MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14 2011


TODAY www.ScreenDaily.com


Wide launches global network


BY ANDREAS WISEMAN French sales outfi t Wide Manage- ment is launching Eye On Films (EoF), a global network of distrib- utors and festivals dedicated to cir- culating and showcasing fi lms by fi rst-time directors. EoF consists of 16 distributors


and 15 festivals — comprising the EoF board — who will select 12 first features (six European, six non-European) by the end of the year, at least two of which they will be obliged to distribute or screen. The festival and distributor part-


ners will apply for subsidies from Wide, which received $271,000 (¤200,000) backing from MEDIA Mundus. Distributors include US-based


First Run Features, Italy’s Nomad and Australia’s Curious Films; fes- tival partners include Tallinn Black Nights, Paris Cinema, Taormina, Edinburgh and Seattle. » CONTINUED ON PAGE 8


BERLIN HOT DEALS


Magnolia Pictures has swooped on North American rights to Lars von Trier’s Melancholia in a seven- figure deal with TrustNordisk. Magnolia SVP Tom Quinn and VP of acquisitions Dori Begley brokered the deal with executive producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen and Susan Wendt of TrustNordisk.


Danish sales company Copenhagen Bombay Sales has sold The Great Bear to Bac Films for France. The deal was done by head of sales Malene Iversen and Roch Lener of Bac Films. Esben Toft Jacobsen’s debut feature is screening in Generation Kplus. “Bac Film has been following the project since it was financed three years ago, and we are happy they will be distributing the film in France,” said Iversen.


Village Roadshow has taken Arclight Films’ thriller The Courier for Australia, following deals with eOne for the UK and Constantin in Germany. Arclight has also sold Wolf Creek 2 to eOne for the UK, Canada and Scandinavia.


Editorial (49) 30 2589 4703


AT THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL Advertising (44) 7595 646 541


W.E. heats up for IM Global


BY JEREMY KAY Stuart Ford’s IM Global was poised last night to close a UK deal with Optimum on Madonna’s dual timeline drama W.E. Earlier in the day, the Los Ange-


les-based company licensed rights to Village Roadshow in Australia after Ford and president of inter- national sales and distribution Jonathan Deckter worked through the night fi elding offers. Madonna gave a 35-minute


Madonna here in Berlin on Saturday


buyers’ presentation at the 250- seat CineStar 5 on Saturday night and showed several scenes of the tale of parallel love affairs —


between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and a contemporary romance. Multiple offers are in for France,


Germany, Italy, Spain, Latin Amer- ica and Scandinavia and are expected to close imminently. Abbie Cornish, James D’Arcy,


Andrea Riseborough and Richard Coyle star. “We had offers literally as peo-


ple were leaving so we had a very late night,” Ford said.


Helena Bonham Carter at last night’s BAFTAs


BAFTA GLORY See ScreenDaily.com for the full list of winners


DIARY Fiennes art Coriolanus director says he feels “adrenalised” » PAGE 10


REVIEWS Dancing queen Wim Wenders’ Pina brings 3D into the arthouse » PAGE 18


SCREENINGS » START PAGE 25


Vajna promises swift action on Hungarian film crisis


BY GEOFFREY MACNAB Newly appointed Hungarian fi lm commissioner Andy Vajna says Hungary will not duck its co-pro- duction obligations despite the cur- rent crisis in the local fi lm industry. Hungarian-born Hollywood


producer Vajna told the audience at the Hungarian Institute in Ber- lin: “One of my main purposes in coming here was to re-assure those co-producers throughout Europe that we’re taking this thing very seriously,” Vajna said. “We’re going to be analysing all the promises that have been made over the next


Kurt Krieger Soda hears Doherty’s Confession


Soda Pictures is on board for UK rights to Confession Of A Child Of The Century, which marks musician Pete Doherty’s acting debut. Ad Vitam has taken French rights. Producers are France’s Les Films


du Veyrier, Germany’s Integral Film and the UK’s Warp Films Europe. As previously reported, Wild Bunch is handling international sales. Sylvie Verheyde’s adaptation of Alfred de Musset’s classic novel


Wim Wenders at a photocall ahead of Pina’s world premiere (see review, p18) Hallström to shoot The Danish Girl in July


BY GUNNAR REHLIN Lasse Hallström is gearing up for production on Nicole Kidman- starrer The Danish Girl, which is now set to co-star Rachel Weisz. The $15m production will shoot in Germany, starting in July. There


will also be exterior shooting in Copenhagen. Gail Mutrux is producing with


Germany’s Senator Film putting up the bulk of the fi nancing. The story is about Lili Elbe, the first person to undergo gender


reassignment surgery. Kidman will play the lead, with Weisz as her wife. Previously, both Charlize Theron and Gwyneth Paltrow had been circling that role. “The pre-production is basically starting. I’ll have meetings with


the author [David Ebershoff] and we are doing make-up tests,” Hall- ström said in Berlin. “Kidman looks great as a man. This guy looked very good; he was not the lumberjack type.” After The Danish Girl, Hallström


will shoot thriller The Hypnotist in Stockholm starting in January 2012.


also stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lily Cole and August Diehl. Doherty plays controversial 19th


century poet Alfred de Musset and Gainsbourg plays his lover, author George Sand. The film, produced by Bruno


Berthemy, is shooting through mid- March across Europe. Wild Bunch is showing first


footage here at the EFM. Wendy Mitchell


two weeks to see what ones we can fulfil — and we’re going to act quickly, even on the ones we know we can’t.” The government acknowledged


yesterday that international co-pro- duction remains “a high priority”. Vajna has set a deadline of two


to three months to come up with a proposal for a new public Hungar- ian fi lm organisation. “I am hoping in the next 60 days I can put a pro- posal in front of the government that will be approved and I can get the industry back on its feet.” “All these people here — the


Andy Vajna


producers and directors — are impatient. They want to go to work,” Vajna told his audience. The government issued a state-


ment yesterday which revealed a long-term strategy was now in place “that will serve the cause of


the Hungarian fi lm industry more effectively, economically and pro- fessionally”. The government said a “new long-term concept… will be worked out shortly”. The Hungarian industry has all


but ground to a halt in recent months, and Hungarian Film Week has been cancelled. The government statement said


the Hungarian Motion Picture Fund was “on the verge of col- lapse” after “irresponsible han- dling”. “The system is bankrupt,” Vajna declared. “We need to fi gure out how to solve it.”


DAY 5


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