

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(Translated from Italian)

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