AFM 2023: The buzz titles from Europe

France

Pathé goes big with Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patelliere’s The Count Of Monte-­Cristo starring Pierre Niney as the titular hero of the famed Alexandre Dumas novel. It also hosts first market screenings for the second film in Martin Bourboulon’s two-part feature series The Three Musketeers — Milady with Francois Civil, Vincent Cassel, Eva Green, Romain Duris and Vicky Krieps, and brings a promo reel for Albert Dupontel’s political fable Second Round starring Dupontel opposite Cécile de France. Pathé also hosts screenings for what will be Michael Caine’s final film, Oliver Parker’s The Great Escaper, based on the true story of an 89-year-old Second World War veteran who snuck off to attend a D-Day commemoration.

Kinology has prestige biopic Mother, the first English-language feature from Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska, which stars Noomi Rapace as Mother Teresa. The introspective drama-­meets-religious thriller follows her over the course of a few days to tell the story of the real woman behind the Catholic church figure. Kinology also brings promo reels for two top secret 2024 prestige titles that will be unveiled for buyers at the market.

SND launches sales for Juan Carlos Medina’s French cold-case thriller The Chase (Abîme), starring Sami Bouajila and Julie Gayet, about a cop haunted by the unsolved murder of a child a decade earlier who seeks justice before the case is closed forever. SND also brings the first teaser for Anne Fontaine’s buzzy biopic Boléro, about the birth of the titular orchestral work from Maurice Ravel, starring Raphaël Personnaz, Jeanne Balibar, Doria Tillier, Emmanuelle Devos and Vincent Perez. It will unveil first footage and a script for Kittened, a body swap rap-filled 3D CG animal adventure co-produced with Quad with animation from Mac Guff.

Orange Studio has Florent-Emilio Siri’s Elyas (formerly titled Fatum) starring Roschdy Zem and Laetitia Eido and scored by Alexandre Desplat about a special-forces veteran recruited as a body­guard for a young girl. Orange also has the first trailer for new market title Like A Prince, the debut feature from actor Ali Marhyar about a star boxer sentenced to community service at a chateau after a bar fight. It will premiere promos for Aude Léa Rapin’s dystopian thriller Planet B starring Adele Exarchopoulos and Souheila Yacoub, and Frédéric and Valentin Potier’s Prodigies.

SBS International has David Cronenberg’s supernatural thriller The Shrouds with a new promo reel. Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce star in a story about a widowed business­man who builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. SBS produces with Prospero Pictures and has taken on international sales from the previously announced Film­Nation and CAA Media Finance.

Gaumont soars with Paul McCartney’s High In The Clouds from director Tony Genkel, a 3D-animated film about family and freedom of expression set in the animal world, with original songs from McCartney and composer Michael Giacchino. Gaumont also has Michiel Blanchart’s French crime thriller Night Call, which stars Romain Duris and The Nun’s Jonas Bloquet in an action-packed survival thriller, which is produced by Quad. Gaumont also brings a script for Gilles de Maistre’s human-­animal adventure tale Moon The Panda, a promo reel for family 3D live-­action animation film Cat & Dog: The Great Crossing and a teaser of Timbuktu director Abderrahmane Sissako’s Black Tea.

mk2 Films has Christophe Honoré’s romantic comedy Actor’s Studio starring daughter-and-mother duo Chiara Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve alongside Fabrice Luchini. It also brings early materials for Dylan Southern’s literary adaptation The Thing With Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch; Jenny Suen’s dark comedy Peaches starring Emma Corrin and Lucie Zhang and co‑produced by Cate Blanchett; plus a teaser for Raoul Peck’s untitled documentary about Ernest Cole, an exiled Black South African freelance photographer. Also on its slate are The Balconettes, directed by Noémie Merlant and co-written and executive produced by Céline Sciamma, and animated works-in-­progress Outfoxed! by Paul Bolger and A Winter’s Journey by Alex Helfrecht. The latter blends live action with animation; John Malkovich is among the cast.

Newen Connect has French wildlife director Guillaume Maidatchevsky’s arctic fox adventure Kina & Yuk, and spotlights Hanna Ladoul and Marco La Via’s dramatic comedy Funny Birds, which stars Catherine Deneuve and Andrea Riseborough and is executive produced by Martin Scorsese. It unveils new titles including family road-trip drama Meet The Leroys, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and José Garcia; Here & There about cousins on a culinary tour of France; and Karaoke, which follows a karaoke-­obsessed cleaning lady and disgraced opera star who form a singing duo.

