As AFM attendees settle into their new Las Vegas home,Screen profiles a selection of key titles, at various stages of production, available across the market.
France
Charades market premieres Tina Romero’s horror comedy Queens Of The Dead, billed as a gory thrillride through the zombie apocalypse with a queer twist. The slate also includes Charlie McDowell’s The Summer Book starring Glenn Close, based on the novel of the same name by Finnish author and Moomins creator Tove Jansson, which premiered in October at the BFI London Film Festival.
France tv distribution launches sales on Gaya Jiji’s Pieces Of A Foreign Life (L’Etrangère) starring Cannes best actress winner Zar Amir Ebrahimi as a Syrian woman seeking freedom and a new life in France who bonds with her lawyer. It also has Romuald Boulanger’s biopic Mansour, about tennis player Mansour Bahrami’s journey from post-Revolutionary Iran to fame on the international circuit. Amir Jadidi, who starred in Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero, plays Bahrami.
Gaumont launches sales on Yann Gozlan’s The Residence with Cécile de France, Lars Mikkelsen, Anna Mouglalis and the voice of French singer Mylene Farmer. The film is about a writer’s search for inspiration in an AI-powered artists’ residency that turns into a manipulative trap, and is produced by Eric and Nicolas Altmayer’s Mandarin & Compagnie. Gaumont also begins sales on Simply Black director Jean-Pascal Zadi’s cosmic comedy Black To The Future, about an African space mission to find a Planet B in case Earth becomes uninhabitable and Africans are left behind.
Ginger & Fed has a slew of French titles on its AFM slate including Fabien Gorgeart’s What Is Love?. Laure Calamy, Vincent Macaigne and Mélanie Thierry star in the family comedy about an unorthodox trip to the Vatican to annul a Catholic marriage. Ginger & Fed also begins sales on Melissa Drigeard’s 1990s-set south of France sisterhood crime drama Unsubmissives, and brings a new promo for Peter Dourountzis’s crime thriller Vultures starring Sami Bouajila and Mallory Wanecque as a journalist father-daughter duo who hunt for a murderer. It will also have a market premiere for Nils Tavernier’s Second World War-set drama The Future Awaits, which stars Guillaume Gallienne and Sandrine Bonnaire.
Kinology kicks off sales on 3D animated feature The X-Tras, produced by La Station Animation, about a family happily living by the sea who discover the father may be hiding an otherworldly secret. It also brings first footage for Luc Besson’s gothic romance Dracula: A Love Tale, starring Caleb Landry Jones as the titular vampire, plus new materials for Mathieu Kassovitz’s English-language film The Big War.
Le Pacte unveils first images of Stéphane Demoustier’s architecture drama The Great Arch, about a Danish architect tasked with building France’s famed La Grande Arche de la Défense. The cast includes Claes Bang, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Swann Arlaud and Xavier Dolan. It also has first images from Yan Lanouette Turgeon’s Villeneuve: Rise Of A Champion, about the early years of Formula One legend Gilles Villeneuve, and new images and a teaser for animated feature Decorado from director Alberto Vazquez (Unicorn Wars), about a middle-aged mouse facing an existential crisis.
mk2 Films brings a promo reel for Dylan Southern’s literary adaptation The Thing With Feathers. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as a grieving man living with his young sons, whose hold on reality crumbles after his wife’s death. It also has David and Nathan Zellner’s alien invasion comedy Alpha Game, starring Cate Blanchett, Channing Tatum, Dave Bautista, Steven Yeun, Zoë Kravitz, Léa Seydoux and Riley Keough. CAA Media Finance handles North American rights.
Newen Connect launches sales on Ali and Redouane Bougheraba’s comedy Off To India, about a mattress factory worker relocated to India who convinces his French girlfriend to join him. Newen’s market launches also include romantic comedy Match Made In Heaven about a romance that sparks a celestial crisis, and Elsa Bennett and Hippolyte Dard’s dramatic comedy Better Days starring Valérie Bonneton, Michele Laroque and Sabrina Ouazani. It follows a group of women who bond in rehab and try to turn their lives around.
Other Angle has David Charhon’s action comedy The Gardener (Le Jardinier) starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michaël Youn. The story follows a man who lands on the government’s blacklist and hatches an elaborate plan with his gardener to protect his family and avoid being killed.
Pathé brings Xavier Beauvois’ Sailing Home (La Vallée Des Fous), starring Jean-Paul Rouve as a man who tries to get his life back together by entering a virtual sailing race. It also has fresh footage from Antonin Baudry’s big-budget two-part biopic De Gaulle starring Simon Abkarian, and new images of Martin Bourboulon’s Afghanistan evacuation thriller 13 Days, 13 Nights starring Roschdy Zem and Lyna Khoudri.
