Sigh, Cannes 2009. So many films so little time. Another film we came this — close to seeing was a picture called, “Dogtooth,” that sounded incredibly interesting. It’s basically about three siblings completely sheltered and cut-off from the outside world and forced to play games according to rules created by their overprotective parents. It’s by Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and it won the top Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes. Corneliu Porumboiu’s “Police, Adjective” won the jury prize and Bahman Ghobadi’s docu-fiction portrait of the underground music scene in Iran, “No One Knows About The Persian Cats” took a special prize. 28-year-old Mia Hansen Love’s “Father Of My Children” was awarded a second special prize. Them Cannes people love their awards apparently. More films to keep an eye on. ‘Persian Cats’ has already been sold in Spain. [Screen Daily/SD]
Golem distributors in Spain have picked up Spanish rights to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Un Certain Regard title “Air Doll” and Catherine Corsini’s drama “Partir” (“Leaving”). Kore-eda’s film received mixed reception at Cannes (we never saw it unfortunately, Hoberman calls it, “occasionally sublime“), however we loved his last film, the quiet family drama, “Still Walking,” which still hasn’t been released in the U.S. (later this year hopefully?), so we’re still curious. Hopefully this means, both films are coming to North American eventually. [ScreenDaily]
In the Hollywood Reporter piece this morning about Michel Gondry’s Cannes-premiering doc being sold, the trade says a number of more picture deals are imminent and finalized deals should be hitting in the coming weeks, including Terry Gilliam’s, “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.”