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CANNES 2014 Market / Germany

German buyers go for Spanish films

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- CANNES 2014: At the 55th Marché du Film at Cannes, German arthouse distributors acquired several festival and market hits

German buyers go for Spanish films
Wild Tales by Damián Szifron

The Cannes competition entry Wild Tales [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Argentinian writer/director Damián Szifron pleased German buyers at Cannes so much that they started a bidding war. Munich-based indie distributor Prokino snapped up the black comedy, which was co-produced by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. Among the other acquisitions made by Prokino were Gemma Bovery, a modern adaption of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary by Anne Fontaine (Coco Before Chanel [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
); the western Slow West with Michael Fassbender; Heaven on Earth, the Swedish sequel to As It Is in Heaven [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, by Kay Pollak; and the Critics’ Week film When Animals Dream [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Alexander Arnby
film profile
]
, by Danish director Jonas Alexander Arnby

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The biggest Spanish box-office hit of all time, Spanish Affair [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, was picked up by independent German distributor Alamode. Besides this colourful comedy, the Munich-based arthouse company acquired the Swedish drama Turist (Force majeure) [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile
]
by Ruben Östlund as well as Liv Ullmann’s Strindberg adaption Miss Julie, starring Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell. Among their new projects are also Abdellatif Kechiche’s new film, with the working title La blesseure, la vraie, and Love by Argentinian filmmaker Gaspar Noé.

German distributor Christian Meinke also showed interest in a Spanish film. For MFA Distribution, he pre-bought Julio Medem’s drama Ma ma, which stars Penélope Cruz and is also co-produced by the actress. Meanwhile, Berlin-based distributor X Verleih acquired A Perfect Day by Spanish director Fernando León de Aranoa (Mondays in the Sun [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Princesas
 [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
). The comedy, his first English-language film, is being shot in Spain at the moment. The cast includes Benicio del Toro, Tim Robbins and Mélanie Thierry.

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