17/02/2014 - Festival favourites such as The Way He Looks, The Circle and Difret were picked up right away at the EFM

The enthusiastic reactions of the audience and the sold-out festival screenings of the Brazilian teenage comedy drama The Way He Looks by first-time director Daniel Ribeiro attracted a lot of attention among the buyers at the EFM. Right from the off, Berlin-based sales outfit Films Boutique sold the heart-warming story about a blind teenager and his trials and tribulations to eight territories, including Germany, Great Britain, France, the US, Sweden and Taiwan.

Ribiero had already attended the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2010 with his first draft of the script. “My mentor told me that the story needed more conflicts. I had to write a completely new script,” said the Campus alumnus. “Therefore, my film was born in Berlin.” The Way He Looks won the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film and the Fipresci Prize, and came in second place for the Panorama Audience Award for Best Feature.

In Germany, Salzgeber snagged the rights for The Way He Looks as well as several other Panorama titles such as A Land of Storms [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adam Csaszi
film profile] by Ádám Császi, the documentaries The Decent One by Vanessa Lapa, Anderson by Annekatrin Hendel and The Circle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Haupt
film profile] by Stefan Haupt. His touching docudrama received the Teddy Award for Best Documentary and the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary. French firm Wide House sold US and Canadian rights of The Circle to WolfeVideo.

Another Panorama hit was the Sundance award-winner Difret by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, which is based on a true story about a young lawyer in Ethopia. Executive-produced by Angelina Jolie, the drama received the Panorama Audience Award for the Best Feature Film and was sold by Films Boutique to Cinéart in Benelux, Golem in Spain and Agora Films in Switzerland.