Post-Cannes Deals On Nordic Titles

SF International had one of the busiest Cannes with Lasse Hallström's The Hypnotist boosting the company's sales drive. During the festival, the company announced that the Swedish star actor Michael Persbrandt will play the lead in the screen adaptation of the best-selling crime novel by Swedish authors Alexandra and Alexander Ahndoril, (aka Lars Kepler). Ann-Kristin Westerberg, (photo) head of SF International said the film was pre-sold to the German and French speaking countries, Benelux, Greece, Spain, South Korea, Argentina, CIS and Eastern Europe. The Swedish project produced by Börje Hansson, Peter Possne and Bertil Ohlsson for Svensk Filmindustri and Sonet Film is set to start shooting early January 2012.

Hamilton, another crime series starring Michael Persbrandt was picked up by Benelux and German speaking territories, and the thriller False Trail (Jägarna 2) by French and German speaking European territories, and Benelux. The Swedish feel good movie The Importance of Tying Your Shoes (Hur många lingon finns det i världen), still on Sweden's Top Ten after ten weeks- was sold to German speaking countries, the Baltic states and South Korea.

NonStop Sales pre-sold the Norwegian 3D kids movie Magic Silver 2 -The Quest for the Mystic Horn to Spain (Flins & Piniculas), the German speaking territories (Eurovideo), and Indonesia (PT Cipta Mutu Entertainment). The sequel to the 2009 Norwegian hit will premiere domestically in December 2011. The WW2 drama Beyond the Border by Richard Holm continued to draw buyers' attention and rights were sold to Spain, German speaking territories, France and Japan while Spain's Vertice picked up the Bergman documentaries The Women and Bergman/The Men and Bergman.

Germany's Cinepool which is handling the 3D animation projects Niko 2-Family Affairs from Finland and Iceland's Legends of Valhalla-Thor started to line up a string of distributors for the two films, supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The sequel to the box-office hit Niko & the Way of the Stars, Niko 2 was pre-sold to France (Bac Film), Benelux (Just Bridge), CIS/Russia (Paradise), Poland (Kino Swiat), China (HGC Entertainment), Indonesia (PT Media Bermutu) and Bulgaria (Pro Film) while Legends of Valhalla. was pre-old to Israel (Five Stars) and Bulgaria (Pro Film).

French distributor Memento Films and UK distributor Soda Pictures who acquired from The Match Factory the Norwegian film Oslo, August 31, presented at Un Certain Regard, praised Joachim Trier's talent. "It's a radiant work, the actors are extraordinary and I felt deeply moved by this film about life and feeling alive," said Franck Salaün, Head of programming and acquisitions for Memento. "Trier's second feature confirms his status as a major new talent and Soda Pictures are thrilled to be releasing the beautiful film to be discovered by audiences UK wide," said Soda Pictures in a statement. Produced by Motlys and Don't Look Now, Oslo, August 31 will be released domestically on August 31.