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Thom Lunshof’s “First Zone,” Jaume Claret Muxart’s “Strange River” and Janicke Askevold’s “Solomamma” picked up a trio of post-production prizes out of this year’s Les Arcs Film Festival Industry Village, which ran from December 14 – 17.

Capping its 16th edition, the industry event brought together 700 professionals – among them leading sales agents, festival programers, producers and distributors – for three days of collective pitches and one-and-one meetings, all with a healthy amount of skiing (and fondue) thrown in.

Winner of this year’s TitraFilm Award for $10,500 in post-production funds, “First Zone” tells a post-apocalyptic story on a more intimate register.

The film follows a rather grizzled loner as she travels across a postdiluvian vision of the Netherlands that has already been flooded for a generation. At his Sunday morning pitch presentation, director Thom Lunshof likened his feature debut to a cross between “Waterworld” and “Nomadland,” while the jury praised the...

Dutch filmmaker Floor Van der Meulen’s drama Happy Days, about a woman who suffers a burnout after she commits to looking after grandchildren several days a week, has scooped one of the top prizes at the Les Arcs Coproduction Village.

It is one 18 feature film projects selected for the 16th edition of the project market unfolding within the framework of the Les Arcs Film Festival in the French Alps, from December 14 to 17.

Happy Days won the €20,000 Eurimages Coproduction Development Award, decided by a jury consisting of Emilia Fort, producer at Avalon (Spain); Eleni Chandrinou, Consultant and Greek representative for Eurimages, and Victor Pothevin, co-head of Acquisitions at Diaphana.

Produced by Keplerfilm, Happy Days is inspired by the phenomenon of grandparents increasingly giving up their retirement to help their offspring with childcare.

Van der Meulen says the premise was sparked by a conversation with a friend who complained that her...

Un elenco de otro mundo para una comedia de invasión alienígena.

De acuerdo con Deadline, Alpha Gang, la nueva comedia de los hermanos Zellner (Sasquatch Sunset), que protagoniza y produce Cate Blanchett, acaba de ampliar su reparto.

A Blanchett se unen Dave Bautista, Steven Yeun, Zoë Kravitz, Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough y Channing Tatum. ¡Casi nada!

Alpha Gang se centra en un grupo de invasores alienígenas, enviados a conquistar la Tierra. Disfrazados en forma humana como una banda de moteros de los años 50, vestidos de cuero y apodados Alpha Gang, son implacables en su misión. Al menos hasta que sucumben a la condición humana más tóxica y contagiosa de todas: las emociones.

Fionnuala Jamison, directora general de mk2 Films, ha dicho: «Estas nuevas incorporaciones estelares son una fuente de talento cómico que añade aún más emoción a esta esperada película. Este reparto, al igual que la historia y sus creadores,...

Director David Zellner has credits going back to 1997, when he made his feature directorial debut with the comedy Plastic Utopia, working from a screenplay he wrote with his brother, visual effects artist Nathan Zellner. As of the 2018 Western Damsel, the Zellner Brothers became a directing duo, and in 2020 it was announced that they were going to be making an alien invasion comedy called Alpha Gang, with Andrea Riseborough, Jon Hamm, Nicholas Hoult, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Mackenzie Davis, Sofia Boutella, and Steven Yeun attached to star in the film. But Alpha Gang missed its 2021 production start date and the Zellner Brothers made Sasquatch Sunset instead. Now, Deadline reports that the Zellners are circling back to Alpha Gang, and the impressive cast they originally had lined up has been replaced by a different impressive bunch of actors: Cate Blanchett (Disclaimer), Channing Tatum (Deadpool & Wolverine), Dave Bautista (Knock at the Cabin), Zoë Kravitz (The...

Cate Blanchett will lead an impressive cast in the new sci-fi comedy “Alpha Gang” from directors David and Nathan Zellner. Dave Bautista, Steven Yeun, Zoë Kravitz, Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough, and Channing Tatum have all signed on for roles in the film. Production is scheduled to begin in spring 2025.

“Alpha Gang” tells the story of alien invaders who disguise themselves as a 1950s leather biker gang. They plan to conquer Earth in this unusual way. Blanchett will play Alpha One, the formidable leader of the group. During their mission, the ruthless invaders encounter an obstacle – human emotions prove to be contagious. This changes the direction of the invaders’ plot in an unexpected way.

Several people involved in the film expressed excitement about the cast and creative team. Fionnuala Jamison, who runs international sales company mk2 Films, called the cast “a powerhouse of comedic talent.” She said they “are out of...

The Zellner brothers’ anticipated alien invasion comedy Alpha Gang, starring and produced by Cate Blanchett, just got buzzier with the unveiling of her co-stars.

