17/05/2017 - CANNES 2017: The firm was able to boast seven main competition titles on its slate even before the festival opened its gates

A Gentle Creature by Sergei Loznitsa

Film Europe Media Company has grown in size and strength by shopping for titles at the three biggest festivals, which have then become regular fodder for its own Be2Can festival and brand (read the news), assimilated into a multi-level distribution model. “Our niche is around 60 titles annually from the main competitions at the Berlinale, Cannes and Venice,” says Ivan Hronec (read the interview), the company’s CEO. After just one (yet spot-on) acquisition from this year’s Berlinale, Ildikó Enyedi’s Golden Bear-winning film On Body and Soul [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ildiko Enyedi
interview: Ildiko Enyedi
interview: Réka Tenki
film profile] – bought, as Film Europe’s CEO revealed, in October 2016 after watching Enyedi’s previous films and reading the script – the company then pre-bought seven titles that have ended up vying for the Palme d’Or. “We follow industry news, read scripts, and negotiate with producers and agents,” Hronec told Cineuropa. “The pre-market analytics is much more important than speed and financial offers at the market. This year, we are travelling to the Cannes Film Festival with a record number of seven pre-purchased titles from the main competitions. All of the deals were signed before they even popped up in the main competition.”

Film Europe’s Cannes slate consists of Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to The Lobster [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Yorgos Lanthimos
film profile], The Killing of a Sacred Deer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Yorgos Lanthimos
film profile], which marks his second collaboration with Colin Farrell and was co-written by the director and Efthymis Filippou; Sergei Loznitsa’s Dostoyevsky-inspired drama A Gentle Creature [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sergei Loznitsa
film profile]; an uncompromising portrait of the struggles of a loveless family, Loveless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrey Zvyagintsev
film profile] by Leviathan [+see also:
trailer
film profile] director Andrey Zvyagintsev; Ruben Ostlund’s eagerly awaited first English-language movie, The Square [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile]; Michel Hazanavicius’ Jean-Luc Godard biography drama Redoubtable [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile], starring Louis Garrel as the legendary filmmaker; Ismael’s Ghosts [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Arnaud Desplechin
film profile] by Arnaud Desplechin; and Jacques Doillon’s biopic Rodin [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

The latest acquisitions thus enter the Film Europe library, and the company has stated that its mission is to build “a festival library of the highest quality and bring the audience uncompromising referential cinema quality at all levels of distribution”. The domestic audience will be able to see the films in October during the Be2Can event in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. “The Be2Can concept is unique, but not only in Central Europe,” says Hronec. “I can reveal that we are preparing to expand it beyond the borders of Slovakia and the Czech Republic.”