On the fifth day of the Film Market at the 69th Cannes Film Festival, where for the time being popular opinion seems to favour steady, sustained activity without things getting too frenetic, French companies continue to set the pace for the sales and projects currently on the agenda.

Bac Films has thus kicked off pre-sales (except for North America) for the English-language project The Leisure Seeker by Italy's Paolo Virzi, an adaptation of the US novel of the same name, which the French company will co-produce and which is due to start shooting in July, with well-known actors Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland among the cast. A rising star on the international stage, yesterday Virzi unveiled Like Crazy [+leggi anche:
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Q&A: Paolo Virzì
scheda film] in the Directors' Fortnight, which is also on the French sales agent's slate, as was the previous movie by the director from Livorno, Human Capital [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Paolo Virzì
scheda film]. Interestingly, another English-language project has been added to the line-up of Bac Films, which the firm will both sell and co-produce: the Irish feature The Third Wave by David Freyne, which will begin filming in October, toplined by young Canadian star Ellen Page.

Another partner on Like Crazy, but this time as a co-producer, is Paris-based outfit Manny Films, which also continues to open itself up to Italian productions, as the firm has come on board 7 minuti [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michele Placido
scheda film] by Michele Placido (Romanzo criminale [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michele Placido
scheda film]), which is currently in post-production. We should also point out that Manny Films is a partner on another European project: Happy Birthday by the British director of Cypriot-Greek heritage Christos Georgiou.

MK2 has announced some tasty sales for Personal Shopper [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Artemio Benki
intervista: Olivier Assayas
scheda film] by Olivier Assayas, which will have its world premiere at the start of next week in the Cannes competition, and has been acquired for the United Kingdom (Metrodome) and China (by iQIYI, for the VoD rights). These sales have just been added to an already long list of territories that pre-empted, including Germany (Weltkino), Austria (Filmladen), Benelux (The Searchers), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), South Korea and the USA (IFC). The French release will be handled on 19 October by Les Films du Losange.

Wild Bunch has also been topping up its sales of another film in competition: I, Daniel Blake [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by British director Ken Loach. Among the myriad countries that have acquired the title are Spain (Caramel), Germany (Prokino), the Czech Republic (Film Europe), Hungary (Vertigo), the countries of the former Yugoslavia (Megacom), Romania (Independenta), Greece (Feelgood), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Turkey and the entirety of Latin America, not to mention the pre-sales deals already closed with the United Kingdom (eOne), France (Le Pacte), Italy (Cinema), Benelux (Cinéart) and Japan, with negotiations for Scandinavia and the USA at a very advanced stage. Furthermore, the American subsidiary of Wild Bunch, Insiders, has added the fantastic film project The Giant [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by David Raboy to its slate (read the news).

As for the main production announcements, French outfit Macassar will be co-producing In the Fade [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Fatih Akin
scheda film], the next movie by Germany's Fatih Akin, which will be shot in the autumn, with Diane Kruger in the lead role.

Meanwhile, Paris-based company Mare Nostrum, managed by Alexandra Lebret (with support from Spain's Morena Films), has officially launched a project that will adapt I Spit on Your Graves by Boris Vian, with Spaniard Santiago Zannou attached as the director.

Lastly, we should highlight that the French subsidiary of major Sony Pictures Releasing will for the first time be distributing a quasi-French title – namely, the Belgian-French co-production Don't Tell Her [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Solange Cicurel (read the article).