25/02/2010

In its third year at the European Film Market (EFM), local sales company M-Appeal sealed deals with ten territories and celebrated the FIPRESCI award for its Berlinale Forum title Crab Trap [+see also:
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film profile], Ruiz Navia’s directorial debut co-produced by Colombia and France.

Set in the Afro-Colombian community of La Barra on Colombia’s Pacific coast, Crab Trap tells the drama of a young man trying to flee his past. At the same time, it depicts the difficulty of a small community living in a remote village in adjusting to modern life. Produced by Contravía Films and Diana Bustamante in co-production with France’s Arizona Films, Crab Trap recently won the Special Jury Prize at the La Habana Film Festival.

M-Appeal closed several deals on its eclectic slate of European and South American titles. The Last Summer of the Boyita [+see also:
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film profile] by Argentinean director Julia Solomonoff, produced by Travesia Producciones and Domenica Films in co-production with El Deseo and Epicentre, was sold to the Netherlands, Belgium and Taiwan.

Damjan Kozole’s Slovenian Girl [+see also:
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film profile] for which Nina Ivanisin won Best Actress awards in Valencia and Les Arcs, was sold to the Netherlands, Belgium and Taiwan. The multiple award-winning Bulgarian film The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner [+see also:
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film profile] by Stephan Komandarev sold to Russia and Greece. Over 20 territories have acquired the film co-produced with Germany, Hungary and Slovenia.

Last Cowboy Standing [+see also:
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film profile], for which first-time Finnish director Zaida Bergroth won Best Script at the last Finnish Jussi awards, sold to Estonia and Hungary. Christos Georgiou’s Cypriot comedy Small Crime [+see also:
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film profile] went to Lithuania and Jan Krüger’s German film Light Gradient [+see also:
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film profile] will be released in France.

M-Appeal Marketing Director Anne Wiedlack said her company was pleased with business achieved at the EFM and noticed that “the market is slowly recovering.”