Eight contenders for the Golden Lion on French line-up

by Fabien Lemercier

02/09/2010 - With eight of 23 films in competition at the 67th Venice Film Festival and ten other titles screening in different parallel sections, the offering from French international sales outfits features plenty of gems which they hope to make shine at Venice and later this month in Toronto.

Among the Golden Lion contenders are MK2’s Vénus noire [trailer, film focus] by Abdellatif Kechiche, Pathé International’s Miral [trailer] by Julian Schnabel, and Wild Bunch’s (which didn’t get its hands on We Believed [trailer, film focus] by Italian helmer Mario Martone and is now being sold by Rai Trade) Potiche [trailer] by François Ozon and Antony Cordier’s Happy Few [trailer]. French outfits will also be selling non-domestic majority productions, with Le Pacte pinning its hopes on The Solitude of Prime Numbers [trailer] by Italian helmer Saverio Costanzo, Films Distribution on Sad Trumpet Ballad [trailer, film focus] by Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, Funny Ballons on Post Mortem [trailer] by Chilean director Pablo Larrain (a German co-production) and Memento Films International on Russian feature Silent Souls by Aleksei Fedorchenko.

Selected out-of-competition, Spanish production Lope [trailer] by Andrucha Waddington is being sold by Wild Bunch, while three films screening in the Horizons section feature on the French line-up: Catherine Breillat’s Sleeping Beauty at Pyramide, French-Portuguese co-production Dharma Guns [trailer] by F.J. Ossang at UMédia and Gianfranco Rosi’s El Sicario, room 164 [trailer] at Doc & Film International.

Wild Bunch is also handling sales for Bertrand Blier’s The Clink of Ice [trailer] at Venice Days which also sees Colifilms Diffusion selling The Place in Between by French helmer Sarah Bouyain, Wide Management is handling sales of Crime Scene by Holland’s Walter Stokman and Doc & Film International is negotiating for Noir océan [trailer] by Belgium’s Marion Hänsel.

Lastly, Pyramide is doubly present at Critics’ Week with Angèle et Tony [trailer] by French helmer Alix Delaporte and Israeli-French co-production Lies by Eitan Zur.

(Translated from French)