Charades premieres inter­national animated family comedy Night Of The Zoopocalypse, which is co-repped by Anton, about a group of animals who transform into zombies after their zoo is hit by a meteor. Charades also has Rich Peppiatt’s dark comedy Kneecap, which stars Michael Fassbender, about an Irish hip-hop group spearheading a civil-rights movement, and Emma Dante’s Misericordia about a childlike man trying to survive in an adult world. The company also brings a new promo reel for Stéphane Demoustier’s French thriller Borgo starring Hafsia Herzi.

WTFilms arrives at AFM with Frédéric Jardin’s thriller Survive (co-repped with Federation), starring Émilie Dequenne and Andreas Pietschmann, about a family fighting for their lives as the oceans drain and hungry creatures lurk. WTFilms also has The Soul Eater from directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, about police fighting to save a small mountain village from a malevolent creature; James Mark’s deadly combat drama Fight Another Day with Jim Belushi; Pierre Mouchet’s horror thriller Schlitter; and Abel Danan’s stalker horror Don’t Watch. WTFilms will host market screenings for vampire horror The Vourdalak and Jennifer Reeder’s Perpetrator with Alicia Silverstone.

Other Angle Pictures brings Géraldine Danon’s ocean-set buzzy biopic Flo, about French sailor Florence Arthaud who navigated a career in a male-­dominated world.

Italy

True Colours brings a first promo reel for 3D animation Forest, directed by Luca Della Grotta and Francesco Dafano and produced by Italy’s Al One. Currently in production and set for delivery in 2025, Forest is about a young mushroom trying to protect her forest from a fire started by humans. True Colours is also showing a promo reel for Edoardo de Angelis’s Venice Film Festival opener Comandante. Sales are continuing on the Second World War submarine drama, which True Colours has already sold to a number of territories including Japan, Australia/New Zealand, Spain and Portugal. The film is being released on around 400 screens in Italy on October 31 by 01 Distribution.

Minerva starts sales on Daming Chen’s Unspoken, a China-­Canada production featuring The Walking Dead’s Michael Cudlitz and Zhang Hanyu, about a father who travels to Canada to recover the body of his murdered daughter and decides to catch her killer. The Rome-based outfit’s line-up also features Amazon’s The Bachelorette Party 2 about an unusual pre-­marriage trip, and Alessio Liguori-­directed thriller Black Bits about a married couple laying low in fear their criminal past will catch up with them.

Artex Film’s AFM slate includes Italy-Albania co-production Linking Love. The romantic comedy directed by Davide Lomma is about a longstanding couple whose life changes dramatically when one of them proposes to the other in the middle of a fight. Artex also has The Healer, Giuseppe Carleo’s drama about a man returning to his Sicilian hometown in the devastating aftermath of the Second World War who discovers his gift as a healer, as well as Luigi Pane’s Another World, a coming-of-age feature about 18-year-old Diego who moves to Rome’s suburbs after his mother’s death.

Nordics

TrustNordisk’s busy AFM slate includes historical action epic Stockholm Bloodbath, directed by Oscar nominee Mikael Hafstrom and with a cast that includes Claes Bang, Emily Beecham, Sophie Cookson, Mikkel Boe Folsgaard and Ulrich Thomsen. A promo is available and the film will be launched theatrically starting in January 2024. The company has also added 3D family animation Super Charlie, adapted from the popular children’s book series by Camilla Läckberg, and has first market screenings for Nightwatch — Demons Are Forever (a world premiere at BFI London Film Festival earlier this month) and amusement park horror Carousel. Another fresh title is Danish action drama The Quiet Ones, which is now shooting with a cast including Amanda Collin, Gustav Giese and Reda Kateb.

REinvent has two new titles on its slate: The Promise, a claustrophobic Danish thriller directed by Fabian Wullenweber about a woman who tries to save her nephew from a gang kidnapping (inspired by a true story); and The Girl In The Trunk, about a kidnapped woman trapped in the trunk of a speeding car in Texas, wearing her wedding dress and with her phone as her only hope. Denmark’s Jonas Kvist Jensen directs the English-­language thriller starring Katharina Sporrer and Caspar Phillipson. Both films are ready for delivery now. Other hot titles on REinvent’s slate include Philip da Silva’s debut horror thriller From Darkness; Nils Gaup’s historical action drama The Riot; and Ludvig Gür’s In The Name Of God, about a killer priest.

LevelK is selling Icelandic mystery thriller Cold directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen; and a string of recent festival hits: Rainer Sarnet’s kung-fu comedy The Invisible Fight from Locarno and Sitges; and Swedish drama Shame On Dry Land and Canadian comedy-­drama The Queen Of My Dreams, both from Toronto and BFI London film festivals.

