18/02/2014 - A strong start for Ida, and purchases in Berlin for Golden Bear winner Black Coal, Thin Ice, Stations of the Cross and Macondo

Headed by Alexandre Mallet-Guy, Paris-based firm Memento Films has just had a fantastic week – in the French cinemas as well as at the Berlinale. Released by Memento across 88 screens on Wednesday 12 February, Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile], by Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, took 81,936 admissions over its first five days of screening, giving it the second-best average revenue of all the new releases. This strong kick-off was accompanied by highly positive reviews and very high satisfaction levels among audiences, which will result in the print run being increased to 125 tomorrow.

In terms of the purchases made at the European Film Market, Memento hit the nail on the head with the French distribution rights for the big winner at the Berlinale, the Chinese title Black Coal, Thin Ice by Diao Yinan (which won the Golden Bear for Best Film and Silver Bear for Best Actor), which will be released in France on 6 June. Another award-winning title from Berlin has wound up in Memento’s pocket: Stations of the Cross [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Dietrich Brüggemann
film profile] by German director Dietrich Brüggemann (winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay), which will be distributed in France in September 2014.

Memento Films also purchased the French distribution rights for another Berlinale competitor, the Austrian feature film Macondo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sudabeh Mortezai
film profile] by Sudabeh Mortezai, which will be released in France in early 2015.

Highlights among Memento’s 2014 distribution line-up include My Sweet Pepper Land [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Hiner Salem (discovered last year in Cannes, with a release date of 9 April) and Sommeil d'hiver by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (undated), which has a very good chance of being in competition in Cannes in May.

In 2013, Memento distributed six films, including its own production The Past [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Asghar Farhadi (which had 965,000 French admissions), Under the Rainbow [+see also:
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film profile] by Agnès Jaoui (968,000 admissions), Beyond the Hill [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emin Alper
film profile] by Emin Alper and the hit American independent film Frances Ha.

In Berlin, Memento was also very active on the international sales front, with success reported for the Austrian environmental documentary Energized by Hubert Canaval, Mr. Kaplan by Alvaro Brechner (a joint Uruguayan-German movie in post-production) and two American projects in pre-production: The Free World (starring Cillian Murphy and Bryce Dallas Howard) and Still Alice by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (starring Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin and Kate Bosworth).

(Translated from French)