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BERLINALE 2016 Market

A contender for the Golden Bear for Elle Driver

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- Standing out on the company’s slate are André Téchiné’s competition entry Being 17 and Road to Istanbul by Rachid Bouchareb, in the Panorama

A contender for the Golden Bear for Elle Driver
Being 17 by André Téchiné

The good times keep on rolling for Paris-based international sales agent Elle Driver, which can again boast about the fact that a title from its slate has been selected in competition at the 66th Berlin Film Festival (11-21 February), after it enjoyed a two-fold presence last year in that very same showcase. This time around, the team headed by Adeline Fontan Tessaur and Eva Diederix will be pinning its hopes on Being 17 [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: André Téchiné
interview: Kacey Mottet Klein
film profile
]
by André Téchiné (read the news) in the race for the Golden Bear.

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Elle Driver’s line-up also includes a second film set to be unveiled at Berlin, in the official selection: Road to Istanbul [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Rachid Bouchareb (read the article), which will be having its world premiere in the Panorama.

At the European Film Market, Elle Driver will also be relying on If I Were a Boy, by and starring Audrey Dana (French Women [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), who also co-wrote the screenplay with Maud Ameline. The film, whose shoot will get under way on 1 February, revolves around a woman who has had so many bad experiences with men that she wants to hear no more about them. But one day, she wakes up endowed with a penis. And while that may be a fantasy for certain women, it is nothing of the sort for her... The production of the movie has been entrusted to Moana Films (Marc Missonnier) and Curiosa Films (Olivier Delbosc). Wild Bunch will bring the film out in France.

Elle Driver will also be hard at work on pre-sales for Sieranevada [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Cristi Puiu
film profile
]
by Romanian director Cristi Puiu (in post-production), whose three features screened at Cannes: Stuff and Dough in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2001, and The Death of Mr Lazarescu [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and Aurora [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Clara Voda
film profile
]
in Un Certain Regard in 2005 and 2010 (with the Un Certain Regard Award into the bargain for the former). A co-production headed up by Mandragora together with Paris-based outfit Alcatraz Films, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia, Sieranevada is toplined by Mimi Branescu and tells the story of how a meal organised to commemorate a death will degenerate with heated discussions about the events of 11 September and the arrival of an unexpected guest...

It is also worth highlighting the title in post-production Angel by Harry Cleven (see the Cinergie interview), which recounts the story of a boy born with the gift of invisibility who enjoys a loving relationship with a little blind girl until they become teenagers, when he finds out one day that she will be able to regain her sight. The feature is being produced by Jaco Van Dormael for Belgian firm Terra Incognita and is being co-produced by France. 

Elle Driver, which is also pre-selling the film 7:19 AM by Jorge Michel Grau (a drama that unfolds during the terrible earthquake that struck Mexico in 1985), currently in production, will screen Taularde [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Audrey Estrougo (starring such names as Sophie Marceau and Suzanne Clément – read the article) and the environmental documentary Tomorrow [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Mélanie Laurent and Cyril Dion (which is having a superb and very stable run in French theatres, having taken 500,000 admissions over eight weeks) at the market in Berlin.

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(Translated from French)

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