Berlin Hot List: Helen Mirren, Vicky Krieps and Song Kang-ho Projects Among Buzziest Market Titles

The independent film business is again showing signs of rude health as the global film industry struggles to recover post-pandemic. Sundance is often taken as the pace-setter, and distribution deals were plentiful this year, with seven- and eight-figure sales for the likes of Theater Camp (to Searchlight for an estimated $8 million), Flora and Son (Apple TV+, $20 million) and Fair Play (Netflix, $20 million), just the biggest of around a dozen 2023 Park City pickups. But Berlin’s European Film Market will be the industry’s true acid test.

“Sundance is more U.S.-focused in general,” says Alice Laffillé, vp sales at FilmNation, which did the Apple TV+ deal for Flora and Son. “There are always some big, splashy deals with streamers and U.S. buyers like Neon, A24 or Magnolia. Berlin is the first real international market, where we see where things stand.”

Berlin deals, which often involve the entire world, typically dwarf those done in Sundance — see the $60 million Sony paid for Tom Hanks starrer A Man Called Otto at EFM last year — but sellers are banking on the trend away from issue-driven drama in favor of high-concept sci-fi fare, thrillers and comedies — less She Said, more Everything Everywhere All at Once.

“Buyers want something that feels fresh and original,” says Mark Gooder, co-president of sales group Cornerstone Films. “With thousands of hours of great storytelling available on all these platforms, what audiences really want is to be surprised.”

There are certainly plenty of star-studded surprises on THR‘s annual hot list of EFM market titles, including a high-concept sci-fi comedy with Octavia Spencer, an opera-themed revenge thriller, and a new Korean dark comedy from the producer and star of Parasite.

10 Lives

DIRECTOR Chris Jenkins

STARS Bill Nighy, Mo Gilligan, Zayn Malik, Sophie Okonedo, Dylan Llewellyn

BUZZ Family-friendly animation often flies below the radar at the Berlin market, but the global box office performance of Jenkins’ Duck Duck Goose ($20 million plus) alongside promising ancillaries and British all-star voice cast (including Oscar-contender Nighy and pop star Malik) should guarantee strong pick-up for his new feature, about a selfish cat who gets a second chance at being a good kitty.

SALES GFM Animation

The Adults

DIRECTOR Alex Winter

STARS Evan Rachel Wood, Josh Gad, Anthony Carrigan

BUZZ Berlin buyers will be checking out this murder-mystery feature, starring Wood and Gad as a brother-and-sister team of amateur sleuths, hoping for Knives Out-style franchise potential.

SALES Rocket Science, CAA Media Finance

Amelia’s Children

DIRECTOR Gabriel Abrantes

STARS Carloto Cotta, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Alba Baptista

BUZZ Robert Eggers, Ti West, and Ari Aster have shown the box office potential for high-concept indie horror, and this feature, the English-language debut of Portuguese director Abrantes (2018’s Diamantino), promises genre with a twist. Diamantino star Cotta plays a man whose search for his long-lost biological mother and twin brother leads him to discover a monstrous secret hidden in his DNA.

SALES Wild Bunch International

Ballerina Overdrive

DIRECTOR Vicky Jewson

STARS Lena Headey, Yara Shahidi, Isabela Merced, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Iris Apatow

BUZZ The 355 and Gunpowder Milkshake showed the global sales potential of female-focused action-thrillers, which will be given a new twist with this feature, which follows a ballerina troupe forced to fight for survival after their bus breaks down on the way to a dance competition.

SALES The Veterans, CAA Media Finance

BlackBerry

DIRECTOR Matt Johnson

STARS Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Cary Elwes, Saul Rubinek

BUZZ The rise and fall of the Canadian smartphone pioneer, told through the cracked lens of Operation Avalanche director Matt Johnson, promises a mixed tape of alternative comedy and early 2000s tech nostalgia for boutique buyers.

SALES XYZ Films

The Burdened

DIRECTOR Amr Gamal

STARS Khaled Hamdan, Abeer Mohammed, Samah Alamrani

BUZZ A rare feature set in Yemen, this family drama, which frames the ordinary struggles of a couple trying to raise their three young children against the backdrop of the country’s civil war and economic collapse, could appeal to arthouse buyers with a political bent

SALES Films Boutique

Cobweb

DIRECTOR Kim Jee-woon

STARS Song Kang-ho, Im Soo-jung, Oh Jung-se

BUZZ The latest dark dramedy from Parasite producer Barunson is certain to draw bids from art house buyers and streamers alike. Parasite star Song plays an obsessive director trying, over two days, to reshoot the ending of his failed film and create a masterpiece.

