The deal marks the third time that a French film has been pre-sold to the US for over $1mn, noted Wild Bunch's Vincent Maraval.
The $21m Concert focuses on a former conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra who was sacked during the communist era for refusing to fire the Jewish players.
Still working in the orchestra's theater as a janitor, he stumbles upon a faxed invitation for the Orchestra to play in Paris and decides to gather up his old musician buddies, go to Paris and play as the Bolshoi. It is partly based on a true story.
Maraval told Screen, 'We are thrilled to be working on The Concert with the Weinsteins. They have always been the best at taking a film like this all the way to the Oscar.'
The Concert has also sold to Australia (Hopscotch), the UK (Optimum), Canada (Seville), Scandinavia (Cinema Mondo) and Japan (Comstock).
In other deals, Optimum has taken Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler , Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona , Jerome Salle's Largo Winch , Gilles Bourdos' Afterwards , Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo On The Cliff and the triptych Tokyo ! which Liberation has for the US.
James Toback's Tyson has sold to Australia (Hopscotch - which also bought Emir Kusturica's Maradona), Scandinavia (Sandro Metronome) and Germany (Kino). In France the film will have a first airing on Canal Plus and then be released theatrically by Why Not.
Russia's Paradise picked up a trio of films: Fabrice du Welz' Vinyan , Marco Tullio Giordana's Sanguepazzo and Woody Allen's upcoming project with Larry David. Also biting for Allen's new film were Mexico (Quality), Brazil (California) and Argentina (Pachamama) among others.
Afterwards had sales in Benelux (Victory), Japan (Nikkatsu) and Spain (Tripictures). Ponyo also went to Italy (Lucky Red) and Brazil (PlayArte). Jim Caviezel sci-fi picture Outlander sold to Germany (Telepool) and Argentina (Pachamama).
Further deals include Benelux where Cineart acquired Arnaud Desplechin's competition title A Christmas Tale and Shin-Yeon Won's Seven Days ; Japan where Asmik Aze took Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Comstock took Largo Winch ; Germany's Kino took The Wrestler and Telepool bought documentary Move On , Claire Denis' White Materials , Barmak Akram's Kabuli Kid and Abel Ferrara's Chelsea On The Rocks .
Canada bought Sanguepazzo and Laurent Tirard's Le Petit Nicholas - Mexico's Quality also took the latter. In Spain, there are negotiations on Ken Loach's upcoming film, Ponyo and the Studio Ghibli library; Wanda picked up Luc Jacquet's The Fox And The Child completing worldwide sales on the film. Brazil's Playarte took Rintaro's Yona Yona Penguin .
Finally, Poland's SPI bought a total of thirteen Wild Bunch titles.
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