Spain

Latido Films is market premiering Simon Casal’s futuristic conspiracy thriller Artificial Justice. Veronica Echegui (The Cold Light Of Day) and Alberto Ammann (Narcos) star in the film, which explores the impact of artificial intelligence on society as well as the role of multinationals. Antonio Saura’s outfit also brings Championext, Javier Fesser’s sequel to Spanish box-office hit Champions that inspired a US remake starring Woody Harrelson. Championext is the highest-grossing Spanish film at local theatres this year, earning more than $11m. Latido also has All The Names Of God, directed by Spanish action-thriller specialist Daniel Calparsoro and starring Luis Tosar (Cell 211).

Film Factory Entertainment has Escape by writer/director Rodrigo Cortes, whose credits include Red Lights starring Robert De Niro. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese and starring Mario Casas, Escape is a high-concept tale about a man who wants to give up his freedom and live in prison. Also on the slate is Nacho Garcia Velilla’s Checkmates, a feelgood family film about five marginalised kids who, against the odds, set out to win the Spanish chess championship. Pedro Martin-Calero’s The Wailing is a Spain-­France-Argentina horror picture starring Ester Exposito, Mathilde Ollivier and Malena Villa, which turns on three apparently unrelated young women who are haunted by an evil entity. Film Factory will also launch Control Room by director Luiso Berdejo, about a colony in outer space that is attacked by alien beings.

Filmax’s slate includes The Chapel, the sophomore effort of Carlota Pereda, whose credits include Sundance 2022 hit Piggy. The super­natural thriller navigates past and present, the real world and the para­normal, as a young girl wants to communicate with the dead, allowing her to stay in touch with her terminally ill mother. Also on Filmax’s AFM slate is The Night My Dad Saved Christmas, starring Spanish comedy icon Santiago Segura. Joaquin Mazon directs a story that explores what happens when Santa Claus is forced to cancel his Christmas Eve appointment with the world’s children. Other Filmax titles include Laura Alvea’s supernatural thriller The Sleeping Woman, about a nursing assistant caring for a woman in a coma who finds herself attracted to the patient’s husband, and Teresa, directed by Paula Ortiz (The Bride) and based on 16th-century nun Saint Teresa of Jesus.

Rest of world 

Poland’s New Europe Film Sales presents first footage from English- and Irish-language horror film Fréwaka by Aislinn Clarke, whose debut feature The Devil’s Doorway was released by IFC in the US. Fréwaka is the story of a home care worker who is sent to a remote village to look after an agoraphobic woman. The paranoid lady fears the neighbours as much as the Na Sidhe — sinister entities she believes abducted her decades earlier. The feature stars Clare Monnelly (Moone Boy), Brid Ni Neachtain (The Banshees Of Inisherin) and Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya (F20).

Germany’s Beta Cinema kicks off sales on Nick Hamm’s English-­language feature William Tell, based on the classic story of the crossbow warrior who shot an arrow through an apple balanced on his son’s head, and launched the struggle for Swiss independence. Written and directed by Hamm, William Tell stars Claes Bang in the title role alongside Connor Swindells, Ellie Bamber, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-­King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham as well as Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley. Beta will also market premiere Diabolik — Who Are You? by the Manetti brothers, the third instalment of the comic-book adaptations about the ruthless master thief. The film again stars Giacomo Gianniotti, Miriam Leone, Valerio Mastandrea and Monica Bellucci. Beta has pre-sold to Kino Lorber for the US.

Also on Beta’s slate is Hammarskjöld by Per Fly, which stars Mikael Persbrandt as Dag Hammarskjöld, secretary general of the United Nations in 1961 at the peak of the Cold War. The biopic is set for release in Sweden on December 25 by Nordisk Film. Beta will also present Hanna Slak’s mother-son drama Not A Word starring Maren Eggert; Asli Özge’s Black Box, co-produced by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, about gentrification in Berlin; and comedy drama One For The Road by Markus Goller, about a man in his thirties who has to face his addiction to alcohol (Sony released in Germany). Beta will also be pre-selling The Climb with Cara Delevingne and The Offing with Helena Bonham Carter.

Elsewhere in Germany, The Playmaker Munich is giving a market premiere to high-­concept horror movie Home Sweet Home, a one-take film from director Thomas Sieben that won plaudits at London’s FrightFest. Nilam Farooq, David Kross and Justus von Dohnanyi star in the tale of a pregnant woman who discovers a hidden room containing dark family secrets. Playmaker’s varied slate also includes family feature Wow! Message From Outer Space, a children’s galactic adventure, and director/actor Denis Moschitto’s neo-noir thriller Shock, about a disbarred doctor caring for patients who want to stay outside the system.

