11 European world premieres, two North American premieres and one International premiere are receiving a promotional boost at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, 7-17 September 2023) via EFP’s (European Film Promotion) Film Sales Support (FSS) initiative. The long-standing financial support augments marketing campaigns by world sales companies for selected European films to increase their visibility and accelerate sales to North America.
Ladj Ly’s Les Indésirables (France), the director’s sequel to much lauded Les Misérables, is celebrating its world premiere in Special Presentations, featuring high-profile premieres by world-leading film makers. The film is promoted and sold by Goodfellas.
Five of the supported world premieres have been placed in TIFF’s competitive Platform section, which celebrates unique directorial perspectives with a sizable award given to the best film in the programme. The lucky competitors are: Not A Word (Germany, France, Slovenia / Beta Cinema) by writer-director Hanna Slak who will be in Toronto with main actress Maren Eggert (I’m Your Man), stylish thriller Shame on Dry Land (Sweden / LevelK) by Axel Petersen filmed under Malta’s scorching sun around a Swedish gambling community, Sisterhood (France, Morocco / Memento International) by Nora El Hourch, which captures the challenges of social media on friendships, The Rye Horn (Spain / Films Boutique) by Jaione Camborda, a story revealing mysteries taking place on the Gallician island of Arousa of 1971 and Spirit of Ecstasy (France / Pyramide International) by Héléna Klotz about a young woman on her path to freedom.
TIFF’s Discovery section shows contemporary international cinema with first and second feature films from new filmmakers, such as this year’s world premieres Solitude (Iceland / The Party Film Sales) by Ninna Palmadottir and After The Fire (France / Goodfellas) by Mehdi Fikri as well as the international premiere An Endless Sunday (Italy, Germany, Ireland / Fandango) by Alain Parrroni.
City of Wind (France, Mongolia, Portugal, The Netherlands, Germany / Best Friend Forever) (World Premiere), Green Border (Poland, Germany / Films Boutique) by Agnieszka Holland (North American Premiere) and Holiday (Italy / Memento International) by Edoardo Gabriellini (World Premiere) are part of TIFF’s Centrepiece.
TIFF Docs includes two documentaries, Walls (Italy /Fandango) by Kasia Smutniak, documentary and God Is A Woman (France, Switzerland / Pyramide International)
The respective supports were confirmed by Unifrance, German Films, the Icelandic Film Centre, Cinecittà, ICAA (Spain) and the Swedish Film Institute.
FSS for associated European world sales companies exists since 2004 and is backed by Creative Europe MEDIA.