SALES Barunson E&A

Coup de Chance

DIRECTOR Woody Allen

STARS Lou De Laâge, Valérie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Schneider

BUZZ Despite his persona non grata status among many in the U.S., Allen remains a solid box office draw internationally, so expect buyers to jump on this, his 50^th film, and the first-ever French-language effort.

SALES WestEnd Films

Fairyland

DIRECTOR Andrew Durham

STARS Scoot McNairy, Emilia Jones, Geena Davis, Adam Lambert, Maria Bakalova

BUZZ Coming off the momentum of its strong Sundance bow, this biographical drama, based on Alysia Abbott’s memoirs about growing up in San Francisco in the ’70s and ’80s with her gay dad, should score some international support in Berlin.

SALES Arclight Films, UTA Independent Film Group, Gersh

Four Letters of Love

DIRECTOR Polly Steele

STARS Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter, Gabriel Bryne, Fionn O’Shea, Ann Skelly

BUZZ With The Banshees of Inisherin and The Quiet Girl in Oscar contention this year, Irish cinema is having a bit of a moment, and this feel-good drama, adapted from Niall Williams’ international bestseller, looks certain to cut through the blarney for buyers looking for a romance tale with a Gaelic brouge.

SALES Cornerstone

Giant

DIRECTOR Rowan Athale

STARS Paddy Considine, Mena Massoud

BUZZ Packing a one-two punch of the celebrity biopic and sports underdog story, this real-life tale of 90s Brit boxing legend Prince Naseem “Naz” Hamed, with Aladdin star Massoud as Naz and House of the Dragon’s Considine as his trainer Brendan Ingle, looks a strong contender for mainstream buyers and streamers alike.

SALES AGC Studios

Girl From the North Country

DIRECTOR Conor McPherson

STARS Olivia Colman, Woody Harrelson, Chlöe Bailey, Tosin Cole

BUZZ McPherson’s adaptation of his Tony Award-winning musical, inspired by the songs of Bob Dylan, should tick multiple boxes for buyers looking for adult-skewing entertainment with a musical twist.

SALES Rocket Science, CAA Media Finance

Ingeborg Bachmann — Journey Into the Desert

DIRECTOR Margarethe von Trotta

STARS Vicky Krieps, Ronald Zehrfeld

BUZZ With a string of crossover successes, Krieps (Bergman Island, Corsage) has become something of an art house superstar, and indie distributors are sue to be curious about this Berlinale competition entry from Hannah Arendt director von Trotta, starring Krieps as groundbreaking Austrian writer Bachmann.

SALES The Match Factory

It Lives Inside

DIRECTOR Bishal Dutta

STARS Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan, Vik Sahay, Betty Gabriel

BUZZ As with its global hit Get Out, producers QC Entertainment are betting on a combo of horror with a social message in this high-concept chiller about a first-generation Indian immigrant teen (Never Have I Ever actress Suri) confronted with her heritage in the form of a mythological demon who possesses her best friend.

SALES Protagonist Pictures

Kiss the Future

DIRECTOR Nenad Cicin-Sain

STARS U2, Alma Catal Hurem, Bill Carter, Christiane Amanpour, Vesna Andree Zaimović, Senad Zaimović, Enes Zlatar

BUZZ This combination of music and political documentary — a look at the efforts to rally artist support for the victims of the 1990s Siege of Sarajevo, and U2’s epic post-war concert — makes this an appealing title for streamers and niche distributors alike.

SALES Fifth Season

Locked

DIRECTOR David Yarovesky

STARS Anthony Hopkins, Glen Powell

BUZZ This remake of Argentinian action thriller 4X4, in which an unsuspecting car thief gets trapped inside a luxury SUV and becomes part of a deadly game, offers indie buyers the appeal of such contained thrillers as Buried or The Guilty, with an A-list cast providing theatrical potential and strong ancillary play all but guaranteed.

SALES CAA Media Finance

Manodrome

DIRECTOR John Trengove

STARS Jesse Eisenberg, Adrien Brody

BUZZ With remarkably poignancy given recent headlines, The Wound director Trengove dives into the world of toxic masculinity with this nihilistic thriller. Eisenberg plays a troubled, gym-obsessed Uber driver and father-to-be whose anger at the world around him spills out into violent rage after he joins an incel cult (led by Brody).

