EFP’s (European Film Promotion) financial support tool, Film Sales Support (FSS), which helps world sales companies elevate their promotion campaigns, surpasses last year’s number of grants for European films promoted in Cannes. For the upcoming Marché du Film (14 – 22 May), a total of €89,000 has been set aside for digital promotional strategies of 48 brand-new films, targeting buyers in overseas by 24 European sales agents.
The individual supports include productions and co-productions from/with Austria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, The Netherlands and the Ukraine, all set to attract attention at the Marché.
Not only Cannes Film Festival Competition titles, Marcello Mio by Christophe Honoré (France / MK2) which sees Chiara Mastroianni intriguingly transform into her father and Wild Diamond by Agathe Riedinger (France / Pyramide International) the story of a 19-year old woman who is driven by the need to become ‘someone’ in order to be loved, will be noticed by distributors around the world.
All of the supported films from Europe are available for world-wide sales at the Marché: for example, the Director Fortnight’s titles, The Other Way Around by Jonás Trueba (Spain, France / Memento International), To A Land Unknown by Mahdi Fleifel (France, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, UK / Salaud Morisset) and This Life of Mine by Sophie Fillières (France / The Party Film Sales).
Also at the market: the genre movie,The Bitter Taste by Guido Tolke (Germany / Minerva Pictures), the children’s film, Winners by Soleen Yusef (Germany) and coming-of age drama Forever Forever by Anna Buryachkova (Ukraine), both sold by Pluto Film. Running at Cannes’ ACID strand but represented at the Marché by sales outfit, Heretic, is the bittersweet summertime family drama, Kyuka Before Summer’s End by Kostis Charamountanis (Greece, North Macedonia).
Of the 48 films receiving an FSS promotional push, 21 have been directed by women, such as Agathe Riedinger, Emilie Blichfeldt, Patricia Ryczko, Sara Margrethe Oskal, Marta Lallana, Soleen Yusef and Momoko Seto, to name just a few. Totem Films is benefitting from FSS INCLUSION, an important new element of the scheme covering the promotion of films with topics around diversity and inclusion. The Village Next to Paradise by Mo Harawe (Austria, France, Germany, Somalia) screens in Un Certain Regard and addresses marginalised subjects and peoples.
Thanks to SWISS FILMS, FSS is also available for sales agents representing films from Switzerland. This year, promotion campaigns of the inclusive title,The Shameless by Konstantin Bojanov (Switzerland, France) / Urban Sales, The Lady with the Arrows by Heidi Specogna (Switzerland, Germany) / Rushlake Media and of Dog On Trial by Laetitia Dosch (Switzerland) / MK2 are financially backed.
FSS was also granted to First Hand Films for the promotion of their film, Life is Beautiful by Mohamed Jabaly (Norway) at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
FSS for the films was confirmed by Austrian Films, Cinecittà, Estonian Film Institute, German Films, Greek Film Centre, ICAA (Spain), Norwegian Film Institute, Polish Film Institute, SEE NL, Unifrance.
***See full list of supported films at the Marché du Film***
FSS has been in place since 2004, backing promotion and marketing campaigns of European world sales companies with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA, the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, German Films and ICAA (Spain).
