35 sales agents for 50 European productions

by Vitor Pinto

08/09/2005 - 35 agents from 14 European countries will handle the sales of 50 films from the old continent at the Toronto International Film Festival (8-17 September), in an initiative organised within the framework of the European Film Promotion's support scheme "Film Sales Support" (FSS).

Already in its second year, the FSS grants cover half of the costs for the production of promotional material and of further public relations activities needed for the promotion of a film at the festival. Toronto is so far the biggest event for FSS in this year's calendar. After the Canadian festival, the Hamburg based institution will also support a similar event at the Festival of Rio de Janeiro (22 September – 6 October) and Pusan (6 – 14 October).

From France come 11 sales agents with a total of 14 films, including two premieres from the Venice Film Festival - Patrice Chéreau's Gabrielle [trailer] (Studio Canal) and Philippe Garrel's Regular Lovers [trailer] (Films Distribution) – as well as Antony Cordier's Cold Showers [trailer] (Wild Bunch), Nobuhiro Suwa's A Perfect Couple (Comme des Cinémas), Fien Troch's Someone Else's Happiness (Celluloid Dreams), Philippe Faucon's The Betrayal (Kinok Films), Sophie Fillières's Waiting (Les Films du Losange), Fabienne Berthaud's Frankie (MK2), Anne Fontaine's Entre ses mains (Pathé), Laïla Marrakchi's Marock (Roissy Films), and Perry Ogden Irish film The Traveller Girl [trailer], managed by Wide Management.

British sales agents attending the Toronto are Capitol Films (presenting The Last Hangman by Adrian Shergold and The Mistress Of Spices by Paul Berges), Hanway Films (Brothers Of The Head by Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe), Highpoint Films handling the sales of Theo Van Gogh's final film 6/05: The Sixth of May [trailer], Pathe Pictures International with Annie Griffin's Festival, Taghreed Elsanhouri with All About Darfur, Vixen Films with Sisters in Law by Kim Longinotto & Florence Ayisi and The Works representing the Italian production Mario's War by Antonio Capuano and the Richard E. Grant film Wah-Wah.

Germany's Bavaria Film International will look after 3 productions (among them the Spanish-German film Obaba by Montxo Armendáriz, which will open the forthcoming San Sebastian Film Festival on September 15), whereas the other 4 German-based sales agents will present one film each: Beta Cinema (Hermine Huntgeburth's The White Masai), Kino Kombat Filmproduktion (Fred Kelemen's Fallen), MDC International (Áron Gauder's Hungarian film The District!) and X-Filme Creative Pool (Andreas Dresen's Summer in Berlin).

Scandinavian countries are represented by Swedish Charon Film AB, with Kristian Petri's The Well and two Danish agents: Trust Film Sales handling the sales of Josef Fares's Zozo [trailer] and Nordisk Film representing two films by Nicolas Winding Refn's Pusher 2 and Pusher 3, and also Adam's Apples [trailer, film focus] by Anders Thomas Jensen, Mother Of Mine by Klaus Härö, and Overcoming by Tómas Gislason.

Latido Films will handle the sales of The Method, Spanish-Argentinean production by Marcelo Piñeyro, while Sogepaq S.A. catalogue includes two films featuring in San Sebastian: Alberto Rodriguez's 7 Virgins and Chema del Peña & Gabriel Velázquez's Sud Express. From Italy, Adriana Chiesa Enterprises will promote Pasquale Scimeca's The Passion Of Joshua The Jew and All The Invisible Children, recently shown at the Venice Film Festival.

Yorgos Lanthimos's Kinetta will be handled by the Greek company Haos Films and from Eastern Europe, Czech Bionaut Films will be present with Maria Procházková's Shark In The Head and Hungarian Tivoli-Filmproductions Ltd will look after Péter Gárdos's The Porcelain Doll. The other European sales agents in Toronto are the Icelandic Filmcompany with Robert I. Douglas's Eleven Men Out, the Austrian Film Commission with Erwin Wagenhofer's We Feed The World, Paul Thiltges Distributions (Luxembourg) with Michael Glawogger's Workingman's Death and Dutch Stichting Allerzielen with All Souls.