20/05/2012 - Veteran sales agent Adriana Chiesa is closing sales on Andrea Segre’s multi-awarded Shun Li and the Poet and getting ready for a new start into feature production.

Present in Cannes with the romantic comedy 10 regole per fare innamorare [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Shun Li and the Poet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrea Segre
interview: Andrea Segre
film profile], both screening at the market, Adriana Chiesa is happy to announce first deals closed on Segre’s film about a romantic and difficult friendship between a Chinese illegal immigrant and an old Italian fisherman. The Italian/French co-production between Jolefilm and Æternam Films was picked up by Artificial Eye for the UK and Film Movement for the US, on top of previous territories closed such as Japan (Alcine Terran) and Spain (Festival Films). The French release via Haut et Court is scheduled for June.

Chiesa is getting good responses in Cannes on the documentary Giuseppe Tornatore, Every Film, My First Film directed by Luciano Barcaroli and Gerardo Oanichi. The Stilelebero Produzioni has collected testimonies from film celebrities such as Monica Bellucci, Ben Gazzarra, Tim Roth, Harvey Weinstein, Tonino Guerra and Ennio Morricone who speak about their collaboration with the director of Cinema Paradiso. The film is in post-production.

However Chiesa who has a catalogue of over 300 titles says times have changed and she is looking into expanding into film production to compensate the loss of revenues from sales. “The market is changing, audiences’ tastes are changing, -carved by years of watching commercial TV, and distributors of art-house quality cinema are gradually disappearing. Plus those that are still around are offering lower prices,” she laments. “It’s also tough to get access to the quality Italian films that are often packaged as co-productions with France and end up with French sales agents.”

“I used to sell 10-12 titles a year. In the future I will reduce my line up to 2-3 titles a year and will enter the production arena. I will announce new projects very soon”, she said.