Ichnos strikes library deal with FilmSharks

The new outfit, led by producer Donald K Ranvaud of Buena Onda Films and Marta Bifano of Loups Garoux, aims to provide festival movies for one-off digital screenings at cinemas across the world.

Here at the AFM, Ichnos is talking to sales agents to acquire catalogue titles. The idea is that alongside the 20 to 30 new festival titles that Ichnos will screen every month, a huge number of older films will also be available.

Early during the AFM, Ichnos has already struck a deal to handle catalogue titles from FilmSharks International. These include the Patagonik and Alta Vista back catalogues.

The deal was negotiated between Don Ranvaud for Ichnos and Guido Rud for FilmSharks International.

“We are warming up the demand for these films to be re-screened and to generate income. This (Ichnos) creates a chance not only for new films that need exposure and press but also for old films to generate a wave of downloads in new media,” Rud told Screen.

“This is basically a marketing device to consolidate the potential that the films have,” Ranvaud added.

Ichnos will shortly be screening six films from last month’s Sao Paulo Festival on 60 screens across Brazil. Among the films are Cancer The Forbidden Cures by Massimo Mazzucco, The Land Of The Astronauts by Carl Colpaert (sold at the AFM by Cineville), Alejandro Chomski’s Asleep In The Sun and Hungarian film Vespa by Diana Groo. (These films also screened on 260 European screens during the
Rome Film Festival.)

“One screening only is a marketing device for the Festival and for the films. I am just trying to extend the reach of the platform that festivals provide to give the films a proper chance of getting seen and getting some income,” Ranvaud noted.

Ichnos will be attending Latin American film market Ventana Sur in Buenos Aires next month.

The company is supported by satellite company Astra. The long-term aim is for Ichnos to become, as Ranvaud puts it, “a Sundance-type channel for the world.”