CANNES 2007 Market / France
Deals galore
by Fabien Lemercier
30/05/2007 - At the end of the 48th Film Market at the Cannes Film Festival, French international sales outfits recorded highly satisfying results.
The heavyweights benefited the most: Wild Bunch with Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [trailer, film focus] (see news), which German outfit Concorde acquired at the end of the festival; Dreamachine with Persepolis [trailer, film focus]; Pathé with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [trailer] (see article); Gaumont with Chrysalis [trailer] (sold in 15 countries); and, last but not least, Films Distribution (see news), StudioCanal, Pyramide (see article), UGC International, The Coproduction Office (see news) and Rezo Films. Cineuropa will provide more details on these acquisitions in the coming days.
Other companies also shone, such as Bac Films who is likely to do deals in new territories with the Special Prize awarded to Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light [trailer], which has already been sold to the UK (Tartan), Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Benelux and Canada. Negotiations with Spain are well advanced. Jean Labadie’s outfit also recorded promising pre-sales with Alfred Lot’s La Chambre des morts and Frank Vestiel’s Eden Log (in particular for Germany).
Meanwhile, Roissy Films turned out to be the grand surprise winner at the Market with sales to many territories the world over by Nadine Labaki’s Lebanese production and Directors’ Fortnight entry Caramel [trailer].
After taking its first steps in Berlin, new outfit Coach 14 achieved good pre-sales for Gonzalo López-Gallego’s Spanish-language feature El rey de la montaña, starring Leonardo Sbaraglia and Maria Valverde. The title was acquired for France (WildSide) and the UK (Optimum Releasing), as well as for Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Korea. Negotiations are well underway for Germany, the US, Switzerland and Japan.
Lastly, Coach 14 sold John Pilger’s British documentary The War on Democracy to Italy (Fandango) while Wide Management registered particularly good sales at the Cannes Market with Marco Puccioni’s Riparo [trailer] (see Making Of), starring Maria de Medeiros and bought by France (Epicentre), Spain, Portugal, the former Yugoslavia and the US. The company also found takers for Belgian film Ex-Drummer [trailer] in Spain (Aquelarre).
(Translated from French)
