23/05/2008

French international sales company Pyramide have scored excellent deals at the Cannes Festival Film Market.

Riding the wave of critical success following its official competition screening, Nuri Bige Ceylan’s Turkish/French/Italian co-production Three Monkeys [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Zeynep Ozbatur
film profile] (see news) attracted numerous buyers. The title has so far sold to the US, Benelux (Imagine), Greece (Rosebud), Portugal (Atalanta Filmes), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), the former USSR, Canada, India, Taiwan and Colombia.

British company New Wave pre-bought the feature at the latest Berlinale and its co-producers BIM and Pyramide will distribute the film in Italy and France, respectively. Negotiations with several other countries are underway, notably with Poland.

Bosnian director Aida Begic’s Snow [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news) was also warmly received in competition in the Critics’ Week. A late addition to Pyramide’s line-up, the film – which screened only yesterday (see news) – has been bought for Switzerland (Trigon) and Turkey (Zeynofilm).

The Pyramide team – supervised by Eric Lagesse and headed by Yoann Ubermulhin – also used the Cannes platform to announce that Sergi López and Kristin Scott Thomas will star in Catherine Corsini’s forthcoming title Partir (“Leaving”), which will be produced by the Paris-based company. The film is expected to be released in the second half of 2009 and the project has already been pre-bought for Belgium (Lumière).

Pyramide are now setting their sights on the Venice and Toronto film festivals. Possible contenders include films in post-production: Anne Fontaine’s La fille de Monaco (“The Girl from Monaco”), starring Fabrice Luchini and Roschdy Zem (see news); Ilian Duran Cohen’s Le plaisir de chanter (“The Joy of Singing”, see news); and Karin Albou’s Le chant des mariés (“The Song of the Newlyweds”).

(Translated from French)