Pelicanman sails away for Non Stop
by Annika Pham
"I have just closed a deal with A-Film Distribution for Benelux in Cannes, and within the next two weeks, the Finnish film Pelicanman will certainly be sold to more than 10 territories including the German speaking territories (Germany/Switzerland/Austria), France, Japan, China (for TV), Taiwan, Latin America and Eastern Europe", said NonStop Sales' director Michael Werner to Cineuropa.
Liisa Helminen’s children-family film was first shown at Berlin’s Kinderfilmfest last February, but it is only now that distributors are ready to close deals on the film. "The problem with Scandinavian films, is that you have to be patient", continued Werner. "Unless you have a big cast, a local box office success or a top prize at a festival, it just takes quite a while for international distributors to finalise deals with us."
Indeed, Werner registered the most sales on films that were 3-4 months old such as Norwegian film Uno sold to La Petite Reine for France and Belgium, and to Die Telepaaten for Germany, as well as on Dutch film Preachers sold to I-on Media for Germany. The company’s four market premieres South African drama The Flyer, the Norwegian drama Kissed by Winter the Finnish drama Harbour Brothers and the Swedish thriller Rancid did attract some attention, but nothing had been finalized as of 18 May. However several deals were going to be announced within a week on the English language film Rancid produced by Sonet Film.
Generally speaking, Werner found that Eastern European and Japanese buyers had been particularly active during this Cannes market, while Germans continued to be very aggressive... especially on thrillers!
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