Dave Bautista, Steven Yeun, Zoë Kravitz, Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough, and Channing Tatum have been confirmed for the cast as the movie’s international sales agent mk2 films gears up to ramp up pre-sales at the AFM.

Alpha Gang centers on a group of alien invaders sent to conquer Earth. Disguised in human form as a 1950s leather-clad biker gang, dubbed the Alpha Gang. They are ruthless in their mission, until they succumb to the most toxic and contagious human condition of all: emotions. The movie follows the Zellner brothers’ Sundance hit Sasquatch Sunset.

“These stellar new recruits are a powerhouse of comedic talent, adding even more excitement to this eagerly awaited film. This cast, just like the story and its filmmakers, is out of this world.

MK2 Films, the European sales, production and finance powerhouse behind movies by Justine Triet and Joachim Trier, is getting ready to ramp up its global scope and move further in the English-language space.

Following its appointment of Protagonist’s former managing director Vanessa Saal as executive consultant and U.K. lead earlier this month, MK2 Films has struck a multi-year financing deal with the investment fund manager Ipr.Vc to gain financial ammunitions and build a robust slate of projects.

The company has established itself as a leading force in auteur-driven cinema with a number of critical and commercial hits in recent years, including Justine Triet’s Oscar-winning “Anatomy of a Fall,” Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World” and Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” It just rolled off a successful Cannes with internationally-driven movies such as Andrew Haigh’s “Belly of the Beast” starring Ben Stiller and Colin Farrell,...

European sales, production and finance company mk2 films has announced a multi-year slate financing deal with investment fund manager Ipr.Vc, which will provide “significant financial backing for a slate of future projects”.

The French firm did not divulge details of the value of the deal or how many projects it was projected to include, but said Ipr.Vc’s financial support would enable it to deliver a robust slate of projects and further strengthen “its status as a leading force in auteur-driven cinema”.

“We are thrilled to work with Ipr.Vc and its experienced management team, and to have found the perfect partners to allow us to scale our efforts while maintaining the artistic integrity that defines mk2 films and our commitment to bold, visionary filmmaking,” mk2 films CEO Nathanael Karmitz and Managing Director Fionnuala Jamison said in a joint statement.

Recent mk2 films successes include Justine Triet’s Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall,...

Paris-based sales, production and finance outfit mk2 Films has signed a multi-year financing deal with investment fund manager Ipr.Vc for a slate of upcoming productions and acquisitions titles.

The collaboration will boost mk2 Films’ robust slate as it scales up its international expansion and foray into English-language projects.

Helsinki and London-based investment fund manager Ipr.Vc has raised over $200m and backed more than 50 productions across film and television.

The company founded in 2014 has long-term partnerships with several US and European producers including A24, XYZ Films and animation studio Gigglebug Entertainment.

Mk2 Films’ auteur-driven slate includes Andrew Haigh’s Belly Of The Beast,...

French production and sales outfit mk2 films has signed a multi-year financing deal with the Finnish private equity fund Ipr.Vc to bankroll a slate of new projects, the two companies unveiled on Thursday.

The new capital will come in handy for mk2, which is looking to build on recent crossover success, including its co-productions The Worst Person in the World from director Joachim Trier, and Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, as well as Justine Triet’s Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall and Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex, both of which mk2 sold worldwide.

In Cannes this year, mk2 unveiled its most ambitious slate ever, with several English-language projects, including Belly of the Beast, Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers follow-up, starring Ben Stiller and Colin Farrell, and The Zellner Brothers’ Alpha Gang starring Cate Blanchett. Among its features already in production include Trier’s Sentimental Value,...

French sales agent mk2 Films has hired London-based former Protagonist Pictures and Upgrade Productions executive Vanessa Saal to help expand the company’s UK footprint, under the title executive consultant and UK lead.

Saal most recently served as executive vice president, production and distribution, for Jonathan Kier and Matt Brodlie’s Los Angeles-based Upgrade Productions, working out of London.

She was previously managing director, sales and distribution for the UK’s Protagonist Pictures.

While a formal UK office is not being launched, with Saal’s position understood to be on a consultancy basis, she will utilise her on-the-ground network and...

The first clip from “Peacock,” led by “All Quiet on the Western Front” star Albrecht Schuch, has been revealed by MK2 ahead of the film’s world premiere in the Venice Critic’s Week competition.

The directorial debut of rising Austrian filmmaking Bernhard Wenger, the quirky tragicomedy revolves around the “Rent a Friend” concept prevalent in Japan and the U.S. and serves up a satirical view of societal values.

