27/05/2007

Hopes were high for the 60th anniversary of the grand old lady of world cinema, and hopes from the 10,481 buyers and sellers registered at the Cannes Film Festival Market were not dashed.

Unlike Berlin, where the market compensated for a frustrating festival, this year’s Cannes was an exceptional vintage, with a plethora of quality films on offer, pushing further down on the buyers’ priority list the titles screening only at the market. And unlike many other editions, the quality obvious from day one never subsided.

As soon as Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] was announced as being “in”, sales started to fly for Pathé International. The first territories to dive for the screen adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoirs include Italy (BIM), Poland (Best Film) and Portugal (LNK), while bidding continued until the end with US rights going to Miramax.

On day three of the festival, the screening of Romanian Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Oleg Mutu
film profile] fulfilled the dream of most distributors who yearn for a surprise arthouse crossover title. Deals officially announced on the abortion drama sold by Wild Bunch include Italy (Lucky Red), the UK (Artificial Eye) and the US (IFC).

Among the French films competing for the Palme d’Or, Christophe Honoré’s Love Songs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], sold by Alma Films, divided the international press but conquered French critics and UK distributor Artificial Eye. The company headed by Pam Engel also acquired Catherine Breillat’s An Old Mistress [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], sold by Pyramide, and was followed by A Film (Benelux), Atalanta Filmes (Portugal), Strada Films (Greece), JMH (Switzerland), and First Production (the former Yugoslavia).

As for Marjane Satrapi’s animated Persepolis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marc-Antoine Robert
interview: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Pa…
film profile], welcomed to roaring applause at its official screening, it was sold by Dreamachine to Diaphana (France), Sandrew Metronome (Scandinavia), Vertigo (Spain) and BIM (Italy).

From Austria, Ulrich Seidl’s controversial Import/Export [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was sold by The Coproduction Office to Lumière and Filmmuseum (Benelux), Filmladen (Austria), Gutek (Poland) and Video Seven (Greece).