Professional Iranian actors Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabandeh, Nader Shahsavari, Fereshteh Sadre-Orafaee and Sarina Farhadi star in Farhadi’s ‘A Hero’.
The world sales of ‘A Hero’ began by Paris-based Memento Films International in February during the European Film Market in Berlin.
Memento Films International, the French production and sales outfit that has collaborated with Farhadi on three of his films (‘The Salesman,’ ‘A Separation,’ and ‘Everybody Knows’), shopped the project to buyers in Berlin, circulating an English-language version of Farhadi’s original Farsi script.
Farhadi screened all his works, including ‘The Past,’ ‘The Salesman’ and ‘Everybody Knows’ at the Cannes Film Festival.
According to screendaily.com, Cineart films include six Competition films: Nabil Avouch’s ‘Casablanca Beats,’ Farhadi’s ‘A Hero’, Joachim Lafosse’s ‘The Restless, Jacques Audiard’s ‘Les Olympades,’ Joachim Trier’s ‘The Worst Person In The World’ and Nanni Moretti’s ‘Three Floors’.
Cineart has also secured titles in Un Certain Regard (Teodora Ana Mihai’s ‘La Civil’); Cannes Premiere (Mamoru Hosoda’s ‘Belle,’ Eva Husson’s ‘Mothering Sunday’ and Arnaud Desplechin’s ‘Tromperie’) as well as Valérie Lemercier’s ‘Aline The Voice Of Love,’ Ari Folman’s ‘Where Is Anne Frank?’ and climate documentaries ‘Animal’ by Cyril Dion and ‘Bigger Than Us’ by Flore Vasseur.
The company has also picked Emmanuel Carrere’s Directors’ Fornight title ‘Between Two Worlds’ and Critics’ Week films, ‘Rien A Foutre’ from Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre and ‘Une Jeune Fille Qui Va Bien’ by Sandrine Kiberlain.
“We always have quite a few [Cannes titles] but this year there were more,” explained Marc Smit, Cineart’s co-CEO alongside Stephan De Potter.
“We pre-buy a lot and we tend also to focus on these big auteurs. That usually is what Cannes is all about,” Smit noted.
He expressed confidence that director-driven art house titles will still find cinema audiences post-pandemic. “But we also have very good VoD deals in place, from premium VoD to transactional and subscription VoD and also pay TV and free TV. The theatrical release is still at the heart of what we do but a large percentage of our business comes from what happens after the theatrical release.”
Source: Iran Daily