29/08/2011

Eight titles in French international seller Wild Bunch’s line-up have been selected in the different sections of the 68th Venice Film Festival which kicks off on Wednesday. These include three contenders for the Golden Lion: 4:44 Last Day On Earth (pictured) by Abel Ferrara (co-produced by Wild Bunch and Funny Balloons which shares the sales rights); Roman Polanski’s Carnage [+see also:
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film profile] (already sold by WB for the UK, Scandinavia and France, with the other territories being negotiated by SBS Films); and Philippe Garrel’s That Summer [+see also:
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interview: Philippe Garrel
film profile] (see news), which has already been sold for German-speaking European countries, Spain, France, Italy, Benelux, Portugal, Bulgaria, Greece, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Poland, Romania, the countries of the former Yugoslavia, but also for Japan, South Korea, China and Brazil, among others.

On the Lido, the team headed by Vincent Maraval (who will be in attendance) will also have three titles out of competition: Kike Maillo’s Spanish film Eva [+see also:
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film profile] (see news); French duo Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou’s The Field of Enchantment [+see also:
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film profile]; and Mary Harron’s The Moth Diaries. Alongside these are two French co-productions to be shown in Venice Days: Love and Bruises [+see also:
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interview: Lou Ye
film profile] by Lou Ye and Testimony by Shlomi Elkabetz.

Wild Bunch will then head to Toronto (September 8-18) which has selected 10 titles from its slate. Highlights are Fernando Mereilles’s 360 and Cédric Kahn’s A Better Life (see news) making their world premieres in the Special Presentations section which also includes Garrel and Harron’s films and Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist [+see also:
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interview: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile]. There will also be a premiere screening of Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo’s Extraterrestrial [+see also:
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interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile] (see news) in the Contemporary World Cinema section (which also includes Goro Myazaki’s From Up on Poppy Hill), while Ye’s film will screen in the Vanguard section and the Masters selection includes the Dardenne brothers’ The Kid With a Bike [+see also:
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interview: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
film profile] and Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s I Wish.

Wild Bunch will also make the most of Toronto to negotiate sales for all the other films in its abundant line-up, in particular two titles featuring Kristin Scott Thomas: Danish helmer Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives (in pre-production, sales rights shared between WB and Gaumont); and François Ozon’s Dans la Maison (“In the House”, currently shooting). Other noteworthy films in production are Ken Loach’s Angel’s Share, Sergio Castellito’s Twice Born (see news), Laurent Tirard’s Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia (see news) and Raymond Depardon’s Journal de France.

Standing out among the numerous films in post-production and completed titles in the line-up are Stephen Frears’ Lay the Favorite; James Marsh’s Shadow Dancer; Jacques Maillot’s La Mer à Boire (“The Sea To Drink”, see news); Sylvie Verheyde’s Confession of a Child of the Century (see news); Wong Kar-waï’s The Grandmasters; Virginie Despentes’ Bye Bye Blondie (see news); Christophe Barratier’s i>War of the Buttons (see news); and Cannes titles that have already sold well, including Poliss [+see also:
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interview: Maïwenn
film profile] by Maïwenn, Declaration of War [+see also:
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film profile] by Valérie Donzelli and Michel Petrucciani [+see also:
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film profile] by Michael Radford.

All these assets will once again make Wild Bunch one of the major players at the informal Canadian market and a driving force for the circulation of European films around the world.

(Translated from French)