25/02/2003 - Gallic titles like Errance starring Laetitia Casta and André Téchiné's Les Egares are strong sellers

In spite of the pall inevitably cast by the untimely death of Daniel Toscan du Plantier and the preparations for the Césars, French film exporters are delighted with their performance at this year’s European Film Market at the 53rd Berlinale.
Although the market is waiting to find out which films will be selected for Cannes, buyers were eager to snatch up Gallic titles, the most popular ones being Errance directed by Damien Odoul and starring Laetitia Casta. Wild Bunch sold it to Italy and Russia.Wild Bunch are also handling the international sales of André Téchiné’s Les Egares and closed deals at the EFM with Spain, Russia, Israel and Greece, and estimate the film will drum up Euros2m-worth of business.
Other French titles that caused a buyers’ feeding frenzy were Claude Chabrol’s Le fleur du mal handled by MK2 Diffusion; Philippe Muyl’s le Papillon, sold by France Télévision Distribution to 25 countries, and Belgian director Lucas Belvaux’s trilogy: Cavale [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Après la vie [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Un couple épatant [+see also:
trailer
film profile] for which Films Distribution (they recently took over Mercure) has firm deals for almost Euros1m.
The best French performer at the EFM was however Les Triplettes de Belleville, an animated feature produced by Les Armateurs, and presold by Celluloid Dreams to 14 countries including Spain, the United Kingdom and Italy. Industry experts believe this title will make around Euros3m in foreign sales: a record for an animated film.

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(Translated from French)