Film Europe Media Company has grown in size and strength by shopping for titles at the three biggest festivals, which have then become regular fodder for its own Be2Can festival and brand (read the news), assimilated into a multi-level distribution model. “Our niche is around 60 titles annually from the main competitions at the Berlinale, Cannes and Venice,” says Ivan Hronec (read the interview), the company’s CEO. After just one (yet spot-on) acquisition from this year’s Berlinale, Ildikó Enyedi’s Golden Bear-winning film On Body and Soul [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ildiko Enyedi
interview : Ildiko Enyedi
interview : Réka Tenki
fiche film] – bought, as Film Europe’s CEO revealed, in October 2016 after watching Enyedi’s previous films and reading the script – the company then pre-bought seven titles that have ended up vying for the Palme d’Or. “We follow industry news, read scripts, and negotiate with producers and agents,” Hronec told Cineuropa. “The pre-market analytics is much more important than speed and financial offers at the market. This year, we are travelling to the Cannes Film Festival with a record number of seven pre-purchased titles from the main competitions. All of the deals were signed before they even popped up in the main competition.”

Film Europe’s Cannes slate consists of Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to The Lobster [+lire aussi :
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Q&A : Yorgos Lanthimos
fiche film], The Killing of a Sacred Deer [+lire aussi :
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interview : Yorgos Lanthimos
fiche film], which marks his second collaboration with Colin Farrell and was co-written by the director and Efthymis Filippou; Sergei Loznitsa’s Dostoyevsky-inspired drama A Gentle Creature [+lire aussi :
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interview : Sergei Loznitsa
fiche film]; an uncompromising portrait of the struggles of a loveless family, Loveless [+lire aussi :
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interview : Andreï Zviaguintsev
fiche film] by Leviathan [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] director Andrey Zvyagintsev; Ruben Ostlund’s eagerly awaited first English-language movie, The Square [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ruben Östlund
fiche film]; Michel Hazanavicius’ Jean-Luc Godard biography drama Redoubtable [+lire aussi :
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Q&A : Michel Hazanavicius
fiche film], starring Louis Garrel as the legendary filmmaker; Ismael’s Ghosts [+lire aussi :
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Q&A : Arnaud Desplechin
fiche film] by Arnaud Desplechin; and Jacques Doillon’s biopic Rodin [+lire aussi :
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fiche film].

The latest acquisitions thus enter the Film Europe library, and the company has stated that its mission is to build “a festival library of the highest quality and bring the audience uncompromising referential cinema quality at all levels of distribution”. The domestic audience will be able to see the films in October during the Be2Can event in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. “The Be2Can concept is unique, but not only in Central Europe,” says Hronec. “I can reveal that we are preparing to expand it beyond the borders of Slovakia and the Czech Republic.”