23/02/2005

The European Film Market which takes place every year during the Berlinale, has become a key event for all the operators in the cinema industry, especially those who buy and sell European productions. It is the opinion of Adriana Chiesa, head of the international distribution company Adriana Chiesa Enterprises, who asserts, ‘The market in Berlin was again this year one of the most important market reagarding the promotion and circulation of European cinema.’
Adriana Chiesa Enterprises sold La vita che vorrei [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Giuseppe Piccioni, to Latin America and many European countries, while Davide Ferrario’s Dopo mezzanotte [+see also:
film review
interview: Davide Ferrario
interview: Giorgio Pasotti
film profile] won over 110 markets, including Japan, and Certi bambini was sold to Portugal and Russia.

The other Italians present in Berlin also completed very good deals. The Luce Institute had the clever idea to buy Marc Rothemund’s Sophie Scholl-The Final Days [+see also:
trailer
film profile] with Julia Jentsch, since this wholly national German production eventually won two Silver Bears (Best direction, and Best Actress). This victory somehow made up for the Luce Institute’s disappointment with The Sun by Aleksandr Sokurov and coproduced with Downtown and Rai Cinema. Unfortunately, despite enthusiastic reviews, the film did not get any distinction. Luce also bought Amos Gitai’s new project entitled Free Zone and starring Natalie Portman, the shooting of which has just begun. The rights for the international sales of The Sun were acquired by The Works which also owns the rights of Tickets, a film directed by Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, and Ken Loach, and coproduced by Domenico Procacci’s society, Fandango (Medusa handles national sales). Tickets was sold to the Benelux, Eastern European countries, Great-Britain, and Korea. At the European Film Market, Fandango also managed to buy three films from French international distributors : Me And You And Everyone We Know by Miranda July (Celluloid Dreams), The Ax, Costa Gavras’ latest film (Studio Canal), and Rois et Reine by Arnaud Desplechin (Wild Bunch).

Live and Become [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Denis Carot
interview: Didar Domehri
interview: Radu Mihaileanu
film profile], Radu Mihaileanu’s new film, coproduced by the Italian company Cattleya, and sold by the French company Films Distribution, conquered the main territories, Germany, Scandinavia, Greece, Turkey, Bresil, Mexico, and Argentina. The line-up of Films Distribution also included Vento di terra by Vincenzo Marra, which convinced Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Austria, and Canada.
Minerva and Verdecchifilm brought to the market a coproduction with Great-Britain and Macedonia, Bal Can Can, a black comedy already sold to Hungary, Greece, and Turkey. Another of Minerva’s titles got good results, The Big Question, a documentary film shot on the set of The Passion of the Christ and coproduced by Mel Gibson himself which was bought for TV broadcasting and the edition of DVDs in the United-States, in Canada, Australia, New-Zealand, and Great-Britain.
Cuore sacro by Ferzan Ozpetek, which starts being released in Italy next Friday (2/25), was presented in Berlin by Celluloid Dreams ; its release in the Benelux and in Greece has been arranged. The international sales of Strange Crime (original title: Sotto falso nome) were handled by the French company Vif International. This film by Roberto Andò was eventually sold, in Berlin, to Japan (Gaga) and Canada (Kfilm Amerique), which complements very nicely the list of 33 countries which have already scheduled its release.

(Translated from Italian)