Pulsar Content launches Davide Livermore and Paolo Gep Cucco’s English-language musical The Opera! starring Vincent Cassel, Caterina Murino, Fanny Ardant and Rossy de Palma, with opera stars Mariam Battistelli and Valentino Buzza. It is billed as a modern version of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
SND has first footage of Barbara Schulz’s French twist on Indiana Jones, Treasure Hunters: On The Tracks Of Khufu, starring Fabrice Luchini as an archaeologist in a globe-trotting race against time. SND also has a new promo reel for Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud’s family comedy-drama See The Sea starring Dany Boon and Audrey Fleurot, and holds a market premiere screening for Anne Le Ny’s thriller Out Of Control starring Omar Sy, Vanessa Paradis, José Garcia and Elodie Bouchez. It is about a couple whose marriage is threatened when the husband’s former lover returns to town.
Studiocanal has several English-language titles including Anthony Maras’s Second World War drama Pressure starring Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, Damian Lewis and Chris Messina. Produced by Working Title, it is set in the hours leading up to D-Day. Studiocanal also has Laurent Zeitoun’s animation Wings Of Freedom with the voices of Eva Longoria and Nicholas Galitzine.
WTFilms kicks off sales on Abel Ferry’s horror thriller Squealers (Gibier), starring Olivier Gourmet and Consent star Kim Higelin, about activists who break into a slaughterhouse and find themselves in a deadly game with the owner. It also launches James Marks’ thriller Infiltrate, about an agent forced by a mysterious voice to navigate the criminal underworld and find her kidnapped husband.
Spain
Begin Again Films is bringing Fraternity by Juan Gautier, a psychological thriller set on a university campus that centres on the dark side of hazing rituals. It also has Sonia Mendez’s As Neves, a youth drama about the disappearance of a teenage girl, which premiered at Malaga Film Festival.
Feelsales brings Natural Phenomena, a documentary by Paula Palacios about a friendship formed in a Ukrainian prison between the filmmaker and a Somali refugee who fled war at age 14. It also presents Guillermo Rojas’ second feature Alone In The Night, a dramatic comedy about a group of leftist labour lawyers hiding out during Spain’s attempted coup on February 23, 1981.
Filmax’s line-up includes The Virgin Of The Quarry Lake, directed by Laura Casabé, a story of sexual awakening about three inseparable girls who all fall in love with their lifelong friend Diego. Filmax is screening May I Speak With The Enemy?, an homage to stand-up comedian Miguel Gila directed by Alexis Morante, and its slate also includes Matador, the highest-grossing doc this year in Spain, about UFC champion Ilia Topuria.
Film Factory has Los Tigres, a heist thriller by Marshland director Alberto Rodriguez, starring Antonio de la Torre and Barbara Lennie as siblings working as industrial divers off the Huelva coast, and Luiso Berdejo’s action sci-fi Control Room. Its slate also includes Escape, executive-produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Buried’s Rodrigo Cortés, which is about a man desperate to be jailed so he can avoid making life decisions.
Latido Films is showcasing Re-creation, a courtroom drama co-directed by Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan and David Merriman. Starring Vicky Krieps and Aidan Gillen, it sees a fictional jury sift through the facts of the real-life 1996 murder of French producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Latido also has Raqqa, a Syria-set espionage thriller directed by Oscar-winning producer Gerardo Herrero, and is screening Pablo Hernando’s thriller A Whale, about a cold-blooded contract killer.
Rest of the world
German banner Beta Cinema’s AFM slate includes Let It Rain from A Man Called Ove director Hannes Holm. Set in a small Swedish town, it stars Robert Gustafsson as a grumpy widower who unexpectedly becomes the centre of a world-changing event. Beta is also market premiering its biopic John Cranko starring Sam Riley. Directed by Joachim A Lang (Goebbels And The Führer), it tells how the choreographer transforms the local Stuttgart ballet company into a world-renowned ensemble.
Epsilon is beginning sales on Sky Original The Amazing Maurice — The Waters Of Life, an animated feature based on the characters created by author Terry Pratchett, which follows on from last year’s hit The Amazing Maurice. The company also has Sky Original family drama Robin And The Hoods, backed by Silver Reel and featuring tenacious 11-year-old girl Robin trying to stop a real-estate developer from ruining the neighbourhood.
The Match Factory’s slate is headlined by Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother, with a starry cast including Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Tom Waits and Charlotte Rampling. The film sees estranged siblings reunite to confront unresolved family tensions. Also on the slate is Dreams by Michel Franco, starring Jessica Chastain, Rupert Friend and Isaac Hernandez, about a wealthy socialite who has a romance with a Mexican ballet dancer. The Match Factory has international rights for both films, while Gersh represents North America.
Media Luna has German drama Chaos And Silence from Anatol Schuster, about young musicians preparing for parenthood and trying to deal with the mysterious breakdown of their landlord Klara. Also on the slate is Adrian Araujo’s Spanish-Mexican supernatural thriller Estela, in which a would-be mother confronts a ghost girl. Estela had its festival premiere in Sitges but receives a market premiere at AFM.
The Playmaker Munich introduces Never Alone, a wartime drama from Oscar-shortlisted Klaus Härö (The Fencer). The opening film of the Baltic Film Competition in Tallinn later this month, Never Alone tells the story of a Jewish man who attempts to thwart a secret police plot to hand over refugees to the Nazis. The company is also selling Freddy Macdonald’s twisty comedy thriller Sew Torn, about a seamstress on the verge of bankruptcy who is caught up in a drug deal gone bad.
