23/08/2012 - The sales agency, known worldwide for selling short films, is now launching into feature films with Crawl at the Venice Days and Leones at the Orizzonti

With a catalogue of over 600 short films including 14 that were nominated for an Oscar (notably four in 2008 and another four in 2010), Parisian agency Premium Films, founded and directed by Jean-Charles Mille, has been a key player in the international sales of short films for about ten years. Now, it is adding feature films to it, starting with none other than two titles selected for the 69th Venice Film Festival (from August 29 to September 8): French director Hervé Lasgouttes’s Crawl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hervé Lasgouttes
film profile] (read more - production: Sensito Films, co-production: AGM and Neon Productions) that is to close the Venice Days section, and Jazmín López’ Leones, a co-production bringing together Argentina, the Netherlands (Lemming Film and Viking Film), and France (Petit Film) that made the Official Selection in the Orizzonti section.

"We wanted to develop the agency by following certain directors on their path from short film to feature film," Jean-Charles Mille told Cineuropa. "We intend to sell four or five feature films a year, no more, so that we can properly defend them, something that is not possible when you have too many films. As we do with short films, only signing on for 50 to 60 titles a year [including 25 French films], we wish to be hyper selective. We work with what we fall in love with, and look for what can stand out in a landscape of many worthy titles. But we also need that little extra something, emotion: it’s what all distributors are looking for. We also started distribution in cinemas last October with Belgian director Hans Van Nüffel’s Oxygen [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and we know what might convince exhibitors. We plan to distribute a few films in France each year, including Crawl, which we will probably release next January.”

(Translated from French)