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CANNES 2007 Market / France

Films Distribution sells wild cards Red Balloon and Water Lilies

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French sales outfit Films Distribution, who has informed Cineuropa on some of its deals at the Cannes Film Festival Market, can be satisfied with its sales and look forward to a bright future.

Among the best-selling titles were Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao Hsien’s Un Certain Regard entry The Flight of the Red Balloon [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(see article). Rights to the French production have been sold to the UK, Spain (Notro), Greece (Rosebud), Austria (Stadtkino), the Benelux (Filmmuseum - Lumiere), Switzerland (Agora), Poland (Gutek), Turkey, Brazil and the US.

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Other films to fare well were the restored versions of Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon (1956 Golden Palm and Oscar for Best Screenplay) and Wild Stallion, which found takers worldwide.

This year’s surprise title for Films Distribution was Céline Sciamma’s debut feature Water Lilies [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. Well received in the Un Certain Regard sidebar (see article), the film was sold to the US, UK (to new company Slingshot) and the Benelux (Cinemien - ABC) while negotiations are underway with several other territories and well advanced for Austria.

Nicolas Klotz’s Directors' Fortnight title Heartbeat Detector [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, starring Mathieu Amalric (see news), has already been snapped up by the US, Austria (Statkino) and Korea. Sales with the UK are almost finalised.

French films in post-production sold include Lea Fazer’s Notre univers impitoyable (see article) and Marc Fitoussi’s La vie d’artiste (see news), which has been acquired for the Benelux countries.

The future looks rosy for Films Distribution, as it will also be handling sales on Anne Fontaine’s upcoming feature on famous fashion designer Coco Chanel, which will be produced by Haut et Court and Ciné @ in 2008 and star Audrey Tautou (see news).

"The news has made buyers go wild who had already made several bids while we still intended to start pre-sales and simply wanted to get an idea of the interest in the project because the script is still being written," said Didar Domehri, head of international sales at Films Distribution.

When speaking about the Cannes Film Market as a whole, Domehri said that "as always, distributors have focused on the same projects. This year, the competition presented films of a superior quality, so the market was relatively easy. Nevertheless, international sales on European auteur films are facing increasing difficulties, in particular French films in Italy. However, as the extraordinary keen interest for the Coco Chanel film shows, the market is being characterised by increasingly immediate reactions."

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(Translated from French)

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