Yves Saint Laurent Biopic Sells Across Europe

Director Jalil Lespert’s biopic of famed French designer Yves Saint Laurent has proven to be a fashionable buy at the European Film Market, with rights selling for several territories so far: to Square one in Germany and Austria, AQS in Czech Republic, Pathe in Switzerland and Mediamax in Turkey.  SND also reached a deal with EIM (Entertainment in Motion) for global airline distribution.

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The latest sales are in addition to previous deals for Entertainment One in the UK, Canada and Australia, AB Svenks in Scandinavia, Top Film Distribution in Russia, Lusomundo in Portugal, ITI Cinema in Poland and Italia Films in the Middle East earlier in the week.

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The Wy Productions film stars Pierre Niney as Saint Laurent and Guillaume Gallienne as his longtime business and personal partner Pierre Berge, and was co-written by Lespert and Marie Pierre Huster.  The film explores the designer’s personal life and professional rivalry with designer Karl Lagerfeld and will be shot in part at the designer’s atelier in Paris.

Lespert made the film with the blessing of Berge. “I have often been asked to make a fiction film about Yves and myself, but I’ve never been convinced of the various projects.  When Lespert came to me with his sensitivity, his enthusiasm, his creative vision, I realized that I had before me the director able to tell this story.  I told him yes,” Berge said in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro last year.

SND notes that negotiations for additional sales in Italy, Greece, Israel, Benelux and Romania are expected to be announced before the end of the market.