28/05/2019 - CANNES 2019: Netflix treats itself to Mati Diop’s Atlantics and Jérémy Clapin’s I Lost My Body, while Amazon will distribute Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables on US soil

Mati Diop, winner of the Grand Prix at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival (© Eric Bonté/CNC)

Only three years have passed, yet it feels like a lifetime since the Cannes Golden Camera-awarded film Divines [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Houda Benyamina
film profile] was sold to Netflix, giving rise to all manner of heated debate in the French film industry. Indeed, among the various works to have emerged triumphant on the Croisette over the past few days, no less than three French titles have fallen into the hands of these powerful US platforms; a hat trick which clearly echoes the talks helmed by the CNC in Cannes (read our article), but which also suggests that the mental block which once existed for international sales agents and certain French producers in this regard is now largely a thing of the past (even if we can’t help but note that the three films in question are all first feature films).

Crowned the winner of the Grand Prix at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival, Mati Diop’s Atlantics [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mati Diop
film profile] has been sold to Netflix for worldwide distribution by mk2 Films, with the exception of France (where it is set to be released in cinemas on 2 October via Ad Vitam), Benelux, Switzerland, Russia and China. This feature film was produced by Les Films du Bal and co-produced by Arte France Cinéma, Cinekap (Senegal) and Frakas Productions (Belgium). 

Meanwhile, Charades has sold Netflix the worldwide rights (except for France - where its cinema release will take place on 6 November via Rezo -, Benelux, Turkey and China) relating to the animated film I Lost My Body [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jérémy Clapin
film profile] by Jérémy Clapin, which emerged victorious from Cannes Critics’ Week, bagging itself the Grand Prix. The film was produced by Xilam Animation and co-produced by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma.

Last but not least, during the Marché du Film, Wild Bunch sold Ladj Ly’s first full-length fiction film Les Misérables [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ladj Ly
film profile] to Amazon Studios for distribution in the US (for a reported sum of $1.5m); a work which subsequently claimed a place on the podium holding aloft a Jury Prize.  The case of this SRAB Films production, co-produced by Rectangle Productions and Lyly Films, is, however, somewhat different to that of the newly acquired Netflix titles because, on the one hand, Amazon is known for providing films with a proper cinema release window before making them available online, and, on the other, Les Misérables has also been bought by a multitude of more traditional distributers from all over the world, for Germany (Alamode), Italy (Lucky Red), Spain (Caramel), the UK (Altitude), Scandinavia (Edge Entertainment), Benelux (Paradiso), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Portugal (Alambique), Greece (Seven Films), Poland (M2 Films), Hungary (Vertigo Media), Slovakia (Film Europe), Romania (Independenta Film), the Middle East, China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Canada, Latin American and Australia. As for France, Le Pacte will be releasing the film on a yet-to-be-confirmed date in the autumn.

By way of a reminder, last autumn, Netflix also bought Emmanuel Mouret’s Mademoiselle de Joncquières [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuel Mouret
film profile] from Indie Sales, for worldwide distribution (excluding France, Benelux, Switzerland and Canada), and in February, in Berlin, Antonin Baudry’s The Wolf’s Call [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (1.5 million cinema admissions in France) from Pathé International, for distribution in North and South America, Spain and Scandinavia.

(Translated from French)