Cannes 2009: Let the moderation begin!
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The Cannes Film Festival opens today with the Pixar-Disney animated movie ‘Up,’ but the mood along the city’s beachfront boulevard is definitely in the other direction.
‘In my 27 years as a producer, it’s the toughest time in the marketplace,’ says veteran producer Ashok Amritraj, whose Hyde Park Entertainment is in Cannes selling the thriller ‘Tell Tale’ and the James Ivory-directed drama ‘The City of Your Final Destination,’ among other films.
Running concurrent with Cannes’ main festival -- which is where ‘Up’ and several other high-profile movies will debut -- is its much larger and (from a sales perspective) more important film market. More than 4,500 movies are being sold at this year’s market, with about 900 films being screened to American and international distributors.
In what is unlikely to be a trend for the entire festival, some Cannes movies already have found American distribution deals. Bob Berney, the former head of distributor Picturehouse Entertainment, said he had acquired domestic rights to director Jane Campion’s period romance ‘Bright Star.’ And IFC Films announced it has locked up ‘Tales from the Golden Age’ from Cristian Mungiu, the Romanian director of ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.’
--John Horn
