Berlin Bear winners sell well for Match Factory, Bavaria

The Golden Bear winner The Milk Of Sorrow by Peruvian director Claudia Llosa has been sold so far to Norway (Arthaus), Sweden (Folkets Bio), Poland (Mañana) and Former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), with deals set to be concluded soon on a number of territories, including Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Denmark and Latin America.

Even before the closing ceremony where Adrián Biniez’s Gigante picked up three prizes, this feature debut had been sold to 20 territories, ranging from Germany (Neue Visionen), France (Ocean), Spain (Golem), Greece (Seven One Films), and Switzerland (Xenix) through Denmark (Ost for Paradis), Norway (Fidalgo), Former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), and Portugal (Midas), to Poland (Mañana), The Netherlands (Filmmuseum), Colombia (Cine Colombia), South Korea (Sejong) and Peru (Gateno Films). A US deal is expected to be announced shortly, with interest also coming from other territories such as Taiwan and Mexico.

Meanwhile, Bavaria Film International reported ‘lively interest’ for Maren Ade’s second feature Everyone Else which won the Best Actress Silver Bear and shared the Grand Jury Prize with Gigante. All rights were acquired by Portugal’s Atalanta and MCF MegaCom for Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, while negotiations are underway with distributors from the USA, France and Scandinavia for this drama starring Birgit Minichmayr and Lars Eidinger.

The Match Factory also concluded deals on the ‘out of competition’ Competition film The Dust Of Time by Theo Angelopoulos to Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Austria (Filmladen), Former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Czech Republic (Aerofilms), Romania (Independenta) and Portugal (Atalanta), and sold Lars Jessen’s Small-Town Punks (Dorfpunks), which had had its world premiere in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino sidebar, to MCF MegaCom for Former Yugoslavia.

Sales were also closed on several of the titles in The Match Factory’s catalogue: Andreas Dresen’s 2008 Cannes film Cloud 9 was sold to Colombia (Cine Colombia) and Peru (Gateno Films), with talks underway for US and Finland, and Yesim Ustaoglu’s Pandora’s Box went to Germany (Kairos Filmverleih), Portugal (Atalanta) and Colombia (Cine Colombia).

Moreover, Austrian filmmaker Götz Spielmann’s Oscar-nominated Revanche is still proving attractive to international buyers, with the latest deals signed for The Netherlands (Amstel Film), Taiwan (Cineplex) and Latin America (Lap-TV), and deals likely to be finalised soon for South Korea and Argentina.

At the same time, a raft of presales were made on the strength of a promo reel shown at Berlin’s EFM for Fatih Akin’s latest film Soul Kitchen with deals for Italy (BIM), Spain (Golem), Benelux (Cineart), Switzerland (Pathe), Romania (Independenta) and Brazil (Imovision).

Meanwhile, Bavaria Film International did brisk business at the Berlin market with Norwegian Erik Poppe’s psychological thriller Troubled Water with sales to Germany (Kool Filmdistribution), Switzerland (Look Now!), Greece (Seven Group) and Benelux (Four Corners/Wildbunch), while Marco Kreuzpaintner’s family fantasy adventure film Krabat was picked up by Japan’s Transformer.

And, at its first ever European Film Market, Berlin-based fledgling sales company Films Boutique sold Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s feature debut The Happiest Girl In The World, which was the winner of the C.I.C.A.E.’s Forum Jury Prize, to France’s Pyramide Distribution.