French sales outfit Ginger & Fed has boarded Fabien Gorgeart’s comedy drama What Is Love? (C’est Quoi l’Amour?) starring Laure Calamy and Vincent Macaigne as a long-divorced couple attempting to annul their Catholic marriage at the Vatican.
Ginger & Fed, the theatrical sales arm of French group Federation run by Sabine Chemaly, will kick off sales for the film at the American Film Market (AFM, November 5-10).
Lyes Salem, Melanie Thierry, Celeste Brunnquell and Saül Benchetrit round out the cast of the feature, which is shooting now and produced by Petit Film and Deuxième Lign.
Described by Chemaly as “a comedy of re-divorce”, the film follows a couple who bring their blended families on a highly unorthodox trip to Rome to prove before the church that they never really loved each other, but old feelings resurface along the way.
The film will be released in France in 2025 by Zinc Distribution.
AFM slate
Ginger & Fed also heads to AFM with new title Unsubmissives (Le Gang des Amazones), about four female friends in their twenties struggling to make ends meet who end up committing a series of heists.
Lyna Khoudri, Mallory Wanecque, Laura Felpin, and Izia Higelin star as the criminal quartet in the film, which is in post-production. Unsubmissives is directed by Melissa Drigeard and produced by Cheyenne Federation and is set for a 2025 release in France via Apollo.
Also on Ginger & Fed’s slate is Peter Dourountzis’ crime thriller Vultures (Les Rapaces). It stars Sami Bouajila and Wanecque as a journalist and his intern daughter who head off on a rogue investigation of a dangerous male supremacist group. Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Valérie Donzelli co-star; the film is in post-production from Mediawan-owned 24-25 Films with Zinc releasing in 2025.
The company’s AFM slate also features Nils Tavernier’s Second World War drama The Future Awaits (La Vie Devant Moi) starring Guillaume Gallienne and Sandrine Bonnaire which will get a market premiere screening, and Enya Baroux’s Bon Voyage, Marie (On Ira) which stars Helene Vincent, Pierre Lottin and David Alaya.
The latter film tackles assisted suicide through comedy in a story about an 80-year-old woman with terminal cancer who heads off with her family and caregiver on a road trip in an old RV.
Editorial strategy
Ginger & Fed launched last October to take on acquisitions and international sales for both in-house and third-party films and heads to AFM with a robust slate of 14 titles.
“It’s more than we planned – we were gluttonous,” said Chemaly of the line-up, which also includes recent French releases Brothers and Riviera Revenge, family comedy Present Perfect, French thriller Survive which it is co-selling with WTFilms and upcoming holiday musical Hear Me Love featuring pop star Clara Luciani.
Chemaly described the company’s strategy as being focused on “films with a positive vision” that blend more serious topics with “a balance of humour and emotion”.
She is optimistic about the future of the young sales house in an ever-evolving market, telling Screen: “When we launched, we didn’t know if there was more room for another sales company in France, but we’ve found our place and our films are starting to resonate in cinemas all over the world.”
No comments yet