A-Film picks up slew of titles for Benelux at EFM

Following Berlin’s European Film Market, the company announced it has picked up new Pedro Almodovar’s La Piel(from FilmNation), Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna (from Bankside), Daniel Auteil’s Marcel Pagnol adaptation La Fille du puisatier(from Pathe), Nadine Labaki’s Where Do We Go Now (from Pathe), Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut Quartet(from WestEnd), Justin Chadwick’s The First Grader (from Goldcrest), Nigel Cole’s Rafta, Rafta (from StudioCanal) and Amir Chamdin’s Cornelis (from Svensk). 

A-Film has an ongoing output deal with Relativity Media through which it has access to studio-size projects (for example, The Fighter, Season Of The Witch, The Immortals and Haywire.) It is also continuing to release local acquisitions as it strives to maintain a balance between mainstream films, art-house pictures and local fare. 

The company has reduced the number of movies it releases to around 25-30 films a year (down from 60). There had been a belief in certain quarters that A-Film was stepping away from crossover arthouse movies. However, as Erik Engelen, Acquisitions Director points out, this is not the case at all. Its new pick-ups underline its commitment to this sector of the market. “We have never shied away from these movies,” Engelen told Screen. “The only difference with a couple of years ago is with the lower end of the art house titles. We’re not doing that any more. The entire Berlin Festival line-up would not be of interest to us. There are great movies there but the gap between that kind of cinema and what audiences are prepared to pay to see is growing more and more.”