SALES CAA

Marked Men

DIRECTOR Nick Cassavetes

STARS Chase Stokes, Sydney Taylor

BUZZ Following the global success of the After and its sequels, Voltage is returning to the very deep and profitable well of YA romance with this adaptation of Jay Crownover’s bestseller Rule, the first in her Marked Men series. For indie buyers worldwide, few things are sexier than a teen-targeted indie with franchise potential.

SALES Voltage Pictures

Monster

DIRECTOR Hirokazu Kore-eda

STARS Ando Sakura, Nagayama Eita, Kurokawa Soya

BUZZ The film’s plot is being kept under wraps, but art house buyers worldwide will be clamoring for a look at the new feature from Broker and Shoplifters director Kore-eda, which is now in post.

SALES Gaga/Wild Bunch International

Moss & Freud

DIRECTOR James Lucas

STARS Ellie Bamber, Derek Jacobi

BUZZ A based-on-a-true story drama for discerning arthouse distributors, this feature will see Bamber playing supermodel Kate Moss in a dramatized account of her sitting for famed British painter Lucian Freud (Jacobi).

SALES Cornerstone Films

Nobody Nothing Nowhere

DIRECTORS Rachel Wolther, Alex H. Fischer

STARS Octavia Spencer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lucy Liu

BUZZ This out-there sci-fi comedy could appeal to buyers looking for another Everything Everywhere All at Once. Gordon-Levitt stars as Dave, the only person left on Earth, who is surrounded by human-looking beings called “non-people.”

SALES The Exchange, CAA Film Finances, WME Independent

Old Guy

DIRECTOR Simon West

STARS Christoph Waltz

BUZZ The growing strength of VOD and streaming revenues have helped revive star-driven action movies, and this entry from Con Air director West, featuring Django actor Waltz as an aging contract killer brought back from retirement to train his Gen Z successor, can be expected to draw bids from home-entertainment-friendly buyers worldwide.

SALES Highland Film Group

The Offing

DIRECTOR Jessica Hobbs

STARS Helena Bonham Carter

BUZZ This big-screen adaptation of Benjamin Myers’ post-War-set bestseller combines Brit period drama with Carter’s box office cache, a combination arthouse buyers can’t seem to get enough of.

SALES Beta Cinema

On the Adamant

DIRECTOR Nicolas Philibert

BUZZ Streamers and art house distributors alike remain hungry for feature documentaries with a strong directorial perspective, a description that nicely fits this competition entry from To Be and to Have helmer Philibert, which examines a Parisian psychiatric center built on a float in the middle of the Seine river.

SALES Les Films du Losange

The Order

DIRECTOR Justin Kurzel

STARS Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult

BUZZ This true-crime thriller penned by King Richard scribe Zach Baylin, about bank-robbing white supremacists, is likely to sell out quickly, with a global streamer sale a strong possibility.

SALES AGC Studios

Past Lives

DIRECTOR Celine Song

STARS Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro

BUZZ One of the best-reviewed films out of Sundance, Song’s directorial debut has shot to the top of the list of must-sees for international art house distributors in Berlin. The romantic drama stars Lee and Yoo as two childhood friends who reunite in New York decades later.

SALES A24

The Penguin Lessons

DIRECTOR Peter Cattaneo

STARS Steve Coogan

BUZZ Disillusioned Brit (Coogan) working at a school in Argentina gets unexpected life lessons from a penguin he rescues from an oil spill in this adaptation of the Tom Michell nonfiction bestseller, which The Full Monty director Cattaneo will be hoping will land with fans of family-friendly feel-good films.

SALES Rocket Science, CAA Media Finance

The Prima Donna

DIRECTOR Nathan Silver

STARS Toni Collette, Odessa Young

BUZZ The Staircase stars Collette and Young reteam on this revenge thriller that should appeal to mainstream buyers looking for a high-end genre play. Collette plays an opera diva caught in a battle of wills with her aspiring singer daughter (Young).

SALES Cornerstone, CAA Media Finance, Anonymous Content

Reality

DIRECTOR Tina Satter

STARS Josh Hamilton, Marchánt Davis, Sydney Sweeney

BUZZ A former American intelligence specialist was given the longest sentence for the unauthorized release of government information to the media about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections via an email operation.

SALES MK2, UTA Independent Film Group, WME Independent

Super Toys

DIRECTOR David O. Russell

STARS Sacha Baron Cohen, Keke Palmer

BUZZ Despite his recent box office flop Amsterdam, Russell’s latest star-studded dramedy, featuring Cohen and Nope star Palmer as married, 70s-era toy sales reps on the road in Middle America, should appeal to the indie market.