“Peacock” tells the story Matthias (Schuch), who works at a rent-a-friend agency and finds it increasingly difficult to open up again and be authentic in his private life. Wenger noted he had the idea of making a film about the subject after a research trip to Japan and that the character of Matthias was based on an agency employee he met there.

“The premise of the film is therefore not an abstruse dystopian construct, but rather an imminent reality I am worried about,...

Exclusive: Ben Stiller and Oscar nominee Colin Farrell have been confirmed to star in Andrew Haigh’s true crime story Belly of the Beast as mk2 films, UTA Independent Film Group, CAA Media Finance and Village Roadshow Pictures board sales for a Cannes launch.

Rumors of their involvement in the project surfaced at the beginning of the year and now the sales partners have unveiled the full details ahead of rolling out it to buyers in the South of France next week.

Bafta nominee Haigh will direct the film, which he and Alexis Jolly adapted from Jerome Loving’s nonfiction book, Jack and Norman: A State-Raised Convict and the Legacy of Norman Mailer’s ‘The Executioner’s Song.’

Per the official synopsis the feature will tell the timely and true story of the unlikely friendship between notorious literary titan Norman Mailer (Stiller) and his protégé, Jack Henry Abbott (Farrell).

Bolstered by Mailer’s mentorship,...

Cate Blanchett has signed on to star in Alpha Gang, the new comedy from David and Nathan Zellner, the sibling duo behind wacky Sundance entry Sasquatch Sunset.

The two-time Oscar winner is set to star as Alpha One, the leader of an alien gang sent on a mission to conquer Earth. She arrives disguised in human form together with her fellow extraterrestrials, posing as an armed and dangerous 1950’s leather-clad biker gang. But their ruthless plan is disrupted when the gang catches “the most toxic, contagious human disease of all: emotion.”

David and Nathan Zellner will direct Alpha Gang as well as produce. Blanchett and Coco Francini are also on board as producers, through their Dirty Films outfit. Other producers include Ryan Zacarias for Fat City, and Gina Gammell for Felix Culpa. The film is set to being shooting this fall.

“The Zellner brother’s work never fails to surprise and delight us,...

Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett is set to star as the leader of the “Alpha Gang,” an alien invasion comedy by “Sasquatch Sunset” filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner.

The hot package will be launched at Cannes by MK2 Films (“Anatomy of a Fall”) handling international sales and CAA Media Finance handling North American distribution rights. “Alpha Gang” is set to start filming in the Fall.

“Alpha Gang” marks the Zellner brothers’ anticipated follow-up to “Sasquatch Sunset,” the buzzy absurdist comedy starring Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough which was the talk of this year’s Sundance Film Festival and is currently on release in the U.S. via Bleecker Street.

The Zellner brothers are producing “Alpha Gang” with Blanchett and Coco Francini for Dirty Films, as well as Ryan Zacarias for Fat City, and Gina Gammell for Felix Culpa.

“Alpha Gang” follows alien invaders sent on a mission to conquer Earth. “Disguised in...

Anatomy Of A Fall’s Swann Arlaud will star in Sukkwan Island, a psychological thriller from French director Vladimir de Fontenay that mk2 Films has boarded for sales.

Woody Norman, best known for C’mon C’mon, co-stars in the film about a father and son on a quest for survival deep in the Norwegian fjords. Production started in Norway in February and is being shot in three parts to follow the rhythm of the seasons, with further filming between Glasgow and Norway set for May.

France’s Haut et Court produces and will release Sukkwan Island in France. Co-producers include Norway’s Maipo Film,...

Both features will form part of Paris-based mk2 films’ line-up at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris event this week.

mk2 films, the sales outfit behind Anatomy Of A Fall and How To Have Sex, has acquired Jonathan Millet’s thriller Ghost Trail and Laetitia Dosch’s high-concept comedy Who Let the Dog Bite? ahead of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema that opens tomorrow in Paris.

Inspired by real-life events, Ghost Trail is about a Syrian man pursuing some of the people who perpetrated horrors in the name of the regime during the civil war. His mission takes him to France...

Molly Manning Walker, the English cinematographer-turned-filmmaker whose debut feature “How to Have Sex” won a prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has signed with CAA for representation.

Penned and directed by Manning Walker, “How to Have Sex” world premiered at Cannes in Un Certain Regard, where it won the top prize and earned unanimous praise. The film follows three British teenage girls who go on a holiday in sun-drenched Crete and find themselves navigating the complexities of sex, consent and self-discovery.

