European sellers debate the market for arthouse movies as they head to Cannes | Features – Armessa Movie News

European arthouse films have long formed the bedrock of the Cannes Film Festival, and this year the Official Selection is once again packed with films from the European old guard including Ken Loach, Wim Wenders, Aki Kaurismaki and Marco Bellochio through to newcomers such as Ramata-Toulaye Sy and Molly Manning Walker.

Many sellers of European films say the market for arthouse films is still recovering from the pandemic and remains challenging but that business is, slowly but surely, getting better. 

That’s certainly the view of Thania Dimitrakopoulou, head of sales and acquisitions at Cologne-based The Match Factory, which has a record four film in Competition. “Everyone seems to be looking forward to Cannes,” she says.

Cinema attendance might not have yet reached pre-pandemic highs in any territory but European sellers note theatrical box office is continuing to improve. “People going to the cinema has become a thing again and a good arthouse movie, whether it’s Triangle Of Sadness or Godland, can achieve strong box office across the world,” says Jan Naszewski of Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales, which reps Godland. “There is definitely much less gloom than there used to be.”

Price sensitive

The year got off to a relatively promising start at Berlin’s European Film Market, which was characterised by decent levels of deal-making. However, buyers were highly sensitive to prices being asked for arthouse films by sales agents and there were few big deals actually agreed at the market. Instead, buyers took their time, weighing up very carefully whether to acquire. It took three months for a North American deal to be sealed for Spanish writer-director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s Berlinale Silver Bear winner 20,000 Species Of Bees with Film Movement.

Many think deal making will continue in a similar vein at Cannes with buyers keen to acquire but highly price sensitive and prepared to take a wait -and- see approach. “Immediate deal-making has slowed down and things are prolonged a little more,” confirms Beta Films’ EVP acquisitions, sales and marketing Thorsten Ritter. He wonders, however, if the more glitzy Cannes might be more conducive to speedier deal-making than the more business-minded Berlin.

Certainly, buyers will be keeping their eye out for arthouse gems such as Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, which debuted in Critics Week last year and was quickly snapped up by A24 at the festival. The Match Factory, meanwhile, closed deals in around 100 territories for Lukas Dhont’s Cannes Grand Prix winner Close last year.

“Both of these directors [Wells and Dhont] are young voices, and they made films that are emotional enough for audiences to embrace and to connect with,” says Dimitrakopoulou.

Berlin-based Films Boutique CEO Jean-Christophe Simon is predicting a “full house” in Cannes, with buyers from the US and Asia back in force this year. He expects buyers to be very active, certainly based on the number of meetings already in the diary. But he thinks that they will be focused on slightly different kinds of arthouse films than in the past.

Changing tastes

Simon reckons audience tastes have changed since the pandemic. “People are willing to dream again to a certain extent and want to watch films where there is a certain level of entertainment.”

Buyers, he says, are concentrated on particular kinds of titles. “There’s a big fight for some titles, but it is tougher for others.”

Celine Song’s romantic drama Past Lives, for example, was the subject of multiple bidding wars following its launch at Sundance and Berlin this year.

Simon reckons the market is harder for “traditional political or social urban dramas.” Instead, he says that buyers are looking for films with a “strong filmmaker or filmmaking vision, or something that is a little outstanding in the way it is made, or a project that is a bit more conventional in terms of storytelling and where there is a bit more action.”

Ritter adds “really demanding types of films that ask you as a viewer to rather put in work or to take it on as an intellectual challenge” are becoming very difficult to sell.

Samuel Blanc, co-head of sales at Paris-based The Party Film Sales says that “everyone is fighting for the same films, but the market is definitely better than last year, and we really feel it.”

He says the market is full of many high-quality projects – and maybe too many. “I don’t feel there are less projects than before the pandemic – au contraire, there are more and more films – and some don’t have a home at market.”

Others question whether some of the older male arthouse names in Official Selection will be as in demand as they once used to be, noting a possible disconnect between what plays in Competition and what distributors wants to buy. One exec points out the Cannes jury headed by Ruben Ostlund this year is relatively young with names such as Julia Ducournau, Rungano Nyoni and Brie Larson. “I really love the jury this year, it’s got lots of interesting filmmakers and actors. And they are going to be watching lots of films from old dudes. I wonder what kind of conversation they will be having about those films.”

Another says that Director’s Fortnight this year is “super arty” and fears that some of the films may be difficult to sell. “There is a space for discovery in these festivals,” says one sales exec. “As much as I love films and we are in it to promote filmmakers, we have to cover our costs and to back projects that are artistically interesting and have an audience.”

Risk averse

Charlotte Boucon head of global sales at France’s Orange Studio says that buyers are, in general, taking less risk. “First features are more complicated. It’s a prudent market. ‘Middle’ films are more challenging.” Instead, she says that, for French titles, big packages with well-known talent attached are attached are selling well. “Buyers are looking for ‘safe bait.’”

Boucon notes French films internationally are considered to be auteur films even if they are quite commercial. “Today, such ‘auteur’ cinema is flourishing only with known signatures from established directors,” she says.

Newen’s SVP of international sales Alice Damiani believes films are “selling for a bit less” and stresses the importance of being inventive in dealmaking. “We can’t sell at exactly the same price as before, but we can sell to distributors for theatrical releases and also to platforms or TV channels in addition to directly.”

For example, Newen sold French box office hit Alibi.com 2 to ZDF directly in Germany when it realised the film would struggle to find a theatrical release in the territory.

“We try to vary our business model,” says Damiani. “The traditional model was to sell all rights to one client. Now, we can sell different rights to different companies – it’s more work for us, but different, qualitative work.”

The major streamers, however, are also being more cautious about acquisitions – not only because of financial pressures but also because they are seen as less active buyers of European arthouse fare. 

Many of the big streamers are now focused on working directly with European producers to make their own originals out of Europe – which tend to be mainstream appeal films in genres such as action, thrillers and romantic comedy – rather than splashing out on festival buys. Instead, it’s likely that streamers will be more interested in some of the big starry packages being sold at the market. “In a way, they have become like a TV station,” says New Europe’s Naszewski.

Meanwhile, sellers are hoping that many of the territories that have taken a long time to stage box office recoveries from the pandemic will be more active at Cannes this year. Whether or not the Asian market will return en force, “will be the big question of Cannes this year,” says Orange Studio’s Boucon.

Overall, it’s worth noting the gentle optimism many sellers feel going into Cannes this year. “We think that people are interested in film again,” says Films Boutique’s Simon. “The question is no longer about whether companies will survive. They are looking for films – and trying to find the right film for the correct audience.”