EFM: Brisk business for Beta Cinema; Pandastorm buys five.

Beta Cinema’s two Competition titles – Dietrich Brüggemann’s Stations Of The Cross and Edward Berger’s Jack – were the Munich-based sales company’s top-selling titles at this year’s European Film Market (EFM).

Stations Of The Cross has been sold to France (Memento), Italy (Satine Film), Spain (Caramel), Poland (Aurora), Benelux (Wild Bunch), Portugal (Vendetta Films), Greece (7 Films), Scandinavia and the Baltic States (Nonstop), Ex-Yugoslavia (Discovery) and Hungary (Circo).

As reported by ScreenDaily yesterday, the UK (Arrow) has also taken the drama, which had been the top-rated film of the Screen jury before Richard Linklater’s Boyhood was screened.

Further interest has been shown from the US and Australia for the UFA Fiction production, which received the Silver Bear for Best Script and the Ecumenical Jury’s prize for the best film in the Competition..

Jack has been acquired for France (Diaphana), Japan (Showgate), Norway (Europa Films), Greece (Strada) and Hungary (Circo).

A third Berlinale title, Maximilian Erlenwein’s Stereo, which premiered in Panorama Special and has Jürgen Vogel and Moritz Bleibtreu appearing together in a film for the first time, was bought by Korea’s Sejong.

Line-up attracts interest

Vietnam’s A Company has become the latest distributor to pick up Philipp Stölzl’s box-office hit The Physician which has been seen by over 3.4m cinema-goers in Germany in its seven weeks on release so far.

The Beta Cinema team led by Dirk Schürhoff sold Uberto Pasolini’s Venice Orizzonti-winning Still Life to Germany/Austria (Piffl), Spain (Contracorriente Filmes) and Japan (Bitters End).

Germany’s Oscar entry Two Lives by Georg Maas has been acquired by Australia/New Zealand (Rialto), Spain (Karma), Portugal (Films4You), Brazil (Esfera Films) and Colombia (Cineplex).

Bernard Rose’s Paganni biopic The Devil’s Violinist was picked by Australia (Pinnacle), Colombia (Cine Colombia) and Peru/Ecuador/Bolivia (Delta Films).

Spain’s Flins&Piniculas and Benelux distributor Just Films securing the rights to SamFilm’s third outing of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, directed by Mike Marzuk.

Other deals included Anna Mastro’s heartwarming comedy Walter, starring William H. Macy and Virginia Madsen, being sold on script basis to Korea (Cinema Republic) and Turkey (Codex); Poland’s Aurora acquiring János Szász’s The Notebook (Le Grand Cahier); and Kilian Riedhof’s tragi-comedy Back On Track, with Dieter Hallervorden and Heike Makatsch, going to Israel (Orlando) and Japan (New Select).

Pandastorm takes five

Berlin-based independent Pandastorm Pictures picked up five new titles at the EFM:

  • adventure comedy Knights of Badassdom, with Ryan Kwanten, Peter Dinklage and Steve Zahn from Archstone Distribution;

  • fantasy comedy Gods Behaving Badly, with Christopher Walken, Sharon Stone and Oliver Platt, from Lightning Entertainment;

  • Herman Yau’s first 3D production, the horror shocker The Second Coming 3D from All Rights Entertainment;

  • Donovan Marsh’s South African action thriller iNumber Number from Fortissimo Films;

  • Alex van Warmerdam’s surreal Dutch thriller Borgman, which was The Netherlands’ official Oscar entry this year, also from Fortissimo Films.

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