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CANNES 2016 Market / France

French sales agents on the rampage at the Cannes Film Market

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- From Elle Driver to StudioCanal, via Gaumont and a plethora of others, France’s international sales agents are really buzzing on the Croisette

French sales agents on the rampage at the Cannes Film Market
Sieranevada by Cristi Puiu

Cineuropa presents an overview of the main titles on the slates of the other French international sales agents at the Film Market of the 69th Cannes Film Festival (which gets going today).

Elle Driver will be pinning its hopes on a Palme d'Or hopeful (Sieranevada [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Cristi Puiu
film profile
]
by Romania’s Cristi Puiu) as well as some tantalising new projects: the English-language fantasy-thriller The Room by French director Christian Volckman (Renaissance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aton Soumache
interview: Christian Volckman
film profile
]
), toplined by Olga Kurylenko (in pre-production and being staged by Les Films du Poisson together with Canada), the social thriller Love Me Not by Greece’s Alexandros Avranas (Miss Violence [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexandros Avranas
film profile
]
), which will be co-produced by France via Les Films du Lendemain, and Daoud’s Winter by Iraq’s Koutaiba Al-Janabi (co-produced by Paris-based outfit Alcatraz Films and Dutch-Scottish company Oak Motion Pictures). Also of note are the promo reels for Angel by Harry Cleven and If I Were… A Boy by Audrey Dana.

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StudioCanal is also boldly stepping forward with a contender for the Palme d'Or on its line-up: From the Land of the Moon [+see also:
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]
by French director Nicole Garcia. And Anna Marsh’s team, which will unveil Fog in August [+see also:
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]
by Kai Wessel and the animated movie Friends Forever – A Pig's Tale by Theresa Strozik as market premieres, will continue working on the animated feature Early Man [+see also:
film review
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film profile
]
by Nick Park (currently in production), the thriller The Commuter [+see also:
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]
by Spaniard Jaume Collet-Serra (due to be shot this summer, with Liam Neeson) and several titles in post-production, such as Goodbye Berlin [+see also:
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]
by Fatih Akin (read the news), Elementary [+see also:
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]
by Hélène Angel, Seuls [+see also:
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]
by David Moreau and the "James Marsh project [+see also:
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]
" (starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz).

Gaumont, which is sharing the sales of the Palme d'Or contender The Neon Demon [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Nicolas Winding Refn
film profile
]
by Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn with Wild Bunch, will present the documentary A Journey Through French Cinema [+see also:
trailer
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]
by Bertrand Tavernier as a world premiere in Cannes Classics. Cécile Gaget and Yohann Compte’s team will also be kicking off the pre-sales for Les Temps Difficiles by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache (Untouchable [+see also:
film review
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]
), the shoot for which is just about to get under way. Also featuring on the line-up are the titles See You up There by Albert Dupontel (read the news) and Un sac de billes [+see also:
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]
by Christian Duguay, both currently in production, the movies in post-production Brice from Nice [+see also:
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]
by James Huth (starring Jean Dujardin) and Leap! [+see also:
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]
by Eric Summer, and the feature Return to Montauk by Germany’s Volker Schlöndorff (starring Stellan Skarsgard and Nina Hoss), in pre-production. Also on the menu are the market premieres of Heaven Will Wait [+see also:
film review
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]
by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar (about teenagers who have got caught up in jihadism and are all set to head off to Syria), Hibou by Ramzy Bédia, Arès [+see also:
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]
 by Jean-Patrick Benes, Odd Job [+see also:
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]
by the late Pascal Chaumeil (starring Romain Duris) and Heartstrings [+see also:
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]
by Michel Boujenah.

