Cannes 2024 titles such as Anora, The Substance and Flow gave the independent and specialty marketplace a big boost. But as buyers and sellers head to the Croisette, the challenging North American distribution landscape — and Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs — remain significant concerns.
On the eve of Cannes, US attendees and the industry at large were doing their level best to focus on the work ahead and not heart-stopping policy declarations from the White House. In the space of one week, US president Donald Trump threatened 100% tariffs on non-US films, only to walk that back in favour of consulting Hollywood.
Trump has already done that in a way and spoken to Jon Voight, one of his three so-called “Hollywood ambassadors” (alongside Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone). Voight has proposed a raft of measures to support a US production sector that over the years has lost its competitive advantage to international incentive programmes. Separate efforts are underway to champion a national US tax credit and bolster California’s incentive programme.
Experts have cast doubt on Trump’s legal authority to impose tariffs, and in any case, there is a World Trade Organization moratorium on taxing digital goods. The Hollywood studios and streamers have not spoken publicly about the matter, but it is clear from US producers and industry professionals who have spoken to Screen in the past week that they would be in favour of shooting in the US for productions that do not call for international locations or storylines.
But there is no denying the very mention of tariffs has set the cat among the pigeons.
Conversations in Cannes will focus on how to transact in a way that does not theoretically incur taxes should they be introduced in the near future. The general consensus is that US buyers, already a cautious sector, would be the most impacted when acquiring international films.
With all that said, the hope is that cooler heads will prevail. And the independent sector knows all about hope as it has navigated through five years of Covid, Hollywood strikes, the recent Los Angeles wildfires, and economic uncertainty since the White House incumbent took office.
The anticipated barrage of sales packages has begun and there will be plenty to savour. Whatever life throws at the independent space, its leading lights soak it up and bounce back. This lot only know to move ahead as best they can.
The entrepreneurial mentality informs the enduring optimism cited by sales agents, buyers and producers. The mood is inflated by the recent awards season, when independent film was writ large across the ceremonies as Anora, The Brutalist and Conclave dominated proceedings.
All these films were the product of the independent and specialty marketplace, with companies like FilmNation Entertainment, Neon, Focus Features, A24 and Protagonist Pictures playing vital roles in getting them to the big screen. Janus and Sideshow acquired Latvia’s Oscar-winning animation Flow, a Charades sales title that, like Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or and best picture Oscar winner Anora, was a talking point in Cannes when it premiered in Un Certain Regard.
“Cannes Film Festival is unique and special,” says FilmNation founder and CEO Glen Basner, whose company was the studio, financier and worldwide sales agent on Anora. “For the right film, it can propel it into the awards conversation in a very powerful and unique way. Anora found the benefit of that last year, as have other films in the past.”
Until more is known about the locomotive sales titles on offer, which will include some that were held back after the Los Angeles fires disrupted packaging in the run-up to a steady if unspectacular Berlin, early thoughts have turned to the Cannes festival selection. The US Palme d’Or contenders arrive with domestic distribution in place, such as Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind at Mubi, Ari Aster’s Eddington at A24 and Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme at Focus. Also in Competition, Neon has US rights to Alpha from Julia Ducournau, the director of the 2021 Palme d’Or winner Titane, and Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier.
“There’s not an obvious big-swing English-language title that’s available,” notes Bleecker Street president Kent Sanderson. “I love to see the support for films with US distribution and US films in Cannes, but the side effect is that Cannes’ completed film market and the films in the festival are tilting more international than we’ve seen in the past year or two. But that’s not to say there aren’t opportunities.
“I am excited about our slate,” he adds, with titles such as Rebuilding, Relay and the two Spinal Tap films coming out later this year. At the Cannes market in 2024, Bleecker acquired Guy Nattiv’s upcoming cult drama Harmonia, which Embankment Films represents for international sales. “Next year we have the heaviest pre-buy slate we’ve ever had going into a year, while also having room for some surprises and opportunities.”
Sanderson will be lining up to see Richard Linklater’s French-language Nouvelle Vague and Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident in Competition, and Charlie Polinger’s Un Certain Regard selection The Plague, starring Joel Edgerton, all of which are available for the US at time of writing.
So too are Palme d’Or contenders The Secret Agent from Kleber Mendonca Filho and Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love, which 193 — Patrick Wachsberger’s new joint venture with Legendary Entertainment — has boarded for international sales. There will be others across the selection, offering not just commercial opportunities but awards prospects.
