German Film Business Eyes Funding Revamp Warily: ‘Time Is Running Out’

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Match Factory has finalized global sales for the Cannes competition title “The Substance,” directed by Coralie Fargeat and starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid. The Match Factory has sold to Italy (I Wonder Pictures), Spain (Elastica Films), Scandinavia (Nonstop Entertainment), South Korea (Challan), Hong Kong (Golden Scene Company), CIS (VLG.FILM LTD.), Ukraine and Baltics (Adastra Cinema), Taiwan (Catchplay), Australia and New Zealand (Madman Entertainment), Poland (Monolith), Greece (Feelgood Entertainment), the former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Bulgaria (Beta Film) and Romania (Independenta Film 97).

The Match Factory has finalized a raft of international deals for Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes Palme d’Or contender The Substance, following its buzzy premiere over the weekend in the presence of co-stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid.

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s regular strand that shines a light on breakout series and films that are shaking up the international market. In a globalized industry, a hit show can come from anywhere and local success stories can become international sensations.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch said she learned about the “power of cinema to carry messages, liberate speech and accomplish a duty of remembrance” from her parents, who are Holocaust survivors. Speaking at the Kering Women in Motion Talks at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, the Munich-born Knobloch said her parents took her to the movie theater several times a week.

Manchester United attacker Marcus Rashford has been left out of England's provisional squad for the European Championship in Germany this summer.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who won Cannes Film Festival‘s Palme d’Or for “The Square” and “Triangle of Sadness,” was among the guests at the German Films and Medienboard Reception on May 18 in the garden of the Mondrian Hotel in Cannes. Östlund, who is in the Riviera resort to promote his latest production, “The Entertainment System Is Down,” was accompanied by Philippe Bober of Coproduction Office, one of the film’s producers, and Erik Hemmendorf of Plattform Produktion, Östlund’s Swedish producer. (They are pictured above.) German Films, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, was represented at the event by managing director Simone Baumann, and Medienboard, which is a film fund for the Berlin-Brandenburg region, was represented by its CEO Kirsten Niehuus.

Marta Balaga German Films celebrated its 70th anniversary at Cannes on Sunday, with its guests looking back but also looking forward. “It has gotten much better,” Managing Director Simone Baumann told Variety at the event. “We’ve had Oscar-winning ‘All Quiet on the Western Front,’ Oscar-nominated ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ [for best international feature], films by Wim Wenders and with Sandra Hüller! Sure, Wim showed a Japanese movie and Sandra a French one [‘Perfect Days’ and ‘Anatomy of a Fall’], but it doesn’t matter: It’s more ‘mixed’ these days and I am proud of it, to be honest.” At Cannes, 11 German productions and co-productions have been selected this year, including Match Factory’s main competition offerings “Motel Destino” by Karim Aïnouz – who also attended the bash – and Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour.” Run Way Pictures is behind Mohammad Rasoulof’s anticipated “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.” As festivals get “more competitive,” underlines Baumann, international collabs are here to stay.

EXCLUSIVE: One of the market’s biggest-budget projects, the Will Smith action-crime thriller Sugar Bandits, has sealed multi-million dollar deals across the world for AGC ahead of a planned September start date.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed the first international sales for Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” ahead of its world premiere on Friday in the Competition section of the Cannes Film Festival. The film has been acquired in Italy by BiM Distribuzione and Lucky Red, Benelux by September Film Distribution, Spain by Bteam Pictures, Greece by Ama Films, Hungary by Cirko Film, Norway by Selmer Media, Portugal by Leopardo Filmes, Taiwan by Hooray Films and Turkey by Bir Film.

EXCLUSIVE: Studiocanal has been rolling out sales on the first instalment of Germany-language film trilogy Woodwalkers in Cannes.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Writer, director and actress Toni Kalem (“The Sopranos“) is adapting Lore Segal’s internationally acclaimed 1964 semi-autobiographical novel “Other People’s Houses,” about a Jewish child refugee who finds asylum in Britain via the Kindertransport rescue effort. The story follows a 10-year-old Jewish girl from Vienna who is sent to England as part of the 1938 children’s transport that followed Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria. She spends the next several years living in wildly disparate households, from wealthy families to modest working-class folks, an experience that presents her with stark impressions of England’s class system.

King Charles, Queen Camilla and Prince William will attend ceremonies in France to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. They will honour the brave soldiers who put their lives on the front line.

Jamie Lang Spanish sales, distribution, and production company Filmax has picked up international rights to the upcoming kids and family animated feature “The Light of Aisha” and is sharing the project with buyers at this year’s Marché du Film. The CG-animated film tells the story of Aisha, a young girl living in XI-century Al-Andalus in the south of modern-day Spain.

Prime Video’s German series Maxton Hall – The World Between Us has been handed a swift recommission after becoming the streamer’s most-watched international show of all time in its first week.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent German actors Elisa Schlott (“Das Boot” TV series), Max Riemelt (“Sleeping Dog”) and Alma Hasun (“Corsage”) are set to star in Italian director Silvio Soldini‘s drama “The Tasters,” which reconstructs the untold true story of the women conscripted to be Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. Shooting is set to start on Friday in Italy’s northern Alto Adige region on the Nazi-era drama, which is being pre-sold at the Cannes Marché du Film by Rome-based Vision Distribution, headed by sales agent Catia Rossi.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Chile’s Quijote Films, behind Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard Fipresci Prize winner “The Settlers,” has tied down a powerful alliance of international partners on “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,” the first feature of 2018 Cannes Cinéfondation top winner Diego Céspedes. An LGBTQ-themed drama, “The Mysterious Gaze” is set in a mining town where a strange illness is said to be transmitted between men who fall in love with each other.

Gerhard Zeiler, president of Warner Bros. Discovery international, said an HBO output deal with Sky overseas will likely not look the same if it’s renewed. Sky has licensed content through the end of 2025 but it comes as no surprise that WBD will look to tweak that as Max expands globally. The streaming service wants a beachhead in the UK, Germany, Italy (and other markets) and needs HBO and Warner Bros. programming.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed first sales and released the first-look image from Oscar-nominated Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland‘s biopic of the Czech novelist Franz Kafka, “Franz.” The project has sold to September Film in Benelux, Filmin in Spain, Vertigo in Hungary, MCF Megacom for the former Yugoslavia and Movies Inspired in Italy. The film was previously acquired for theatrical distribution by Bac Films Distribution in France, X Verleih in Germany and Austria, Bioscop in Czech Republic and TVP in Poland.

EXCLUSIVE: Big Brother seller Banijay Rights has signed a former BBC Worldwide Director as the head of its sales and co-pros in German-speaking territories.

European production and sales studio Vuelta Group has bought German producer Telepool from Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook.