Screen highlights the buzz titles ready to entice international buyers at the 2024 European Film Market (EFM), which runs February 15-21.
Germany
Munich-based Atlas International is bringing New Tales Of Franz to EFM. This is the sequel to the hit family movie Tales Of Franz, based on the books by Austrian writer Christine Nöstlinger.
Beta Cinema has a promoreel for its big-budget Nick Hamm movie William Tell, based on the legend of the crossbow warrior, starring Claes Bang. The cast also includes Golshifteh Farahani, Connor Swindells, Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley. Beta is selling The Light, Tom Tykwer’s first film in seven years, which stars Lars Eidinger and is the story of a Syrian housekeeper coming into the lives of a dysfunctional family. The firm also has three market premieres: Joachim A Lang’s biopic of Nazi Joseph Goebbels, Führer And Seducer; Swedish box-office hit Hammarskjöld — Fight for Peace; and Calin Peter Netzer’s Familiar, about a family’s emigration to Germany in the 1980s. The company has two films in the Berlinale’s official selection: Andreas Dresen’s From Hilde, With Love in Competition and Greek director Yorgos Zois’s Arcadia in Encounters.
Films Boutique’s slate includes two titles in Panorama. Ray Yeung’s All Shall Be Well is about a widow who finds herself at the mercy of her extended family. Jianjie Lin’s debut feature Brief History Of A Family sees a middle-class family’s fate become intertwined with their only son’s new friend in post one-child policy China. In Generation Kplus, Young Hearts is the debut feature of Anthony Schatteman, the story of a 13-year-old boy attracted to his new 14-year-old neighbour.
Global Screen’s slate include family adventure Curious Tobi And The Treasure Hunt To The Flying Rivers. The film has been a hit in Germany, selling 1.2 million tickets. The company is also selling X Filme’s romcom The Intangible Joy Of Love.
Berlin-based m-appeal’s slate is headlined by Sex from Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud, the first film in his planned Sex Dreams Love trilogy. It is a provocative drama about two married hetreosexual men who reconsider their understanding of sex, gender and identity. m-appeal is also pre-selling Brazilian LGBTQ+ drama Streets Of Glória by Filipe Sholl. First presented in Ventana Sur’s Primer Corte, this is the story of a young literature teacher whose life is changed after he moves to Rio and discovers The Gloria, a bar and cruising spot.
Leading German arthouse seller The Match Factory has two films in the Berlinale’s Competition: Matthias Glasner’s family drama Dying and Victor Kossakovsky’s architecture documentary Architecton. The slate also includes Thomas Arslan’s Panorama title Scorched Earth and Wang Xiaoshuai’s Generation Kplus feature Above The Dust. The Match Factory is also bringing two docs to EFM: Fatih Akin’s Crossing The Bridge, a restored 4K version of his 2005 doc on the Istanbul music scene, and Veljko Vidak’s Cinéma Laika about Aki Kaurismaki’s cinema in a small village in Finland.
Cologne-based Media Luna New Films is selling Swedish production Bye Bye Boredom, the debut feature from Elina Sahlin. The drama sees 13-years-old Jackie investigate the death of her friend in a drug-related tragedy. Also on its EFM slate is German arthouse drama Chaos And Silence from Anatol Schuster about a couple navigating their landlord’s breakdown.
The Playmaker Munich has a new Sandra Huller project, Two To One. The comedy, now in post-production, is bound to spark buyer interest on the basis of the Oscar-nominated Huller’s presence in the cast. Set shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is based on a true story about East Germans trying to retrieve hidden millions from an underground vault. The company is also pre-selling its latest animated family movie, Ploey 2: The Legend Of The Winds, which is scheduled for delivery in 2026. It holds market screenings for dark crime thriller The G, about an older woman seeking revenge on the legal guardian who ruined her life, and female-driven Swiss action thriller Early Birds directed by Michael Steiner.
Pluto Film is handling Breathing Underwater, the debut feature from Eric Lamhene. Produced by Samsa Films, this is a gritty drama set in a women’s shelter. Pluto’s slate also includes Sima’s Song from Afghan director Roya Sadat, about two women friends who end up on the opposite sides of a political divide in Kabul. The company is handling drama Andrea Gets A Divorce from actor/director Josef Hader, which screens in Panorama.
