Berlin 2013: XYZ Films Launches International Sales Arm

BERLIN -- Los Angeles-based production and sales outfit XYZ Films is launching an international sales division that will unveil the first titles on its slate at the Cannes Marche du Film in May.

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XYZ International will handle sales on third-party titles projects consistent with the company's commitment to filmmaker-driven, elevated genre films with broad commercial appeal, as well as on many of XYZ’s in-house production titles. The company will also continue to specialize in handling North American sales for an eclectic array of films from around the world.

Launched in 2009 by Nate Bolotin, Nick Spicer and Aram Tertzakian, XYZ Films' slate includes The Raid: Redemption, which Sony Pictures Classics released earlier this year. Todd Brown joined XYZ as partner in 2009.

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“We’re very excited to start the next chapter of XYZ Films,” said Bolotin, who will oversee sales for XYZ International. “We’re now equipped to enable filmmakers from start to finish: inception to worldwide distribution.”

XYZ and PT Merantau Films are currently in production on The Raid 2, which reunites writer-director Gareth Huw Evans with actor Iko Uwais, who will be reprising his starring role. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) has acquired rights to the sequel in several territories, while Sony Classics will once again release the film theatrically in the U.S.
 
XYZ and Merantau are also in post-production on Killers, co-directed by Timo Tjahjanto and Kimo Stamboel, with Evans and Rangga Maya Barack-Evans executive producing.  Evans and Tjahjanto recently collaborated on Safe Haven. 

On the of the Berlin Film Festival, XYZ premiered Dutch filmmaker Richard Raaphorst’s Frankenstein Army at Rotterdam and Calvin Lee Reeder’s The Rambler at Sundance.

Additional, XYZ is acting as executive producers on the upcoming supernatural thriller Aguas Rojas. Participant Media is financing the film, which is a co-production between Colombia’s Dynamo and Spain’s Apaches.