18/05/2012 - Head of sales Sonia Mehandjiyska has added the 2011 number-one Swiss film The Foster Boy to Global Screen’s line up and is enjoying buyers’ attention for the 3D Finnish film Niko 2

Sonia Mehandjiyska, head of theatrical and TV sales at Global Screen, continues to pre-sell the Finnish 3D animation film Niko: Little Brother Big Trouble, which is a sequel to the 2008 world hit Niko and the Way to the Stars [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (photo). “Territories that have had a major success with Niko 1 are lining up for the sequel,” the sales executive confirmed, sitting at her bright and sunny booth at Riviera H9. “We’ve closed several sales, notably with Eastern Europe, France (Bac Films) and are finalising a deal with a major US company”.

The Finnish/German/Irish 3D animation film goes with the Swiss drama The Foster Boy [+see also:
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interview: Max Hubacher - Shooting Sta…
film profile] by Markus Omboden (number-one local title in 2011) as being the typical mix of family and arthouse quality films on Global Screen’s catalogue. The Foster Boy was picked up a few weeks ago for international distribution and is having its market premiere on 19 May in Cannes. Other titles premiering include the German documentary Camp 14, the gripping story of a man who grew up in a Gulag-style North Korean camp set to open theatrically in October in Germany, the teen movie Hanni & Nanni 2, sequel to the first Hanni & Nanni [+see also:
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film profile] based on Enid Blyton’s St Clares series, and the action drama Escape from Tibet starring popular German actress Hanna Herzsprung.

Mehandjiyska feels the market for German and non-English-speaking films is consistent but remains very narrow across Europe and has more and more difficulty penetrating the English speaking territories, hence the decision of Global Screen to increase its acquisition of high quality English-language films. Britta Meyermann and Philipp Kreuzer are sharing the task in Cannes of looking for potential acquisitions and co-productions.

“We will concentrate more in the future on English-language co-productions via Bavaria, such as Mr Morgan’s Last Love, presented for the first time in Cannes on the pre-sales market,” said Mehandjiyska. Sandra Nettelbeck’s film, starring Michael Caine, Clémence Poésy, Justin Kirk, Gillian Anderson and Anne Alvaro is the bitter-sweet tale of a lonely American widower in Paris who learns to love life again after a chance encounter with a beautiful and impulsive young woman. The film was co-produced with Kimmel Entertainment, which has the US rights. Mehandjiyska added that the plan for Global Screen is to submit the film for Venice or Toronto.