EXCLUSIVE: Cologne-based distributor-producer Rapid Eye Movies (REM) is expanding its operations with the launching of an in-house world sales arm under the banner of Rapid Eye Movies International Distribution.
The initial line-up includes the maverick Filipino filmmaker Khavn’s latest project Rizal’s Makamisa: Phantasm of Revenge, a hand-coloured 35mm silent film about his country’s fragmented colonial history at the turn of the 20th century, and 93-year-old German director Alexander Kluge’s latest two films made entirely using AI, Cosmic Miniatures and Primitive Diversity, which premiered in Rotterdam in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
In addition, the new venture will be handling a number of the Japanese so-called pink films such as Masayuki Suo’s debut Abnormal Family and Atsushi Yamatoya’s Inflatable Sex Dolls of the Wasteland as well as in-house restorations by REM’s own digitisation lab. The latter include German cult titles such as Gábor Altojay’s sci-fi dramedy Pankow ‘95, Christopher Roth’s Baader, and Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel’s documentary Step Across The Border.
Management of the sales arm will be handled from Berlin by Nuno Pimentel.
Pimentel has been responsible for the marketing of REM’s theatrical distribution line-up since joining the company in spring 2022 and had previously participated in the Next Wave training programme run by Berlin’s German Film & Television Academy for film professionals on marketing, audience engagement, sales, distribution and exhibition.
REM founder Stephan Holl said the company hopes “to create a space and offer a voice for films that are hard to describe in words, difficult to classify, and hard to market, but represent very original and artistic filmmakers.
“We believe that the biggest surprises artistically, as well as sometimes commercially, happen on the fringes.”
Noting REM’s experience of almost 30 years in the business of releasing films, he said: “We understand the distribution of challenging films and know that it’s possible to create a certain success when passion for films multiplies within a network of passionate people and distributors.”
Launched in 1996 with Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost In The Shell as its first release, REM has played a key role as a distributor in the breakthrough of Asian directors such as Takeshi Kitano, Park Chan-wook and Kim Ki-duk in Germany as well bringing popular Indian cinema to Europe.
Its recent releases in German cinemas have included Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke’s Caught By The Tides and Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s drama All We Imagine As Light.
Holl pointed out that the sales arm will also benefit from the relationships REM has built up over the years with like-minded international distributors and film festivals through “an alliance of taste with people who recognised and appreciated our taste in films.”
Some of the titles in the current sales line-up such as Khavn’s Alipato were produced or co-produced by REM, but Holl will now also be open to picking up new third-party productions to supplement the sales catalogue.
A start to this new strategy could now be made next week when Holl travels to Switzerland for the Locarno Film Festival where in the past he has picked up titles such as Sean Baker’s Starlet and Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Chevalier for his theatrical distribution arm.
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