30/05/2006

Munich-based Bavaria Film International has closed numerous sales on Critics’ Week Norwegian entry The Bothersome Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jens Lien
interview: Jørgen Storm Rosenberg
film profile] by Jens Lien and on Summer ’04 by German filmmaker Stefan Krohmer (Directors’ Fortnight), both of which were very well received by Cannes audiences and critics.

The Bothersome Man, winner of the ACID Prize, was sold to Switzerland (Look Now!), Hungary (Budapest Film), Belgium (Imagine) and Romania (Transilvania Film) and has drawn strong interest from France, the UK and Germany.

Summer ‘04 was sold to Austria (Filmladen), Venezuela (Blanco y Travieso) and South Korea (Sejong Communications), with a deal pending for France. The drama, starring one of Germany’s leading actresses, Martina Gedeck (Elementary Particles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Franka Potente & Moritz Ble…
interview: Oskar Roehler
film profile]), will be released in Germany by Alamode Film.

Other deals include Dominik Graf’s Panorama 2006 selection The Red Cockatoo [+see also:
trailer
film profile], sold to France (CTV); German thriller The Cloud by Gregor Schnitzler, sold to Portugal (Costa do Castello), Turkey (D Production), South Korea, Venezuela, Malaysia and Indonesia; and Austrian film Slumming [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Michael Glawogger (in competition at the last Berlinale), sold to Russia’s Maywin Media.

Berlinale 2006 Silver Bear winner Requiem [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hans-Christian Schmid
interview: Hans-Christian Schmid
interview: Sandra Hueller
film profile], by Hans-Christian Schmidt, was sold to Russia (Maywin Media), Romania (Transilvania Film), Taiwan and South America. The Spanish thriller by Daniel Calparsoro, Ausentes, was sold to Malaysia, Indonesia and Venezuela and this year’s Spanish Goya award-winner, Obaba, by Montxo Armendáriz, was sold to Malaysia and Indonesia.

Wild Chicks, the German girls’ comedy by Vivian Naefe, was sold to Turkey (D Production) and Hungary (Best Hollywood), and German family film The Robber Hotzenplotz, by Gernot Roll, was sold to Hungary (Best Hollywood).

"We’re very happy because we had great films in the official programme this year", said Thorsten Schaumann, co-head of Bavaria Film International with Thorsten Ritter. "But buyers were more cautious. This is a problem because it will become more and more difficult to take risks on new talent. However, new technologies offer a bunch of new opportunities to launch into niche markets".