17/02/2016 - BERLIN 2016: There have been plenty of deals for Things to Come, Agnus Dei and the upcoming Farhadi, Haneke, Dumont and Ostlund films, among countless other titles

The European Film Market at the 66th Berlin Film Festival will draw to a close on Friday, and before returning to Paris, where the definitive results will be drawn up and the myriad deals still being negotiated will be concluded, the French international sales agents have already started publicising some great news.

Indeed, Les Films du Losange is surfing a powerful wave with Things to Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Mia Hansen-Løve
film profile] by Mia Hansen-Løve, which got a very warm welcome in competition, and has been acquired (for the time being) for the United States (Sundance Selects), the United Kingdom (Curzon Artificial Eye), Germany (Weltkino), Spain (Golem), Scandinavia (Non Stop), Benelux (ABC Cinemien), Portugal (Alambique), Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Interestingly, Les Films du Losange has also announced the official addition of Happy End to its line-up, the upcoming film by Austrian master Michael Haneke, which will begin shooting next summer in Calais, starring Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant. It tells a story revolving around a middle-class European family, set against the backdrop of the issue of migrants and with a storyline summarised as follows: "The world is all around us, and we are in the middle, blind."

Also standing out among the other titles that are proving to be hot tickets for distributors from all over the world is the new movie [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Iranian maestro Asghar Farhadi, which is currently in production and is as yet untitled, but has been pre-sold very successfully by Memento Films International.

Films Distribution has also been notching up more sales for Agnus Dei [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lou de Laâge
film profile] by Anne Fontaine, which was revealed at the Sundance Film Festival and has enjoyed a very impressive start to its run in French theatres. The feature has been purchased for the USA (Music Box), the UK (Picturehouse Entertainment), Italy (Good Films), Spain (Caramel), Belgium (Imagine), Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Greece, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and Japan.

For its part, Pathé International has been using promo reels and has recorded some excellent pre-sales results with A United Kingdom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: David Oyelowo
film profile] by Amma Asante (acquired for Italy, Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand, and the Middle East) and with the French comedy One Man and His Cow [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Mohamed Hamidi, which was screened at the EFM and has been bought for Italy (Teodora), Germany (Alamode), Belgium (Alternative Films), Greece (Feelgood), Turkey, the Middle East, Canada and Latin America. Also of note are the pre-sales based on promo reels for Cézanne et moi [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Danièle Thompson (bought for Scandinavia by Njuta Films, Greece by Feelgood, Portugal by Cinemundo, Turkey and the Middle East) and for the French-language film Eternité [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Tran Anh Hung (sold for Scandinavia with TriArt Film, Portugal, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand).

WTFilms has been doing some great business as well, with Inside the Cell [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Nicolas Boukrief, which is currently proving to be a smash hit on VoD in France after it was forced to go without a theatrical release owing to the dramatic current events and its searingly topical subject matter (a journalist who infiltrates a terrorist cell that is preparing an attack). The film has already found takers in the UK (Soda), Germany (Universum), Scandinavia (Njuta), Eastern Europe (HBO), Greece (Odeon), Israel, China, South Korea, Canada and the Middle East.

Impressive sales have also been made by Jour2fête with the documentary Free to Run [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Pierre Morath, which has been acquired for Germany and Austria, the UK and Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, Australia and New Zealand.

Among the plethora of announcements, it is worth pointing out the fact that EuropaCorp has pre-sold the British rights to the blockbuster Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Luc Besson (read the article – currently being shot) to Lionsgate, the sale of the Cannes competitor Mon roi [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Maïwenn for the USA (Film Movement), the major deals signed by young sales agent Loco Films, particularly with the Ukrainian-Russian co-production Battle of Sevastopol by Sergey Mokritskiy, the great scores totted up by Other Angle Pictures with Full Speed by Nicolas Benamou (read the article), and the addition of The Square [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile] to Coproduction Office’s slate, the upcoming feature by talented Swedish director Ruben Ostlund (Play [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
interview: Ruben Ostlund
film profile], Force Majeure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile]), which will start shooting next summer.

In terms of production, Paris-based outfit Pyramide has announced that Argentinian director Lucia Puenzo will apparently shoot her first French-language film, Barbe-Bleue, next autumn, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Amélie Nothomb. And 3B Productions has scheduled the start of the shoot for the upcoming movie by Bruno Dumont, Jeannette, for August; this musical drama will be adapted from the play The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc by Charles Péguy. Lastly, we should note that the Eurimages Prize, handed out as part of the Berlin Co-Production Market, went to the animated project Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Pierre Földes, an adaptation of six short stories by Haruki Murakami, which will be co-produced by French outfit Cinéma Defacto (read the article) and Hungary’s Proton Cinema.

(Translated from French)