Variety‘s Guy Lodge described the film as “fresh, head-turning debut” that “lays out the minefield of sexual education and consent for a post-#MeToo generation, with a precision to its ambiguities that will draw gasps from its characters’ contemporaries and elders alike.” The movie was acquired by Mubi in multiple territories before debuting in Cannes. It will be released theatrically by Mubi on Nov. 3 in the U.

MK2 Films has boarded Bernhard Wenger’s feature debut, “Peacock,” a tragicomedy headlined by Albrecht Schuch, the German actor who starred in “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “System Crasher.”

An up-and-coming Austrian director, Wenger developed the script at the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation residency and was part of Berlinale Talents in 2020. His shorts, including “Keeping Balance,” “Guy Proposes to His Girlfriend on a Mountain” and “Excuse Me, I’m Looking for the Ping-Pong Room and My Girlfriend,” have played at festivals in Chicago, Palm Springs and Nashville, among others.

MK2 Films’ team, spearheaded by Fionnuala Jamison, is kicking off sales on “Peacock” at the American Film Market. The project is being pitched as a “corrosive comedy” capturing “the essence of human relationships.”

“Peacock” tells the story Matthias who works at a rent-a-friend agency and finds it increasingly difficult to open up again and be authentic in his private life.

International execs from Unifrance, MK2 and TrustNordisk kicked off the annual Zurich Summit on Saturday to discuss the importance of film festivals when promoting a title and if fests are drifting away from what works in cinemas. You can watch the panel above.

Speaking at the city’s Dolder Grand Hotel, where the boutique industry event is hosted each year alongside the Zurich Film Festival, Unifrance’s executive director Daniela Elstner said, “We are in a very shifting world and we of course need the festivals but as a promotion agency in France we are also questioning ourselves and asking what is the best way to to be present at a festival to help the films get out and I think the press plays a major part in that.”

She added, “We get behind festivals but on the other hand we are also rethinking our future right now as we...

San Sebastian — Blessed by blowsy sun, two Conferences and a Co-Pro Forum, which brought the highest caliber and number of U.S., European execs and Latin American producers ever seen in festival history, San Sebastian rounded its final bend Friday after a packed, busy and upbeat event, also suggesting a stability in contrast to other major European events, such as Berlin.

Below, eight takeaways, some 24 hours before Saturday night’s closing gala and prize ceremony.

Women Rule Still

Coming into the festival, many of the biggest main competition buzz pictures were directed by women. Many now figure, according to a El Diario Vasco Spanish critics’ poll, as Golden Shell frontrunners: Isabel Helguera’s animated pic “Sultana’s Dream,” Raven Jackson’s Sundance hit “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” Jaione Camborda’s Toronto platform screener “The Rye Horn” and Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang’s “A Journey in Spring.”

New...

Goodfellas President Vincent Maraval shared the secret behind his undying enthusiasm for the film industry in the face of numerous challenges in an industry panel at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

‘It comes from a love and passion for cinema… We still want to see a dream come true on the screen, on a platform, on TV. That’s what drives us,” he said.

“The complexity of our business is also part of the excitement. We need to adapt ourselves and our business and look for films or TV programs that will find a buyer or an agent.”

Maraval was talking on a panel on the state of the Global Film Industry in 2023 as part of San Sebastian’s Creative Investors’ Conference on Tuesday, organized in association with CAA Media Finance.

The complexity of the market was at the heart of the chat which also featured mk2 films MD Fionnuala Jamison...

Maraval was speaking at the San Sebastian International Film Festival’s (Ssiff) Creative Investors Conference.

Vincent Maraval, president of film sales and production company Goodfellas (formerly Wild Bunch), said the industry needs more distributors while speaking at the San Sebastian International Film Festival’s (Ssiff) Creative Investors Conference.

“There are more and more producers and less and less distributors,” Maraval said while participating in a panel titled ‘The Global Film Industry: State of the Union 2023’. “We need new distributors.”

“When you look at the market, country by country, we know there are historical distributors but we are still waiting for the new ones.

San Sebastian – Top International business execs gathered on Tuesday at a rooftop venue, glistening in the Basque sunlight, for the second Creative Investors Conference at this week’s San Sebastian International Film Festival.

The second panel of the day at this two-day confab, The Global Film Industry: State of the Union 2023 round table, was moderated by Roeg Sutherland, co-head, CAA Media Finance. Speakers took in Pete Czernin co-chairman of Blueprint Pictures, David Flynn, head of global drama at Wiip, Fionnuala Jamison, managing director of MK2, and Vincent Maraval, president of Goodfellas.

Today, international is not just about recouping costs on American films but also about the discovery of new talent. Said Maraval: “What you need to succeed is the exception. The exception is coming from everywhere today. I think the market has become more global and less American.”