Picture Tree International is launching sales on Miia Tervo’s Finnish comedy-romance The Missile, which screened recently in the Nordic competition in Göteborg. It is a wry tale set in Finnish Lapland where an unexpected Soviet missile incident disrupts the tranquil life of single mother Niina. Picture Tree is also introducing buyers to Jon Blahed’s Raptures, the first ever feature in the Meänkieli minority language and based on true events about an infamous religious cult in the 1930s, and Christian Andersen’s Unsinkable, about the sinking of a Danish rescue boat in 1981.
Stuttgart-based family specialist Sola Media is pre-selling Aussie animated feature The Lost Tiger and new Germany-Austria animated feature The Super Elfkins directed by Ute von Münchow-Pohl.
Geoffrey Macnab and Tim Dams
Italy
Illmatic Film Group’s slate includes Claudio Casale’s drama The Year Of The Egg, about a young couple who join a spiritual group when an unexpected event transforms it from a place of serenity. Illmatic is also selling Aimée Bouchet’s documentary What The Night Whispers To The Day, which sees a musician and scientist set the Northern Lights to song.
Intramovies is selling The Life Apart from Cannes, Venice and Locarno prize winner Marco Tullio Giordana. Now in post, the 1980s-set drama is about a child who is shielded from the outside world by her parents until her aunt discovers her innate musical talent. It also selling Ameer Fakher Eldin’s Yunan, about an Arab author who arrives on a remote North Sea island, intending to end his life, until a kind older woman draws him out of his depression. Eldin’s debut The Stranger launched in Giornate degli Autori at Venice in 2021, then becoming Palestine’s 2021 Oscar submission.
Minerva is bringing Domenico Emanuele de Feudis’s thriller The Net, which centres on a former policeman who teams up with a journalist after he is accused of a murder he did not commit. the film stars Luca Argentero and Cristiana Dell’Anna. Also on Minerva’s slate is Austrian director Antonin Svoboda’s Persona Non Grata, based on the true story of former ski racer Nicola Werdenigg who was the victim of sexual abuse, and Nazareno Manuel Nicoletti’s Stabat Mater, about a mother who leaves her young daughter but is forced to take a newfound responsibility for her when she falls ill 10 years later.
The Open Reel is bringing Mexican director Julian Hernandez’s Demons At Dawn. The prominent queer director has twice won the Teddy Award at Berlin. Demons At Dawn centres on two young men who live in Mexico City, who meet by chance and fall in love while fighting to achieve their dreams. The Open Reel’s EFM slate also includes Italian director Roberto Cuzzillo’s fourth feature Malanova, about a couple who discover that one of them is HIV positive six months into their relationship.
True Colours’ EFM slate includes Leonardo D’Agostini’s thriller A Dark Story, starring Laetitia Casta and Andrea Carpenzano. Produced by Groenlandia with Rai Cinema, the film is in post and is about a separated couple who have both started new lives, when the ex-husband suddenly goes missing. True Colours also brings Paola Zucca’s religious drama Gospel According To Mary, which tells the story of Mary and Joseph from the female point of view, and is market premiering Francesco Amato’s comedy OhMyGod! about the arrival of a new Messiah on earth.
Tim Dams
Nordics
TrustNordisk is selling two Norwegian films: boxing drama Team Havnaa (working title), which pitched at Göteborg’s work-in-progress; and family title The Polar Bear Prince — one of two animations, alongside Swedish feature Super Charlie, based on Camilla Lackberg’s book series. It also has two Danish films: Frederik Louis Hviid’s Zentropa actioner The Quiet Ones, inspired by a real-life Danish robbery after the 2008 financial crisis; and Ole Christian Madsen’s thriller Boundless, adapted from The Hanging Girl, the sixth book in Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series.
Mikko Makela’s queer drama Sebastian heads LevelK’s slate. The UK film, about a writer living in London who embarks on a raunchy double life, launched at Sundance and is a breakout role for lead Ruaridh Mollica. Norwegian family comedy Victoria Must Go from Gunnbjorg Gunnarsdottir follows two wealthy siblings who hire a hitman to get rid of their stepmother; it will release locally this month. The company will also sell two titles it boarded at Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market: Sarah Gyllenstierna’s Swedish suspense drama Hunters On A White Field, and Charlotte Sieling’s Way Home, about a man smuggled into Syria on a desperate search for his son.
