San Sebastion keeping high-profile
Big name films top the first few days of festival
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Madrid-based Karma Films has closed all rights for Spain on San Sebastian competition frontrunner "City of Life and Death" and Miraz Bezar's "The Children of Diyarbakir," which plays Zabaltegi New Directors.
"City," Lu Chuan's stirring Nanjing massacre account, was sold by Hong Kong's Media Asia Distribution, while "Children," a well-received Kurdistan survival tale, is being handled by Cologne's the Match Factory.
"San Sebastian's competition was pretty attractive this year, and the festival's very fruitful for us," said Karma topper Miguel Angel Perez. Karma bought San Sebastian player "The Refuge," from Francois Ozon, right before the festival kicked off. Le Pacte has closed not only Spain but also Argentina (Distribution Co.) on the pic.
Indeed, other notable deals were closed just before or during the festival.
Pyramide Intl. has seen healthy sales on Bruno Dumont's "Hadewijch," including the U.K. (New Wave), Brazil (Imovision), Argentina and Chile (both CDI), Mexico (Mantarraya), Russia (Maywing) and Holland (Contact). It's also fielding U.S. offers, said Pyramide prexy Eric Lagesse.
At San Sebastian, Pyramide clinched Spain with Golem on Yousry Nasrallah's "Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story."
Imagina Intl. Sales closed Poland on Made in Spain entry "25 Carat," Patxi Amezcua's gritty thriller.
Pascual Condito's Primer Plano has picked up Latin America on Israel Caetano's "Francia," and is repping the rest of the world outside Latin America.
Paris' Wide Management is negotiating Spain and France on "Leo's Room," said Wide's Anais Clanet.
Valencia-based film and TV company TV ON inked European distribution rights on Gustavo Montiel's Mexico-Argentina co-production "Marea de arena," screened at fest's Latinos Horizontes section, said Valencian Audiovisual Cluster managing director Amparo Castellano.
In the most high-profile deal during -- though not at -- San Sebastian, Sony Pictures Classics took North America on Aaron Schneider's debut "Get Low," produced by Dean Zanuck, a Toronto buzz title and San Sebastian competition contender.
In further Toronto deals, Germany's Arsenal took Daniel Sanchez-Arevalo's "Gordos," which also sold to Italy's Archibald, and Isabel Coixet's "Map of the Sounds of Tokyo" was licensed to Alamode for German-speaking territories, LeopArt for Russia and Poland's Monolith.
Through Friday midday, the most-watched titles at the Sales Office videotheque were all Spanish-language: Alvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro's popular San Sebastian competition player "Me, Too"; Rigoberto Perezcano's good-humored immigration drama "Norteado," which played to applause last weekend in Zabaltegi New Directors; Chilean Alejandro Fernandez Almendras' Cannes Critics' Week screener "Huacho"; "Historia de un grupo de rock," from Juanma Bajo Ulloa ("Butterfly Wings," "Airbag"); and "77 Doronship," from Pablo Aguero.
More biz looks to be done or announced shortly on San Sebastian titles such as Latido-sold competition favorite "The Secret of Their Eyes."
San Sebastian 2009 underscored at least two trends: the influx en masse of French sales agents and distributors, which now use San Sebastian to court Spanish distributors; and pubcaster TVE's increasingly vital role in the Spanish film industry.
At the fest, TVE Wanda and Lusa Filmes revealed progress on movie collection "Libertadores" while TVE also confirmed pickups for Spain and other territories on a clutch of high-profile Spanish movies, including Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Biutiful," "Balada triste de trompeta," from Alex de la Iglesia and Mateo Gil's "Black Thorn."
Spanish film/TV production house BocaBoca Producciones closed at San Sebastian with Switzerland's Zodiac Pics for the Swiss remake rights to Antonio Mercero's 2003 B.O. hit "Cuarta planta." Swiss version will be handled theatrically by Walt Disney Switzerland.