Added Czernin: “I think our awareness of global voices has increased.

The second annual Creative Investors Conference runs September 26-28.

Executives from Focus Features, Warner Bros, Plan B and Neon are among the speakers at San Sebastian International Film Festival’s second annual Creative Investors Conference running September 26-28 in collaboration with CAA Media Finance.

There will be a series of ‘Fireside chats’ with Mariano César, SVP content Ge Content Latin America at HBO Max (Warner Bros. Discovery), Jeremy Kleiner, co-president at Plan B, and Killer Films co-founders Pam Koffler and Christine Vachon.

Kiska Higgs, president, production & acquisitions at Focus Features, Sarah Colvin, director of acquisitions at Neon, Jeb Brody, president of production at Amblin Partners,...

The conference is taking place from September 26-28.

Mubi’s Bobby Allen, Blueprint Pictures’ Peter Czernin, Killer Films’ Christine Vachon, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates’ Anna Higgs and Netflix’s Teresa Moneo will all attend the second annual Creative Investors’ Conference at the San Sebastian International Film Festival this month.

Organised in collaboration with CAA Media Finance, it is taking place at the festival from September 26-28 and will comprise of a series of panels and discussions open to industry badge holders, under the Spanish Screenings: Financing & Tech strand.

Scroll down for the full list of participants

Roeg Sutherland, Benjamin Kramer and...

Netflix’s Teresa Moneo, Mubi’s Bobby Allen, Cinetic Media’s John Sloss, and Jeb Brody, President of Production at Amblin Partners, are among the names set for CAA Media Finance and the San Sebastian Film Festival’s second annual Creative Investors’ Conference.

The conference will take place September 26-28 and include a series of panels and discussions. Roeg Sutherland, Benjamin Kramer, and Sarah Schweitzman from CAA Media Finance will participate in the conference and moderate alongside journalist and San Seb advisor Wendy Mitchell.

Organized in collaboration with CAA Media Finance, other high-profile execs set to attend include Vincent Maraval, President of Goodfellas; Mariano César, SVP of Content Ge Content Latin America at HBO Max; Sarah Colvin, Director of Acquisitions at Neon; Liesl Copland, Executive Vice president, Content and Platform Strategy at Participant Media; Phil Hunt, CEO of Head Gear Films and Co-managing Director of Bankside Films; Fionnuala Jamison, Managing...

San Sebastian Festival’s 2nd Creative Investors’ Conference (Cic), co-organized once more with CAA Media Finance, has lured some of the most prominent names in the international entertainment business, led by CAA Media Finance’s Roeg Sutherland, Goodfellas’ Vincent Maraval and Cinetic Media’s John Sloss.

Sutherland, Nick Ogiony and Sarah Schweitzman from CAA Media Finance will participate in the Conference, held on Sept. 26 and 27 at the Tabakalera, and moderate some of the activities, as will Wendy Mitchell, delegate and advisor of the San Sebastian Festival.

Variety has learned that the VIP international guests will hold private networking lunches/meetings with about 25 leading Spanish producers, includING Mariela Besuievsky of Tornasol Media; Eduardo Carneros, Euskadi Movie Aie; Valérie Delpierre, Inicia Films; Ignasi Estapé, Arcadia; Belén Atienza, Perdición Films; Fernando Bovaira, Mod Prods; Morena Films’ Juan Gordon and Elastica Films’ María Zamora.

Another added bonus is a podcast, jointly produced/hosted by...

Exclusive: Benedict Cumberbatch has signed to star in Dylan Southern’s adaptation of Max Porter’s acclaimed novel Grief is the Thing With Feathers, about a father and his two young sons dealing with the sudden death of their wife and mother.

Cumberbatch will play a young father whose hold on reality crumbles following his wife’s death as a strange presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.

This mysterious creature, known as “Crow,” seemingly brought to life from the pages of his work as an illustrator, becomes a very real part of all their lives, ultimately guiding them towards the new shape family must take.

Related: Cannes Film Festival Full Coverage

The feature adaptation, entitled The Thing With Feathers, is produced by Andrea Cornwell with SunnyMarch’s Adam Ackland and Leah Clarke. The script was developed with Film4,...

The project joins mk2’s Cannes slate, with Magnolia planning North American theatrical launch.

Mk2 Films has acquired international rights to Raoul Peck’s Untitled Ernest Cole Documentary, with Magnolia Pictures taking rights for North America.

Mk2 will offer the project to buyers at this week’s Cannes market. Magnolia, which previously distributed Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, is planning a theatrical release for the new film.

Cole was the first Black freelance photographer in South Africa and his early pictures revealed the conditions of Black life under apartheid to the world. He fled South Africa in 1966 and...

