Buyers seemed to have arrived late and left early, staying only three-four days, and everyone agreed that foot traffic at the market was lighter this year. Many sellers of arthouse European films blamed the tougher market conditions on the weather, weaker dollar to the euro, stronger local products (notably in Japan), weaker DVD/TV markets and overall skyrocketing P&A costs. Latin America, Middle East, Asia (apart from Japan) and smaller European territories were very active as a whole. Elsewhere, buyers were very selective. Several top European sales agents (including Adriana Chiesa Enterprises (Italy), Bavaria Film International (Germany) and Memento Films International (France) stressed the shyness or absence of Scandinavian buyers.
Regarding Nordic films, those in official selection closed in a handful of territories. On the market, deals were scarce, apart from single title hits like Mammoth or Sunshine Barry & the Disco Worms.
At press time yesterday, key sellers of Nordic films such as NonStop Sales and Svensk Filmindustri had not disclosed their deals. However here is a selected list of sales closed during the ten day market.
TrustNordisk closed Lukas Moodysson's Mammoth to Benelux (A Film), Filmcoopi (Switzerland), Budapest Film (Hungary) and Austria (Filmladen) based on a 19 minute footage shown twice to buyers at private screenings. A-Film also acquired for Benelux Simon Staho's Heaven's Heart and Ole Bornedal's Just another Love Story.
Circo Film from Hungary bought Just another Love Story and two older titles, Ole Christian Madsen's Kira's Reason, and Anders Thomas Jensen's The Green Butchers.
The Finnish horror film Dark Floors was sold to Japan (Presidio Corporation) and MIG Film (Germany). The award-winning Go with Peace Jamil was acquired by Pantheon Entertainment for Portugal, Kjell Sundvall's thriller Night of the Wolf was sold to Presidio for Japan, and Pål Sletaune's 2005 thriller Next Door to Fantastic Films for the Netherlands.
Philippe Bober's The Coproduction Office which was selling Ruben Östlund's De ofrivilliga (Involuntary) shown at Un Certain Regard, closed deals with Belgium (Lumiere), Holland (Film Museum), Norway (Arthaus) and Greece (Seven Films).
According to Bober, other deals were pending for the UK, France, Russia, Australia and Denmark. Last year, The Coproduction Office also received a very good response from world buyers with Roy Andersson's You, the Living, also selected at Un Certain Regard:. "People who like our editorial line trust our offer of films. But Involuntary is a great film in itself, so it is normal that it has attracted so much interest," he said.
Another Paris-based sales outfit, Memento Films, received a very good response on the French/Swedish co-production Grown Ups by first time director Anna Novion. The film was picked up by Xenix Distribution for Switzerland and offers were on the table from Germany/Austria, Benelux, and Italy. "The film is very light and fresh," said the company's CEO Emilie Georges. "People just love it."
The German sales company The Match Factory closed deals on Bent Hamer's O'Horten with Artificial Eye (UK), Ocean (France), Pandora (Germany), and Filmcoopi (Switzerland). The company headed by Michael Weber also sold Soren Kragh-Jacobsen's What No One Knows to Pandora (Germany), Greece (Ama Film), Swizterland (Monopole Pathé), and Australia/New Zealand (Aztek).
Bavaria Film International continued to enjoy the success of Tomas Alfredson's vampire film Let the Right One In which has proven a real cross over hit for the company, according to managing director Thorsten Ritter. The film had previously been picked up for the US (Magnet), Spain (Karma), South Korea (Daisy Entertainment), Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay (Pachamama), Singapore (Lighthouse Pictures) and Greece (Seven Group). New deals were closed in Cannes for Russia (Maywin Media), Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia (Suraya Film), Brazil (Mostra International de Cinema) and Poland (Vivarto). Negotiations were under way with France, the UK and Germany.
Bavaria also closed a sale (Seven Seas for Thailand) on the Finnish competition entry at the 2008 Berlinale Black Ice.
Sola Media's Solveig Langeland was very happy with the excellent response from buyers on the Danish 3D animated film Sunshine Barry & the Disco Worms, produced by Nina Crone. Based on the 10 minute footage with dialogue shown in Cannes, the film was sold to some 40 territories, such as the Czech and Slovak Republics (Dimas), Poland (Kino Swiat), Turkey (Tiglon), Brazil (Imagen), MFC/Continental for former Yugoslavia. SF will release it across Scandinavia in the fall.
Delphis Films announced early in the market some new sales on Denmark's Fighter, following the film's successful screening at New York's Tribeca Film Festival. IFC acquired it for the US and Lime Tree for Korea. Other deals had been sealed earlier for the UK (Momentum), France (Europa Corp), Turkey and Australia.
"Cannes is fascinating with the Indiana Jones film and avant-garde films screening next to each other and cross-fertilising. Indiana Jones uses the cultural stage of avant-garde films and the avant-garde films use all the press in town. Cannes is a unique place in that sense."
Writer/director of Involuntary - presented in Un Certain Regard.