Fort festival, the soft market in Cannes is in the last section

Politics continues to prevail over business festival this year, with few transactions out of the market, but a lot of activist agitation on the red carpet and beyond.

The first weekend of Cannes, traditionally the period when the wars of the auctions begin and the first major purchases are announced, was almost frightening. There was only one big problem – the multi -territory agreement of $ 20 million in Mubi, notably North America, the United Kingdom, Latin America and other countries – for Jennifer Lawrence Robert Pattinson by Lynne Ramsay Die, my love. It was a major affair for a finished film, but also launched in relief the lack of major presale in Cannes so far, despite a market with hot packages.

The prudent and expected approach to buyers – already in evidence in Sundance and Berlin – continues in an increasing uncertainty on funding and distribution models and, let us admit, on the future of cinema itself.

Donald Trump’s plan to impose prices on films “made abroad”, launched just in front of Cannes, died as a bomb under the already fragile foundations of independent industry. The amount of damage that has been caused will only be possible to assess after the market when dust has settled.

“The idea of ​​prices is frightening people, especially financiers,” said an former independent producer. “Financiers are already a nervous group, and everything that gives them a reason to doubt the viability of the internal market, the value of an American presale, is the poison.”

Most sales leaders do not expect Trump’s declaration to negatively affect agreements – there are not yet any prices, and it is not clear if there will never be – but the news has killed positive vibrations that the sellers had entered Cannes. Not that things are sunny on the sales front. On the domestic side, the Sundance Film Festival had part of its slowest realization in recent memory. The neon agreement for the thriller TogetherNetflix is ​​for probable rewards Train dreams and A24 for Eva Victor Sorry, baby (also screening in Cannes) were the stars of a market that is also demoralizing. During the months that followed the Park City Fest, smaller operations like Magnolia, Briarcliff, Greenwich and Mubi picked up a best revised handful of the party, leaving the majority in the limbo.

Berlin also started slowly – most of the offers reported during the EFM were smaller household microphones of international characteristics of the art house, with Sony Pictures classics taking the mystery of the murder of the French language of Rebecca Zlotowski Privacy Featuring Jodie Foster (a premiere of Cannes), Mubi stops North American rights on the gay romance of Oliver Hermanus The history of sound (A Cannes competition title), and IFC Films and Shudder jointly acquire the Shark and Serial Killer Thriller by Sean Byrne Dangerous animalswhich was also projected to the march.

But a war of pre-cours auction which started in Berlin on the Rom-Com led by Lena Dunham Good sexReady to play Natalie Portman, closed its doors in the weeks that followed the market, with Netflix emerging victorious, concluding a global agreement with CAA media finance and the film would have been at the price of the $ 55 million.

It may be with the market. Several festival titles, always invented in the United States, arouse interest, and if the offers are not signed on the Croisette, many will probably close by summer. Sean Baker, who triumphed here last year with Anora, winning the Palme d’Or on the way to the glory of the price season and a victory for the best image of the Oscars, arouses the interest of Shih-Christ Tsou’s Left -handedThe feature film Baker co-written and published, which screened Criticisms of Cannes. The drama follows a single mother and her two daughters who return to Taipei after several years of life in the countryside to open a stand on a buzzing night market. The pact manages sales.

Guardianthe beginnings of director of Babygirl And Sadness triangle Star Harris Dickinson, who had his Arc at the UN with a certain respect, also has several buyers who turn. Frank Dillane plays a self -destructive drug addict in the dark drama, which Charades sells worldwide. THRThe criticism said that the film gives Dickinson “a convincing affirmation for the multihyphenate status”. The jury is still on the claim of Kristen Stewart as such. The highly anticipated turn of the twilight star behind the camera, Water chronologyLocating in the UN certain respects to mixed criticism and a mute response of the first crowd. The film, adapted from the famous memory of 2011 of the same name of Lidia Yuknavitch, features Imogen Pots, Thora Birch, the son of Nick Cave Earl Cave and the bassist of the Sonique Kim Gordon.

Stewart admitted that she was rushing to finish the film for Cannes, so she could return following assembly before a final cup arises. Whatever the critical response – and many seem to love the film – the global base of Stewart fans means that the title will sell (WME independent manages North American sales, the films of the international diamond). It is only a question of knowing when and for how much.

On the side of the foreign language, óliver lax Syrup is heating up, with an outfit, the factory match match Fielding several offers. In the fourth feature film by the director of Spanish of French origin, his first Cannes contest, a father and a son join a group of itinerant ravers in the deserts of Morocco. The Hollywood ReporterThe journal called him a “techno infused meditation on death and sorrow”. Turned entirely on Super 16 mm, Syrup Maybe too artistic for specialized studio labels, but expect independent buyers to intensify.

AMRUM of Fatih Akin, an excluding title, sold well in front of Cannes, with a beta cinema concluding several international agreements, notably for France, Spain, Japan and Brazil. Beta says that it is in negotiations with several national buyers for the tale of passing at the age of the period, which takes place on a picturesque German island and swept by the wind in the last days of the Second World War. Diane Kruger, who teams up with Akin last time In the fade (2017), which earned her the best honor of the actress in Cannes, has a support role in Amrum.

Aside from business, the festival obtains high notes of criticism, the programming of the competition already throwing several contenders for Palme d’Or. Midway, Sirât is a strong competitor for the first prize, as it is The noise of the fallThe second feature by the German director Mascha Schilinski (Dark blue girl), which represents four generations of young women living in the same farm in northeast Germany. In a rave, THR called the drama an “obsessive meditation on femininity and rural conflicts which announces the arrival of a new daring talent”. But the slow rhythm of the film and the long operating duration – it takes place at 2 hours 29 minutes – had stifling gags.

Ari Aster EddingtonWithout doubt the most publicized film entering Cannes, divided the public. Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Micheal Ward and Luke Grimes play in the drama, which takes place in a small town in New Mexico in May 2020 and represents a mayor campaign between the Sheriff Covide-Setics Joe Cross (Phoenix) and the Garcia incumbent Covide In Nursery (Pascal). As the campaign intensifies, the pandemonium of the pandemic era does it, with media coverage and publications on social networks which suffocate the flames of the right plot, the increase in the racial account and protests against police brutality. The film attracted raves and pans to an equal measure. THR was definitely in the Pan camp. “A neo-Western, which confuses absurdism with inconsistency”, was our verdict (see page 34).

But criticisms have never been great to predict which film the Cannes jury will go. In a week, the nine members of the jury under the presidency Juliette Binoche could surprise us all.