EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Outplay Films has boarded sales for Swedish director Ester Bergsmark’s upcoming film A Sweetness From Nowhere, now in post production and for Skiff from Belgian autuer Cecilia Verheyden.
Bergsmark’s Sweetness From Nowhere is described as “a sensorial, dreamy, grotesque, and tender journey through hormones, jellyfish, and touch” reflecting on the director’s experience of a transphobic hate crime.
Folkets Bio is already on board to handle the Swedish cinema release, with Stærfilm releasing in cinemas in Norway.
The film was included in Goteborg Nordic Film Market’s works in progress presentations in January.
Stockholm-based Bergsmark works across visual arts and film. Her film credits include She Male Snails (2012) and Rotterdam Tiger winner Something must break (2014).
The film is produced by Anna-Maria Kantarius for Sweden’s Garagefilm, in co-production with Stærfilm, Film Stockholm, Film i väst, SVT and Arktisk Film Norge Invest. Backers include the Swedish Film Institute, the Norwegian Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond and Fritt Ord.
Bergsmark said: “The film begins with a hate crime I experienced—but instead of centering the violence, it traces the strange resonances that followed. Desire, disorientation, and transformation unfold together: my longing for hormones, the slow reshaping of my body, the sense of being outside the human—and the unexpected, erotic pull I felt toward jellyfish and estrogen.” It also is inspired by animals’ ways of surviving.
‘Skiff’
Meanwhile Skiff is about a teenager who falls for her older brother’s girlfriend. It is produced by Elisa Heene at Mirage and has very strong co-producers in the Dardennes’ Les Films du Fleuve and Dutch indie powerhouse, Lemming Film. The project has come through the Torino Script Lab and the Berlinale Coproduction market. Outplay will also release the film in France.
“Representing a coming-of-age film, produced and directed by women, with a central focus on women in sports, is something we couldn’t be prouder of,” said Diego Carazo-Migerel Fougères, head of international sales and acquisitions at Outplay. ”Celia’s vision is strong and relevant, while also highlighting how growing up queer and facing bullying remains a societal issue we sadly still need to bring attention to.”
Additional reporting by Geoffrey Macnab
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