Funny Balloons will be banking on Neruda [+see also:
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]
by Pablo Larrain in the Directors’ Fortnight, a section where Stray Dogs will be selling the Indian film Psycho Raman by Anurag Kashyap

TF1 International (now renamed TF1 Studio) also has a title being showcased in the Fortnight, with Two Lovers and a Bear by Canada’s Kim Nguyen, which stands out on a slate that also includes the movies The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir by Marjane Satrapi (starring Uma Thurman, Laurent Lafitte and Gemma Arterton), Last Call for Nowhere [+see also:
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]
by Philippe de Chauveron, Penny Pincher! by Fred Cavayé (starring Dany Boon) and Artic Heart [+see also:
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]
by Marie Madinier (starring Guillaume Canet), all in post-production.

Cité Films fully intends to strike some good deals with Tour de France [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rachid Djaïdani
film profile
]
by Rachid Djaïdani, which has been selected in the Directors’ Fortnight, and is also selling Istanbul Red by Ferzan Ozpetek (in production) and the Argentinian-French co-production El Invierno [+see also:
film review
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]
 by Emiliano Torres, which will be premiered at the market.

The Bureau Sales will be trying to shift its co-production Tramontane [+see also:
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]
by Lebanon’s Vatche Boulghourjian, which is in competition in the Critics’ Week, and will carry on with the pre-sales (in partnership with Celluloid Dreams) of Lean on Pete by British director Andrew Haigh, which will begin shooting this summer, and those for two titles in post-production: Daphne by Peter Mackie Burns and A Life Elsewhere [+see also:
trailer
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]
by Olivier Peyon (read the article).

Capricci Films and Noori Pictures can also boast a number of titles in selection: the former will be selling Last Days of Louis XIV [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Albert Serra
film profile
]
by Spaniard Albert Serra (a special screening in the official selection), while the latter will be doing likewise with the Iranian film Inversion by Behnam Behzadi, which will have its world premiere in Un Certain Regard.

Also featuring among the vast array of French vendors in action is Kinology, with the movies Planetarium [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rebecca Zlotowski
film profile
]
by Rebecca Zlotowski, Money [+see also:
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]
by Gela Babluani and Trainee Day [+see also:
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]
by Marc Fitoussi, in post-production, in addition to the science-fiction feature Cold Skin by Xavier Gens (written by Jesús Olmo and being produced by Babieka Films), currently in pre-production. 

Standing out on Celluloid Dreams’ slate is the feature debut Valley of Shadows [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen
film profile
]
by Norway’s Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen, in post-production, while UDI will be working on shifting the animated films Zombillenium [+see also:
trailer
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]
by Arthur de Pins and Second Generation by Véra Belmont and Xavier Picard, both of which are in production. 

Loco Films will screen Our Mother [+see also:
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]
by Fejria Deliba and Anna [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques Toulemonde
film profile
]
by Jacques Toulemonde as market premieres, while Versatile will be looking for buyers for the documentary Guapo siempre by Richard Aujard, which follows Mickey Rourke as he gets back in the boxing ring (produced by Bonne Pioche Cinéma and Canto Bros Production).

EuropaCorp will obviously also be present, brandishing the blockbuster Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets [+see also:
trailer
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]
by Luc Besson (read the news), currently in production, and the thriller Miss Sloane by John Madden, which has just wrapped shooting and stars Jessica Chastain, among other movies. 

Market premieres are on the agenda for Other Angle Pictures, with #The Jews [+see also:
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]
by Yvan Attal, In the Forests of Siberia [+see also:
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]
by Safy Nebbou, The Children of Chance by Malik Chibane and The African Doctor by Julien Rambaldi.

Jour2Fête, WTFilms, Arizona, MPM, Still Moving, Reel Suspects, DreamLab Films and New Morning Films will also be showing off their wares at the Film Market.

Lastly, it is worth highlighting the creation of a new French international sales agent, called Alma Cinéma. Headed by Sara May and founded by distributor Ad Vitam in partnership with producers Charles Gillibert (CG Cinéma) and Frédéric Jouve (Les Films Velvet), the firm will get up and running at Cannes with a line-up including the US movie As You Are.

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(Translated from French)

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