TIFF Bell Lightbox-20160911-9305_CREDIT Connie Tsang

Source: Connie Tsang

TIFF Bell Lightbox

After a traditionally quiet start over the first weekend, market activity is heating up with a Focus Features worldwide buy on Alexander Payne’s off-festival title The Holdovers as interest builds on a number of films in selection.

The Holdovers deal is understood to have closed in the $30m region and excludes Middle East. The 1970-set project reunites Payne with his Sideways star Paul Giamatti and follows an unpopular New England prep schoolteacher forced to spend Christmas holidays with a stranded, unruly student and a Black head cook whose son has died in the Vietnam War.

Miramax and CAA Media Finance screened The Holdovers on Sunday in what was the most anticipated off-festival acquisition title heading into Toronto.

Turning to festival selections, buyers are circling Jalmari Helander’s Finnish horror comedy Sisu, which premiered in Midnight Madness on Friday and centres on a formidable prospector in Lapland who must keep his treasure trove safe from retreating Nazis at the end of the Second World War. WME Independent represents North American rights and Sony has international.

Tim Story’s horror comedy The Blackening represented by MRC is understood to have received at least three worldwide offers. Another Midnight Madness entry, it centres on a group of Black friends on a Juneteenth weekend getaway in a cabin who find themselves in a fight for survival. The film’s credentials are boosted by Story, whose directing credits include Barbershop, Ride Along and Fantastic Four.

Meanwhile there is strong interest in Gunnar Vikene’s Norwegian Contemporary World Cinema selection War Sailor, about two best friends conscripted to deliver supplies in cargo ships for the Allied war effort after the Germans invade Norway in 1940. Beta Cinema handles sales on the highly regarded title, which premiered on Friday. It Is understood the Norwegian selection committee will announce the country’s Oscar submission on October 26.

Daniel Goldhaber’s Platform title How To Blow Up A Pipeline has also been popular and CAA Media Finance is courting buyers on the story of environmental activists who sabotage an oil pipeline. The film premiered on Friday.

Similarly Submarine’s TIFF Docs selection Patrick And The Whale from Mark Fletcher, about diver Patrick Dykstra’s relationship with the giant ocean-dwelling mammals, is understood to have received worldwide offers with theatrical components.

Monday brings the anticipated world premiere of Zachary Wigon’s Sanctuary in Special Presentations. Margaret Qualley from Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood plays a dominatrix tied up in a game of cat and mouse with her wealthy client in a hotel room. The film screens later on Monday and UTA Independent Film Group and Charades handle sales.

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