German sellers and buyers report brisk business at Cannes Market

German sellers and buyers have reported doing brisk business during this year’s Marché in Cannes.

Munich-based Cinepool signed a raft of deals for two stereo 3D animation features. Niko 2 – Family Affairs was 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 – Thor has now been picked up for Israel (Five Stars) and Bulgaria (Pro Film).

China’s HGC Entertainment and Indonesia’s PT Media Bermutu were in buying mood, both of them acquiring the family film Yoko as well as the Enid Blyton adaptation Hanni & Nanni, Christian Zübert’s comic drama Three Quarter Moon, Maggie Peren’s drama Color Of The Ocean and Marc Rothemund’s romantic comedy Single By Contract.

HGC also signed up for the Second World War family saga Wunderkinder produced by Alice and Artur Brauner.

Meanwhile, Lars Kraume’s futuristic drama The Coming Days was sold to the US (Corinth) and Australia (Accent Film), and the award-winning Swiss film Bold Heroes was bought by Iran’s Irib.

In addition, Germany’s 2010 Oscar entry When We Leave was sold to Denmark’s Sunrise Film Distribution and the Swiss sci-fi feature Cargo was picked up by Bulgaria’s Pro Film.

At the same time, sales agent Beta Film sold the children’s animation feature films Princess Lillifee and Moonbeam Bear to the US cable channel Starz and also concluded deal for Moonbeam Bear with the Disney Junior channel in Spain.

With the US deal, Princess Lillifee has now been sold to 64 territories worldwide by Beta’s family entertainment label Wunderbox.

Meanwhile, German distributors came home from Cannes with some fine pickings.

Leading German producer-distributor Constantin Film spoke of the most successful market in the company’s history.

Deals were signed with Sierra for the scifi bestseller adaptation Ender’s Game and Taylor Hackford’s action thriller Parker and with IM Global for Enchanted Kingdom 3D and Hurricane 3D.

Constantin’s product pipeline will also be fed by such acquisitions as Jesse Terrero’s Freelancers, starring Robert De Niro and Forrest Whitaker (from Inferno), and Mikael Salomon’s Havana Heat, with Samuel L. Jackson and Jean-Claude Van Damme (from Tayrona Entertainment) as well as by the previously reported Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D (aka Leatherface 3D) from Nu Image.

On Paul W. Anderson’s Resident Evil 5,Constantin had sold international rights for all territories outside of Germany and France to Sony Pictures International. In addition, the company was close to be able to say “sold out” for the production of its 3D English-language animation film Tarzan and found Sony/Screen Gems as buyer for the worldwide rights (excluding German language territories, France and Spain) for The Mortal Instruments. Spain and France were sold by Constantin to Aurum and TF1, respectively.

“This year’s film market in Cannes – the best I can remember – and the best sales market in the history of our company – shows that the market is healthy, provided that the product is right,” Constantin Film board member Martin Moszkowicz said.

Meanwhile, Berlin-based producer-distributor Senator Film signed deals for a series of European titles in addition tot he previously announced new adaptation of Charles Dickens‘Great Expectations and the French comedy Untouchable.

The new acquisitions include this year’s closing film in Cannes, Christophe Honoré’s warmhearted comedy Beloved, and Tanya Wexler’s period comedy Hysteria, starring Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jonathan Pryce.

In addition, Senator secured the German rights for Curtis Hanson’s new film Mavericks which will begin shooting this October with Gerard Butler in the lead role as the surfer legend Rick “Frosty” Hesson.

Moreover, Pandastorm Pictures acquired German language rights from Intandem Films for the British espionage thriller The Veteran to release in Germany this autumn, and picked up the Finnish comedy Lapland Odyssey from Yellow Affair for a theatrical release in autumn 2011.

In addition, a deal was closed by Pandastorm with co-producer Darryn Welch of Instinctive Film for the biotech thriller Errors Of The Human Body, starring Michael Eklund and Karoline Herfurth, and with MK2 for the Belgian crowd-pleaser The Fairy, by Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy, which had opened this year’s Directors Fortnight sidebar in Cannes.

Swiss arthouse distributor Trigon Film also revealed that it had a successful Cannes, signing deals for Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, which won the Grand Prix du Jury at the weekend, as well as for Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase’s Hanezu, Bulgarian Konstantin Bojanov’s road movie Ave, and the Chilean comedy Gatos Viejos by Sebastián Silva and Petro Pierano.

All of these films will be released theatrically by Trigon in Swiss cinemas this winter.