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BERLINALE 2019 EFM

French sellers clinch some great deals at Berlin

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- BERLIN 2019: An overview of the main EFM deals announced by Pathé, mk2, Playtime, Wild Bunch, Memento, Charades, Gaumont, StudioCanal and Bac

French sellers clinch some great deals at Berlin
The Wolf's Call by Antonin Baudry

The 69th Berlinale European Film Market comes to a close today, with various French international sales companies securing some excellent deals. Here's a short overview of some of the main deals to be agreed.

Pathé International sold Antonin Baudry's The Wolf's Call [+see also:
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to Netflix, covering North and South America, Spain and Scandinavia, and adding to its pre-sale territories: Germany (Concorde), the Czech Republic (MediaSquad), the countries of the former Yugoslavia (Fox Vision), Portugal (Cinemundo), Russia, the Middle East, Japan and Hong Kong. Screened at the Berlin market premiere, the feature film is due to be released in French cinemas on 20 February. Marie-Laure Montironi's team also clinched a few deals thanks to a sneak peek of The Best is yet to Come [+see also:
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by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière which was pre-purchased in Germany (Constantin), Spain (Vértigo), Italy (Lucky Red), Portugal (Cinemundo), Greece (FeelGood), Belgium (Alternative Films), Switzerland (Pathé AG) and Canada. The market premiere of Sweetheart [+see also:
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by Lisa Azuelos also generated some buzz and resulted in the film being soldin Germany (Alamode), Italy (I Wonder Pictures), Portugal (Cinemundo), Greece (FeelGood), Belgium (Alternative Films), Switzerland (Pathé AG) and Canada.

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Mk2 Films was also very busy securing deals with several titles in post-production, most notably Portrait of a Lady on Fire [+see also:
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interview: Céline Sciamma
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by the French director Céline Sciamma whose sneak peek seduced Curzon Artificial Eye for the UK, Karma Films for Spain, Folkets Bio for Sweden and Cinéart for Benelux. The team, run by Juliette Schrameck (and supported by Fionnuala Jamison) also worked its magic with The Whistlers [+see also:
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interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
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by the Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu, which was pre-purchased by the United Kingdom (Curzon Artificial Eye), France (Diaphana Distribution), Switzerland (Border Frame Films), the countries of the former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), South Korea and China. Also in the post-production department, buyers chose to take a gamble on Arab Blues [+see also:
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interview: Manele Labidi
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by Manele Labidi, which was pre-purchased in Germany (Prokino), Italy (Bim Distribuzione), Spain (Karma Films), Scandinavia (Njuta Films), Benelux (Splendid Film) and Switzerland. Finally, the documentary Varda by Agnès [+see also:
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by the iconic Agnès Varda, unveiled out of competition at Berlin, has sold particularly well, especially to NonStop Entertainment in Scandinavia, Against Gravity in Poland, MCF Megacom in the countries of the Former Yugoslavia and Midas Films in Portugal.

Playtime almost scored a full house with its Berlin competitor By the Grace of God [+see also:
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by François Ozon, which was acquired in Germany (Pandora), Italy (Academy Two), Spain (Golem), Denmark (Camera Film ), Sweden and Norway (Edge Entertainment), Poland (Against Gravity), Hungary (Vertigo), Benelux (September Film), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Austria (ThimFilm Group), Greece (Filmtrade ), the countries of the former Yugoslavia (Fivia), the Baltic States and Russia (A-1), Turkey, Canada, Australia, South America and Japan.

Wild Bunch's big hit this year was the French film in post-production La Vérité by the Japanese Hirokazu Kore-Eda, which was bought in the United Kingdom (Curzon), Spain (Golem), Denmark (Øst for Paradis), Sweden (Triart), Norway (Another World), Finland (Cinema Mundo), the Baltic States (Kino Pavasaris), the Czech Republic (Film Europe), Hungary (Vertigo), the countries of the former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Greece (Seven Film), Portugal (Lusomundo), Benelux (September Film), Turkey, Israel, the Middle East, Latin America, China and the United States (IFC Films).

Memento Films International caught the attention of numerous distributors with a promoreel for Persian Lessons [+see also:
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interview: Leonie Benesch
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by the Russian-American director Vadim Perelman (starring the Argentinian actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Germany's Lars Eidinger), which was pre-purchased inItaly(Academy Two), Spain (Avalon), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Benelux (Splendid), Greece (Spentzos), the countries of the former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Israel, South Africa, Japan, and Latin America, with Alamode distributing in Germany and Thimfilm in Austria.

Charades was particularly successful with Invisibles by Louis-Jean Petit (surprise success at the French box office with 1.2 million admissions in five weeks), bought in Germany (Piffl Media), Italy (Teodora), Spain (Vertigo), Sweden (Folkets Bio), Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary (Aerofilms), Austria (Thimmfilms), Greece (Weird Wave), Portugal (Cinemundo), Israel, Lebanon, the Middle East, Quebec and Taiwan. Yohann Comte, Carole Baraton, Pierre Mazars and Constantin Briest’s team also took advantage of the market premiere of The Shiny Shrimps [+see also:
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by Cédric Le Gallo and Maxime Govare, which attracted Spain (Vertigo), Portugal (Cinemundo), Switzerland (Praesens), the countries of the former Yugoslavia (Karantanija), Mexico and Japan.

Arranged by Gaumont, the market premiere of Rémi Bezançon's The Mystery of Henri Pick (article) generated several sales in Germany (Neue Visionen), Spain (A Contracorriente), Italy (I Wonder Pictures), Poland (Aurora), Hungary Hungary (Hungaricom), Greece (Feelgood Entertainment), Portugal (Films4You), Benelux (Athena), Switzerland (Pathé), Canada, Israel, Middle East, South Korea, Taiwan and China.

StudioCanal also secured some great deals with Love at First Sight [+see also:
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by Hugo Gelin, which has been sold to practically every international territory, and most notably to Spain (Vertigo), Italy (M2 Pictures), South Korea, Japan and China, with the United States one of the only territories still to negotiate a deal. Also noteworthy are My Stupid Dog [+see also:
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 by Yvan Attal, Perfect Nanny [+see also:
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 by Lucie Borleteau, Someone, Somewhere [+see also:
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by Cédric Klapisch, the animated feature SamSam [+see also:
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by Tanguy De Kermel and the comedy Venice Calling [+see also:
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by Ivan Calbérac.

For its part, Bac Films (which has just announced the departure of its general manager Mathieu Robinet) generated a large number of sales on the animated title Terra Willy by Eric Tosti, which is due to be distributed in France on April 3 and which was bought in Italy (Notorious Pictures), Spain (Karma), Scandinavia (Selmer Media), Poland (M2 Films), Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria ( Pronoun), the countries of the former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Benelux (Paradiso), Canada, South Korea, China, the Baltic States, Russia and CIS territories (Exponenta Film), Israel, the Middle East, Vietnam and China. Also noteworthy are promising presales for Alice and the Mayor [+see also:
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by Nicolas Pariser.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Netflix has acquired world rights (excluding France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Canada) for the French animated film Pachamama by Juan Antin, sold by the British outfit SC Films International.

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(Translated from French)

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