Picture Tree International has historical drama Frieda’s Case, telling the story of a young woman accused of murdering her five-year-old son. The film, directed by Maria Brenda, premiered recently at Zurich Film Festival. The Berlin-based outfit is also showing a first teaser trailer of its Spanish supernatural crime thriller The Osha Rule, directed by Angel Gonzalez, about the terrifying experiences endured by a young Latino gang member.
Pluto Films is handling Sima’s Song by director Roya Sadat, a Tokyo International Film Festival world premiere. A drama set in Afghanistan at the end of the 1970s, it explores the friendship between two women from different backgrounds in a fraught political period.
Family film specialists Sola Media is screening promos of several new titles including Australian animated feature The Pout-Pout Fish, directed by Ricard Cusso and based on the childrens’ books by Deborah Diesen. It follows the grumpy Mr Fish, who joins forces with a temperamental sea dragon on a daunting undersea quest to rescue their homes. Cusso is also behind another new title on Sola’s AFM slate, Santa.Com, about an elf trying to save Christmas from a vengeful hacker.
Munich-based Studio 100 is pre-selling animated comedy Flamingo Flamenco, in which a fun, dance-crazy flamingo endures a trauma that takes away her love for dancing. The company also has new animated feature Arnie & Barney, about an ant platoon trying to save their community.
From Italy, Minerva brings Alessandro Tonda’s The Kite, which relates the true story of the days before the death of secret service agent Nicola Calipari, who sacrificed his life in 2005 to save a journalist kidnapped in Iraq by a terrorist cell. It is also selling religious drama Judas’ Gospel by Giulio Base, with a starry cast including Rupert Everett, Paz Vega, John Savage and Abel Ferrara, and Marco Spagnoli’s documentary Bernardo Bertolucci: A Magnificent Obsession.
PiperFilm makes its AFM debut under international sales exec Catia Rossi. Its line-up is led by Venice Competition title Diva Futura by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt, a fictional biopic portraying the birth of Italy’s porn industry in the 1980s and ’90s. Piper is also repping the as-yet-untitled kung fu movie by Gabriele Mainetti, which is in post and stars Marco Giallini, Sabrina Ferilli, Yaxi Liu and Enrico Borello.
True Colours arrives at AFM with a promo for Reflection In A Dead Diamond from cult genre film directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. An homage to 1960s Euro-spy stories, it is set on the Côte d’Azur and centres on a retired spy who fears his former enemies are back for a final fight. The slate also includes Pavlo Ostrikov’s sci-fi comedy U Are The Universe, which premiered at Toronto.
From the Nordics, ReInvent has a market screening of Alex Herron’s horror Don’t Hang Up. Set in an Oklahoma Airbnb, it is told through a series of FaceTime conversations, and stars Claire McPartland and Brett Curtis. Also screening is Anton Sigurdsson’s US thriller Refuge, about high-school friends on a fishing trip that takes a turn when one of them has a hidden agenda. ReInvent is also pre-selling Antti J Jokinen’s Son Of Revenge — The Story Of Kalevala, an adaptation of an epic Finnish poetry compilation, and Nina Knag’s Norwegian drama Don’t Call Me Mama, starring Pia Tjelta as a high-school teacher who falls in love with a young asylum seeker.
A legendary monster will rise from the deep to wreak havoc on Norway in TrustNordisk’s Kraken. The film is currently in production, directed by Pal Oie and produced by John Einar Hagen and Einar Loftesnes for Nordisk Film. TrustNordisk will show a teaser clip in its promo reel. The company will also host a market screening for Bard Breien’s Shadow Of Victory, a real-life drama about two brothers who made headlines for their boxing exploits. Tobias Santelmann and newcomer Odin Waage star. Further offerings include footage of MMA documentary Fighter, available as a feature and as a three-part miniseries, and a trailer for 3D animation Super Charlie.
Odin’s Eye from Australia is beginning sales on Stealing Pulp Fiction, a comedy heist caper about three friends who try to steal Quentin Tarantino’s own copy of his modern-day classic Pulp Fiction. The company is revving up sales on its Korean animated feature Mega Racer, directed by Yoo-Byung Yoon and about a race that somehow transcends time and space.
Hungary’s Luminescence is introducing its latest animated features, Bernard: Mission Mars, about an unlucky agent bear who ends up on a galactic trip. A second feature, Superbernard by director Toni Garcia, also features Bernard the Bear in an adventure that sees his life complicated yet further when an alien gives him superpowers.
NFI World Sales is here with a slate including Nikol Cibulya’s thriller Tomorrow I Die, a female-led horror picture in which a woman late in her pregnancy feels convinced she will die the next day. The film premiered at Warsaw International Film Festival. Also on the slate is Laszlo Csaki’s animated documentary Pelikan Blue, shortlisted for a European Film Award; 1840s-set Semmelweis, which is Hungary’s Oscar candidate; and musical romcom How Could I Live Without You, directed by Denes Orosz.
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