SALES FilmNation, CAA Media Finance

The Riker’s Ghost

DIRECTOR Neil Jordan

STARS Liam Neeson

BUZZ This package sells itself: a Liam Neeson action movie, directed by The Crying Game‘s Neil Jordan and described as a “bare-knuckled prison break” thriller.

SALES Capstone, CAA Media Finance

She Came to Me

DIRECTOR Rebecca Miller

STARS Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, Marisa Tomei

BUZZ Upscale drama can be a tough sell in today’s indie market, but the Berlinale opening slot and appealing cast for this feature —in which Dinklage plays a composer suffering from writer’s block who rediscovers his passion after an adventurous one-night stand —should elevate the project among interested distributors.

SALES Protagonist Pictures

Suddenly

DIRECTOR Thomas Bidegain

STARS Gilles Lellouche, Mélanie Thierry

BUZZ A very French thriller, from the writer of Rust and Bone and The Sisters Brothers, this feature about a couple (Lellouche and Thierry), stranded on an uninhabited island teeming with danger, has arthouse cross-over written all over it.

SALES Studiocanal

Superpower

DIRECTORS Sean Penn, Aaron Kaufman

BUZZ Penn and Kaufman’s of-the-moment documentary about the war in Ukraine — shot during and just after Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion and featuring exclusive interviews with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — is already the most talked-about movie at this year’s Berlinale, and given the red-hot market for theatrical docs, it looks like a guaranteed sale.

SALES Fifth Season

The Survival of Kindness

DIRECTOR Rolf de Heer

STARS Mwajemi Hussein

BUZZ The latest from Australian auteur de Heer, director of Charlie’s Country and Ten Canoes, should appeal to hard-core arthouse distributors. The powerfully cinematic modern-day fable follows a Black woman who escapes imprisonment to journey across the desert towards the city and supposed civilization.

SALES Fandango Sales

Switzerland

DIRECTOR Anton Corbijn

STARS Helen Mirren

BUZZ Combining the popular biopic and real-life thriller genres, this appealing take on the life of The Talented Mr. Ripley author Patricia Highsmith (Mirren), adapted from the play by Joanna Murray-Smith, structures the plot in a way that mirrors one of Highsmith’s fictional thrillers.

SALES FilmNation

Talk To Me

DIRECTOR Danny and Michael Philippou

STARS Sophie Wilde, Miranda Otto, Otis Dhanji

BUZZ Horror continues to be the only truly reliable theatrical genre for indie distributors and this chiller, about a teen séance gone wrong, which A24 snatched up for the U.S. at Sundance, has high-concept arthouse written all over it.

SALES Bankside Films

Untitled Judo

DIRECTOR Guy Nattiv, Zar Amir Ebrahimi

STARS Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Adrienne Mandi

BUZZ Besides making history as the first-ever film co-directed by an Israeli (Golda helmer Nattiv) and an Iranian (Holy Spider actress Ebrahimi), this female-focused political thriller with a sports twist, about an Iranian female judoka (Mandi) who faces pressure from Tehran to throw the World Judo Championships, should attract attention from upscale distributors worldwide.

SALES WestEnd

Verona

DIRECTOR Timothy Scott Bogart

STARS Clara Rugaard, Jamie Ward, Rebel Wilson, Rupert Everett, Jason Isaacs, Derek Jacobi

BUZZ Music, like love, is famously the universal language, which bodes well for this original pop musical inspired by the real-life story that inspired Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Planned as the first film in a trilogy, Verona should appeal both to studio and regional theatrical buyers.

SALES Voltage Pictures

Wicked Little Letters

DIRECTOR Thea Sharrock

STARS Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Timothy Spall

BUZZ From Living to Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, the Brit period dramedy is one of the few genres that has proven able to reliably reach elusive adult audiences, adding to the appeal of this 1920s-set feature. Colman and Buckley star as two very different neighbors in a picturesque English town beset by scandal when a series of anonymous, obscene letters begin dropping through their mailboxes.

SALES Studiocanal

You Hurt My Feelings

DIRECTOR Nicole Holocener

STARS Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Cross, Amber Tamblyn, Tobias Menzies

BUZZ Rave reviews out of Sundance should encourage indie buyers to check out Holocener’s latest grown-up relationship rom-com, though uncertainty around the theatrical viability of older-skewing features might make this film a better fit for streamers.

SALE FilmNation Entertainment

This story first appeared in the Feb. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.