Fellow German outfit Picture Tree International brings Chris Kraus’s 15 Years, the sequel to Four Minutes, starring Hannah Herzsprung. The drama follows a former piano prodigy sentenced for a murder she did not commit; Wild Bunch releases in Germany in January. The company also has Marc Rothemund’s father-son comedy-drama Weekend Rebels, which has racked up 500,000 admissions in Germany. The company’s Israeli refugee comedy Running On Sand is now on hold for local release following the Israel-Hamas war but a first trailer will be available in Santa Monica. Picture Tree’s slate also includes Elisabeth Scharang’s dark drama Woodland. The recent Toronto premiere tells the story of a woman (Brigitte Hobmeier) whose life is turned upside down after she is caught up in a terrorist attack in Vienna.

Stuttgart-based Kinostar has several films making market debuts at AFM, among them horror movie/biopic Putin from director Besaleel (aka Patryk Vega). The provocative journey into the mind of the Russian leader portrays Vladimir Putin as a mobster boss. The company also introduces buyers to First Shift, director and producer Uwe Boll’s return to filmmaking. The crime drama was shot in New York this spring with Kinostar’s Michael Roesch as executive producer and is now close to completion. Also new on the slate is How To Get Crazy Rich In Eastern Europe, director Heathcliff Janusz Iwanowski’s look at the early days of capitalism in Poland in the period after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The eight-part miniseries, which takes its lead from the Where The Devil Can’t Go, He Sends A Woman features, will be released on Netflix Poland in December, and Kinostar is selling the rest of the world.

Munich-based Atlas International Film has family adventure sequel The New Tales Of Franz from director Johannes Schmid. The film chronicles an eventful summer holiday during which fractious friends are reunited as they pursue a thief. Atlas’s slate also has feature documentary War And Justice about the work of the International Criminal Court.

Global Screen, the distribution arm of German media giant Telepool, will be screening its Second World War drama Stella. A Life., which recently had its world premiere at Zurich Film Festival. Paula Beer stars as a young Jewish woman who collaborates with the Nazis. The company is also introducing buyers to romantic drama Falling Into Place, the directing debut of German actress Aylin Tezel, which was produced by the Weydemann Bros and premiered at Filmfest Hamburg. It has also been selected for the First Features competition in Tallinn. Meanwhile, pre-sales will continue on Scandinavian animated sequel Niko — Beyond The Northern Lights.

Ida Martins’ Cologne-based Media Luna will be at AFM with Perdida, co-produced by Disney and Star+, a Brazilian romantic comedy about Sofia who goes back in time to find her Mr Darcy. Media Luna also has Finnish family musical Arnold Cautious And The Happiness Stone from director Arto Halonen, and Yesid Leone’s Colombian thriller Timeline.

Family specialists Sola Media from Stuttgart brings action drama Wild Heart from director Markus Dietrich, about an 11-year-old girl from the city who struggles with her new life in the country­side — until she forms a bond with an untamed horse. Sola Media is also giving a market premiere to zany animated feature Combat Wombat — Back 2 Back from directors Richard Cusso and Tania Vincent, and will be screening children’s live-­action adventure Thabo And The Rhino Case from Desert Flower Film­productions.

Germany’s Studio 100 Film has adventure comedy Miss Moxy, an animation about a cat who gets lost during a summer holiday in the south of France and sets off on an odyssey across Europe to find her way home. Miss Moxy is a Netherlands-Belgium co-production between Phanta Animation, BosBros and Eyeworks Film & TV Drama. Production began in February 2023, with delivery scheduled for the end of 2024. Miss Moxy is adapted and written for the screen by Maureen Versprille. Vincent Bal (The Zigzag Kid) and Wip Vernooij direct.

Vienna’s documentary specialists Autlook Filmsales brings various award contenders to AFM, including Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother Of All Lies and Anna Hints’ Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.

Australian outfit Odin’s Eye is in Santa Monica pre-selling its latest New Zealand troll fantasy adventure movie Trolgar & Me, from director Gillian Ashurst. The company also has horror thriller Ancestral by Tez Palmer, set in 1600s Ireland among demons, banshees and witchcraft. Both titles are in pre-­production.

Fellow Australian banner Galloping Entertainment has a trailer for historical drama 1242: Gateway To The West, exploring how a Hungarian castle armed with a cannon withstands an invasion from Genghis Khan’s army in 1242. The drama is directed by Peter Soos and stars the late Ray Stevenson alongside Michael Ironside and Eric Roberts. Galloping Entertainment is also continuing sales on Ruby’s Choice, a drama starring Jane Seymour about the relationship between a teenager and her grandmother who has dementia.

• AFM 2023: The buzz titles from the UK