17/02/2011

No less than four Nordic titles were sold to major US distributors during the European Film Market in Berlin.

Magnolia Pictures added the Norwegian films Headhunters and Happy, Happy [+see also:
trailer
film profile] to its earlier Danish Melancholia acquisition, and Sundance Selects acquired the Swedish documentary The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Slick thriller Headhunters, produced by Friland Film and Yellow Bird, is based on Jo Nesbø’s bestselling novel and stars Axel Hennie (Max Manus [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). The film will open in Norway this summer and later in the year in the US.

Produced by Maipo, Anne Sewitsky’s Happy Happy won a World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in Sundance. Both films are sold by TrustNordisk.

Also a Sundance winner, Göran Olsson’s Black Power Mixtape was acquired by Sundance Selects, sister division to IFC Films, owned by Rainbow Media. Jonathan Sehring, president of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “This is a remarkable film, with footage from true outsiders filming outsiders as they fight to make their way into the system. It is riveting and emotional to go back in time to see a major part of our recent history. This is an essential film that we look forward to bringing to a large audience.”

The deal was negotiated by US sales representative Cinetic Media.