“I’m very optimistic on what’s happening in the independent space,” says IFC Entertainment Group head Scott Shooman, whose Independent Film Company and Shudder have Sean Byrne’s thriller Dangerous Animals in Directors’ Fortnight. “The quality of independents and the voices we’re seeing from a new batch of auteurs is just fantastic.
“Cannes has done an excellent job launching international films like The Zone Of Interest, Anatomy Of A Fall or Drive My Car in the best picture race,” he adds. “There are opportunities to find those gems, as Cannes is the Cadillac of film festivals. We love getting surprised.”
Neon took Anora to five Oscar wins and more than $20m at the North American box office, rising to $60m including international markets. Prior to last year’s festival, ambitious Mubi snapped up worldwide rights to Demi Moore-starrer The Substance by Coralie Fargeat, who won the Cannes screenplay prize and was nominated for the Oscar; it grossed $17m in North America and $77m worldwide.
The majority of Cannes titles will not get close to these numbers. For the more heavyweight commercial opportunities, buyers and sellers are looking to transact on the big packages in the market. This is where the profile of the US acquisitions sector comes to the fore. The number of US buyers has shrunk over the years — Solstice Studios and Open Road Films are two that have departed — and they remain cautious in a challenging North American distribution landscape.
Talent squeeze
Streamers continue to poach leading talent with big paydays, squeezing out independent producers who find themselves priced out of Los Angeles and California, and attracted by incentives elsewhere. Several distributors say they want to see more competitors, while one or two believe there needs to be more financiers, and better pay-1 deals.
“US studio and independent buyers are right now more gun-shy than their international peers, leaving a big disparity in appetite between the two constituents,” notes AGC Studios founder and CEO Stuart Ford, whose company represents international sales on The Plague in the festival. “The buying power and capacity is there internationally but won’t be fully unlocked until there’s more US theatrical buying activity. The positive news is that companies like Vertical in the US are grasping the opportunity and are upping their ambition levels. We need others to follow.”
Vertical acquired US rights to Ron Howard’s Eden earlier this year, after AGC sold out international rights at Cannes 2024 to the survival thriller, which eventually premiered in Toronto. AGC Studios co-financed the film starring Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney, Vanessa Kirby and Daniel Brühl.
Ford and his team are preparing to launch sales on fantasy project I Am Monster, starring Sadie Soverall (Saltburn) and Havana Rose Liu, for Iconoclast, Madants and Mid March Media, with Film4 serving as co-financier. AGC is also selling the completed Naseem Hamed boxing drama Giant, and continues talks that commenced in Berlin on Bill Condon’s Kiss Of The Spider Woman remake and Sundance selection.
Allison Hironaka, head of film and TV at global production company Caviar, which has offices in Los Angeles, Brussels, London, Paris and Amsterdam, is spending a lot of time figuring out how to support the theatrical business. “We’ve been cautiously optimistic about the market in the future and where things are going,” says Hironaka, whose company produced the Zac Efron thriller Famous, which A24 will distribute in the US and Black Bear will continue to sell in Cannes.
“I’m curious to see how the acquisitions market in pre-sales during Cannes contrasts with the finished film acquisition market that we saw in Sundance. It changes your decision-making on whether it’s better to get something in the marketplace and completely pre-sell, versus trying to build things out that still have significant territorial availability on the other side.”
Jessica Lacy, partner and head of Range Select, says talks are ongoing on a previously announced crop that includes Jason Hall’s crime thriller Wild Game with Miles Teller, which Range, UTA Independent Film Group and CAA Media Finance represent for the US and Capstone sells internationally; and Max Barbakow’s comedy Epiphany with Kristen Wiig and Bill Murray, which launched sales at the European Film Market in Berlin and is handled internationally by Rocket Science.
Lacy is juggling packages awaiting that final piece of casting or financing before a chosen international sales agent sends them out to buyers. “We have quite a bit of genre, thriller, some action,” she says. “We’re not looking at a lot of dramas.”
“What we’re hearing and what we’re seeing bear out in the marketplace is the successful films are the ones that are executed at the highest level, and that should be everybody’s focus, rather than saying we need this type of film or this genre over another,” notes FilmNation’s Basner. “While we may not supply every single genre as one company, when you look across the independent community, you’ll see every base covered by many of the companies that are coming to the market and festival.”
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