REinvent will present a teaser of Arto Halonen’s Finnish sci-fi thriller After Us, The Flood, a future-set story about a physicist sent back in time to prevent climate change. It will show a promo for Howard J Ford’s River Of Blood, a UK horror in which two young couples’ kayaking holiday takes a wrong turn. There are market screenings for romantic drama When In Rome starring Bodil Jorgensen; Daniel Di Grado’s found-footage horror True Fear; Mikkel Serup’s political thriller Kingmaker; Kari Vido’s supernatural title Paranoia, released in Denmark on February 8; and in Berlinale Market Selects, Jannik Johansen’s action series Oxen, based on the novels of the same name.
The Yellow Affair has footage for recent pickup Orenda by Pirjo Honkasalo. Currently in post-production, it reunites Fallen Leaves star Alma Poysti with the film’s producer Bufo, in a thriller about the destinies of two women intertwining on a remote island. There is a market premiere for Caroline Ingvarsson’s psychological thriller Unmoored, adapted from Hakan Nesser’s crime novel; while Klaudia Reynicke’s Reinas will have its European premiere in Generation Kplus, having debuted at Sundance with sales underway.
DR International Sales is bringing five documentaries to its first EFM, led by Silje Evensmo Jacobsen’s Sundance world cinema documentary grand jury prize-winner A New Kind Of Wilderness. Also selling in Berlin are A Dangerous Boy, Phantoms Of The Sierra Madre, Life And Other Problems and Magic Mud.
Sweden’s Eyewell will launch sales on thriller The Undertaker, starring Paul McGann as the eponymous worker who agrees to dispose of a gangster’s victims.
Ben Dalton
Rest of the world
Vienna-based feature documentary specialist Autlook will be at EFM with several new titles including Ruth Beckermann’s Favoriten, which follows a group of Viennese school kids from a range of backgrounds. It is the opening film of Encounters.
Athens-based Heretic is selling Asli Ozge’s Panorama title Faruk, a story of gentrification and father-daughter relationships. Heretic is also behind Iranian director Aliyar Rasti’s debut The Great Yawn Of History, which premieres in Encounters.
Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales is preselling the next film from The Lure and The Silent Twins director Agnieszka Smoczynska. Hot Spot is a dystopian sci-fi story set in a world ruled by global AI that is about to be challenged by a witch who arrives in a refugee centre. The film will shoot this autumn. New Europe has also teamed with Anton on English-language survival drama A Prayer For The Dying, directed by Dara Van Dusen, which stars Callum Turner and Gustav Lindh. The film is set to shoot later this year. The sales company is also giving market screenings to sci-fi animation Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust, which has a voice cast including Gaspar Noé and Asia Argento, and sci-fi romance Eternal from Danish director Ulaa Salim.
Dutch outfit Incredible Film has two new films from Jamel Aattache, The Gringos 2 and Coppers, on its EFM slate. The Gringos 2 is being presented to international buyers having racked up 450,000 admissions in the Netherlands, where it was the second most popular local movie of last year. Coppers is Aattache’s action comedy about two detectives on the trail of cocaine smugglers. Incredible Film also has the fantasy family feature Game On.
Fellow Dutch outfit Skoop has its new drama-thriller Pariah, directed by Edson da Conceicao and produced through IJswater Films. The fraught drama is about a family who flee Ghana to seek refuge in the Netherlands, but find their problems have followed them.
Australian sales company Odin’s Eye has picked up teen/adult animation The Weird Kidz from director Zach Passero, fresh from its screenings at Annecy and Sitges. It is about adolescents on an eventful and surreal camping trip. The company is also introducing buyers to Mad Props, its new feature documentaty looking at props from 1980s movies such as the Indiana Jones films, Alien and A Nightmare On Elm Street. On the animation front, Odin’s Eye is bringing to market Little Eggs: Frozen Rooster, the sequel to hit Mexican cartoon Little Eggs: An African Adventure.
From Hungary, NFI, the world sales arm of the National Film Institute, is presenting Semmelweis, a biopic from Lajos Koltai, director of Fateless and cinematographer of Mephisto. It tells the story of Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor who became internationally famous as the ‘saviour of mothers’ for introducing antiseptic procedures at Vienna’s maternity clinic. The film has racked up 270,000 admissions in Hungary since it was released late last year. Another historical feature on the NFI slate is Balazs Toth’s Now Or Never!, about Sandor Petofi, a firebrand young poet who helped inspire the Hungarian Revolution against the Austrian Empire in 1848.
Budapest-based Luminescence has its animated comedy-feature Gracie And Pedro: Pets To The Rescue. Its English-language voice cast includes Bill Nighy, Susan Sarandon and Alicia Silverstone.
Geoffrey Macnab & Tim Dams
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