Magnolia Pictures and MK2 Films have acquired rights to Raoul Peck’s documentary about renowned photographer Ernest Cole.

The untitled documentary chronicles the life and work of Cole, the first Black freelance photographer in South Africa, whose early work revealed to the world the shocking, brutal realities of Black life under apartheid. Magnolia will release the film in North American theaters, while MK2 will handle the rollout internationally.

“Ernest Cole’s long and, at times, painful and tedious journey in America brings me back to a period of my life when my political commitment and artistic stamina were forged,” Peck said in a statement. “I profoundly feel, cherish and treasure his human eye on the facts of life and his piercing acuity over our terrible contradictions.”

The sale marks a reunion for Magnolia and Peck after 2016’s James Baldwin documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” which became a modest box office hit with $8 million globally.

Exclusive: Magnolia Pictures and mk2 have acquired rights to Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck’s Untitled Ernest Cole Documentary, about South Africa’s first Black freelance photographer.

Magnolia’s deal is for North American rights, while mk2 takes international; mk2 is launching international sales at the Cannes Market, which opens Tuesday.

Cole (1940-1970) documented apartheid in South Africa not as an outsider but someone who experienced its cruelties. Under the country’s racist system, Black people could only be employed as laborers; nonetheless, Cole became a photographer, a defiance of rules that made him a “banned person” and forced him to flee to the United States. He continued making important documentary photography in New York, but at his death he had published a single book, House of Bondage (1967) and the whereabouts of much of his unpublished work remained unknown.

Only a few years ago, “more than 60,000 of his 35mm film negatives...

Noémie Merlant, the French actor of “Tár,” is reteaming with Celine Sciamma, who directed her in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” for her sophomore outing, “The Balconettes.”

The fantastical comedy horror movie is being written by Merlant with the collaboration of Céline Sciamma. MK2 Films will launch sales at the Cannes Film Market. Filming is slated to begin this summer.

Set in a boiling Marseille neighborhood plagued by a heat wave, the movie revolves around three roommates who gleefully meddle in the lives of their neighbors from their balcony. Until a late-night drink turns into a bloody affair. Sometimes gory, sometimes brazen, always playful. Merlant stars in the film alongside Souheila Yacoub (“Dune 2”) and Sanda Codreanu (“Mi Iubita Mon Amour”).

Merlant, who won this year’s Cesar Award for her role in Louis Garrel’s “The Innocent,” made her feature debut as a director with “Mi Iubita Mon Amour” which played at Cannes,...

Xavier Legrand, whose 2017 feature debut “Custody” won two prizes at Venice and swept four Cesar Awards, is back with “The Successor.” The anticipated sophomore outing has been boarded by mk2 films (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”) which will launch sales at the European Film Market.

“The Successor” will star Marc-André Grondin (“C.R.A.Z.Y.”) as the newly-announced artistic director of a famous Parisian fashion house. But as expectations are high, he starts experiencing chest pain. Out of the blue he is called back to Montreal to organize his estranged father’s funeral and discovers that he may have inherited much worse than his father’s weak heart.

“We don’t want to give much away but will say that ‘The Successor’ is a tense and thrilling read that we can’t wait to share with buyers,” said Fionnuala Jamison, mk2 films’ managing director.

“As much if not more than with “Custody,...

Exclusive: Paris-based mk2 films has boarded international sales on Tina Satter’s debut feature Reality about real-life U.S. whistleblower Reality Winner ahead of its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival later this month.

Euphoria and White Lotus star Sydney Sweeney plays Winner.

The former intelligence officer was given the longest prison sentence ever for the unauthorized release of classified material to the media in 2018 (five years and three months) after she leaked a report about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Opening with the Saturday afternoon in June 2017 when 25-year-old Winner was confronted at her Georgia home by the FBI, the film follows the cryptic conversation that took place as the young woman’s life begins to unravel.

Satter’s dialogue, taken directly from the FBI’s transcript of the interrogation, alternates between nail-biting and banal, darkly funny and surreal.

The film tracks one woman’s experience of the State at work.

The Paris-based sales company has a hefty slate for AFM.

Paris-based mk2 Films is kicking off sales on Darren Thornton’s Ireland-set comedy-drama Four Mothers at the AFM this week.

The title is an Irish twist on Gianni Di Gregorio’s 2008 Italian hit Mid-August Lunch that won several awards including the Luigi De Laurentiis prize when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Thornton, whose previous credits include RTÉ comedy-drama series Love Is The Drug and his debut feature A Date For Mad Mary, penned the script with his brother Colin Thornton who also co-wrote the script for A Date For Mad Mary.

