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MARKET Netherlands

Noteworthy pre-sales for Dutch titles at Cannes Market

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The international rights for Wolfsbergen, the third film by Dutch director Nanouk Leopold, have been bought by French sales agent Films Distribution, which is quite rare for a Dutch film still in production, let alone for a feature that started filming three weeks ago!

No doubt, Films Distribution has taken into account the excellent reviews of Leopold’s second film, Guernsey [+see also:
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(which the Cahiers du cinéma called “a light in the monotonous dark of European auteur cinema”), as well as the magic of Wolfsbergen’s cast, which reunites Fedja van Huêt, Tamar van den Dop and Jan Decleir, the trio that starred in the 1997 Foreign Language Oscar winner Karakter.

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The 2004 thriller, Stille Nacht (lit. “Silent Night”) by Ineke Houtman, also found an international sales agent: the Britons from High Point. The film tells the story of five female students who go after a rapist after one of them has been assaulted. The surreal new film from Dutch auteur Alex van Warmerdam, Waiter, has been pre-sold to several territories by Dutch outlet Fortissimo, including France (Bac Films) and Portugal (Lusomundo).

Paul Verhoeven’s return to Dutch cinema, Black Book, has closed deals for all major territories except Australia and the USA. International sales are handled by Content Film International. Venice director Marco Müller will come to the Netherlands this summer to watch both titles for a possible Venice launch.

Another sale involved the 2005 children’s thriller The Horror Bus (De Griezelbus), from producer and sales agent Bos Bros. Director Pieter Kuijpers’ child-friendly horror yarn was sold to King Records Co. Ltd. Japan. The buyers caught a screening of the film at the Cannes Market and were charmed by its "good artistic design look". The Horror Bus was a success in the Netherlands where it was seen by over 100,000 people. Rights for the film have also been sold to Thailand.

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