'Animale'

Source: June Films

‘Animale’

Film Movement has picked up Emma Benestan’s French-language supernatural horror Animale for North America.

London and Paris-based Film Constellation is handling world sales and has also signed new deals with Cai Chang in Taiwan, Weirdwave in Greece and Ricochet Digital Media for inflight.

The Camargue-set Western stars César-winning Divines actress Oulaya Amamra as a young woman trying to find her way in the male-dominated sport of bullfighting. After a drunken night out strange things begin to happen to her amd the lines between beast and human and dream and reality start to blur.

Animale was the closing night feature at Cannes Critics’ Week in May before its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest in the Next Wave programme where it earned Benastan the best director prize, and at Sitges Film Festival where it won the best fantastic film award.

Animale is produced by Julie Billy and Naomi Denamur’s Paris-based June Films. It is co-produced by Cassandre Warnauts and Jean-Yves Roubin of Belgium’s Frakas Productions, whose credits include Titane and Vincent Must Die. France 3 Cinema is also a co-producer.

The film has already sold to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy (Plaion), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Scandinavia (Edge Entertainment), CIS (Nashe Kino), former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Middle East and North Africa (Falcon), Czech and Slovak republics (Film Europe), Brazil (Belas Artes), and Indonesia (Falcon PT).

Wild Bunch Distribition will release the film in France on Wednesday (November 27) before a December 18 launch in Belgium via O’Brother and a January 18 release in the Netherlands from Gusto Entertainment.