Exclusive: The Worst Person In The World and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire outfit MK2 has joined UK feature How To Have Sex, which is currently shooting in Greece.

Directed by emerging UK filmmaker Molly Manning Walker (pictured above right), How to Have Sex follows a group of teenage girls as they navigate early sexual encounters on a rite of passage clubbing holiday.

Cast includes Persuasion and Vampire Academy actress Mia McKenna-Bruce (pictured above left) and Lara Peake (Mood) alongside Shaun Thomas (Ali and Ava) and Sam Bottomley (Somewhere Boy), with newcomers Enva Lewis and Laura Ambler.

Film4 and the BFI developed the project and are financing the production, alongside Paris-based MK2 Films, which is handling international sales and will be teasing the project to buyers in coming months. Film4 retains TV and on-demand rights in the UK/Ireland.

Wild Swim Films’ Ivana MacKinnon and Emily Leo are producing alongside Heretic’s Konstantinos Kontrovrakis.

US filmmaker Jeff Celentano directs, with shooting underway in Suffolk.

Minka Kelly, Maggie Grace and Dermot Mulroney will star in thriller Blackwater Lane, an adaptation of UK author B.A. Paris’ book The Breakdown, now shooting in Suffolk in the UK.

Kelly stars as a woman who drives by a stranded motorist later revealed to have been murdered. A series of terrifying events then convince the woman that she is the killer’s next victim.

It is directed by US filmmaker Jeff Celentano, whose credits 2018 boxing thriller Glass Jaw, and baseball drama The Hill starring Dennis Quaid.

Blackwater Lane is...

The Ireland-born French exec also talked about navigating international prejudices.

mk2 Films managing director Fionnuala Jamison shared insights on securing a festival berth at Cannes through to prejudices in the international sales market at a London Film Festival ‘Spotlight’ interview on Wednesday (October 12).

Paris-based producer, sales agent and distributor mk2’s slate includes break out arthouse successes The Worst Person In The World, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Cold War. This year’s Golden Bear winner Alcarràs by Carla Simón is also repped by MK2.

The firm had six films in Cannes selection this year, and seven in...

The Ireland-born French exec also talked about navigating international prejudices.

mk2 Films managing director Fionnuala Jamison shared insights on securing a festival berth at Cannes through to prejudices in the international sales market at a London Film Festival ‘Spotlight’ interview on Wednesday (October 12).

Paris-based producer, sales agent and distributor mk2’s slate includes break out arthouse successes The Worst Person In The World, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Cold War. This year’s Golden Bear winner Alcarràs by Carla Simón is also repped by MK2.

The firm had six films in Cannes selection this year, and seven in...

The Ireland-born French exec also talked about navigating international prejudices.

mk2 Films managing director Fionnuala Jamison shared insights on securing a festival berth at Cannes through to prejudices in the international sales market at a London Film Festival ‘Spotlight’ interview on Wednesday (October 12).

Paris-based producer, sales agent and distributor mk2’s slate includes break out arthouse successes The Worst Person In The World, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Cold War. This year’s Golden Bear winner Alcarràs by Carla Simón is also repped by MK2.

The firm had six films in Cannes selection this year, and seven in...

MK2 Managing Director Fionnuala Jamison was the focus of the London Film Festival’s second ‘spotlight’ industry talk Wednesday, during which she provided insights on navigating the international film market, including how regional prejudices can impact how films are sold.

Jamison opened the discussion by speaking about the case of MK2’s 2019 film Atlantics, the debut feature from Mati Diop. The film is set in Senegal and features an all-non-white cast. Jamison said MK2 knew the film could work in English-speaking territories and strong arthouse markets but would struggle with the rest of the world.

“The very sad reality is that you still have a lot of countries in the world that are very racist, and as soon as a cast of a film is completely one color, it’s not for them. The further East you go, the more problematic,” Jamison said.

She added that attitudes in the market have improved,...

The event is entitled ‘when dance meets film’.

Filmmaker Asif Kapadia and choreographer Akram Khan will lead the conversation of this year’s Lff Connects talk at the BFI London Film Festival on October 7.

Titled ‘when dance meets film’. the event will explore the pair’s collaboration on Creature, directed by Kapadia and based on the English National Ballet 2021 stage production by Khan. It is making its world premiere at the Lff.

The film’s cinematographer Daniel Landin and editor Sylvie Landra will join the conversation to be moderated by Bafta’s head of programming, Mariayah Kaderbhai.

Previously announced speakers...

She will deliver the 2022 edition and remain in the post until early 2023 while the BFI recruits a replacement.

Tricia Tuttle will step down as director, BFI Festivals after five years in the role.

She will deliver the 2022 edition of the BFI London Film Festival (Lff), which runs October 5-16, and remain in the post until early 2023 while the BFI recruits a replacement.

Tuttle was appointed permanent festival director of the Lff and the BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival In 2018, after leading the Lff as interim artistic director that year during Clare Stewart’s sabbatical. She previously spent five years...

Industry panels with Mia Bays, Eva Yates, Mike Goodridge.

Fionnuala Jamison, managing director at mk2 films, and Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin are among the speakers on the industry programme of the 66th BFI London Film Festival (Lff), which runs from October 5-16.

Jamison will take part in a Spotlight Conversation on Wednesday, October 12 with Paul Ridd, head of acquisitions for Picturehouse Entertainment and Lff advisor. Having worked in international sales at Coproduction Office in Paris, Jamison joined French production, sales, distribution and exhibition firm mk2 in 2012, leading the launches of titles including Cold War, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire...

The BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full industry lineup, which will include keynote conversations with the Italian producer and CEO of Apartment Pictures Lorenzo Mieli and Fionnuala Jamison of MK2 Films.

The festival will also launch New Waves, a set of co-production meetings for invited producers from France and the UK participating in the Festival. The program (8 October) will be hosted by Dragoslav Zachariev, Deputy Director, Institut Français UK. The BFI has partnered with the Institut français in the UK, and UniFrance to launch the session.

Jampro, the Government of Jamaica trade and investment promotions agency, will also host a networking reception at the Jamaican High Commission in London. Four producers from Jamaican production companies have been invited by the Festival, supported by Lff program advisor Keith Shiri.

“We’re so looking forward to welcoming the UK and international industry delegates and guests back to London for in-person...

MK2 Films, which is at Venice with “Love Life” playing in competition, is reteaming with Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel on “The Falling Star,” a darkly comic mystery thriller.

The directing duo is rolling off “Lost in Paris,” their international breakout film, which had a buzzy premiere at Telluride in 2016. The film was also a commercial success, grossing nearly 3 million outside of France, with strong performances in the U.S., Italy, Germany, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand.

“The Falling Star” tells the story of Boris, a former activist who’s been a fugitive for 35 years, and works as a bartender. Boris’ past finally catches up with him when a mysterious stranger appears at the bar, armed and wanting revenge. The appearance of a double, the depressed and solitary Dom, provides Boris’ cunning partner Kayoko and their faithful friend Tim with the perfect escape plan, but they haven’t accounted for Dom’s ex-wife,...

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to Christophe Cognet’s “From Where They Stood,” a searing WW2-set documentary which premiered at the Berlinale.

Represented in international markets by MK2 Films, “From Where They Stood” went on the win the Spirit of Freedom Award for best documentary at last year’s Jerusalem Film Festival.

Produced by Raphaël Pillosio, “From Where They Stood” retraces the footsteps of a handful of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps who managed to take clandestine photographs of the hell the Nazis were hiding from the world. These photos were either smuggled out or hidden and retrieved after the war.

Greenwich’s Edward Arentz negotiated the acquisition with Fionnuala Jamison of MK2 Films on behalf of the filmmakers.

“In contrast to today, when thankfully, evidence of war crimes and genocide can be gathered often remotely and disseminated worldwide with startling precision and detail,...

Cannes slates includes new restorations of David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Claire Denis’s Chocolat, and Olivier Assayas’s Irma Vep.

France’s mk2 films is ramping up its heritage film operation with the appointment of Frédérique Rouault as head of collections and the acquisition of a raft of catalogues by directors who have marked cinema history.

In one of its most significant heritage deals to date, the company has acquired the rights to the entire collection of films by the late writer and director Marcel Pagnol.

Until now, the catalogue has been managed by grandson Nicolas Pagnol under the...

MK2 Films, which is presenting six movies at the Cannes Film Festival, will be attending the market with a pair of hot new titles, French director Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Israeli helmer Maya Dreifuss’s “Highway 65.”

“Anatomy of a Fall” stars Sandra Hüller, the critically acclaimed German actor of “Toni Erdmann,” as an enigmatic German novelist who is arrested after the mysterious death of her husband at their chalet in the French Alps. The court case examines every aspect of the relationship she had with her husband, while her visually impaired son is called to testify as a witness.

The movie will re-team MK2 Films with Triet, whose latest film “Sybil” competed at Cannes. Fionnuala Jamison, MK2 Films’s managing director, described the film as a “Hitchcockian tale of suspense.” “We were hooked on the script, the complexities of Sandra’s character, and its original premise...