Russian companies announce deals after American Film Market 2020

 

 
North America's largest film market, which took place online from 9 to 13 November, saw significant deals for key Russian film, series, and animation makers. In total, twenty-five Russian content producers presented over 100 projects.

‘The major deals of Russian industry players at AFM have once again shown the high demand for various genres of Russian content across all continents. It's great that not only the new projects in development and the 2020 releases were of interest to international distributors, but also releases from previous years as well, proving their high relevance and quality. We also saw a lot of interest in our content from American companies acquiring rights for North America with perhaps the most demanding audience in the world. In addition, I would like to congratulate some of the Russian companies that participated in the AFM for the first time on their debut performances, and I am happy that their first experience has already brought productive negotiations and prospects for cooperation’, - says Evgenia Markova, CEO of ROSKINO (organization in charge of promoting Russian content worldwide).

International buyers showed great interest in films from the Central Partnership (a part of Gazprom-Media) package. The disaster movie Fire was one of the main focuses and active negotiations regarding this project are now underway.
 
Shout! Studios, a multi-platform company (part of Shout! Factory), has acquired multiple rights for North America for the horror films Widow and Dark Spell produced by Central Partnership and QS Films. Both films will be released in the US in the first half of 2021. Besides North America, horror films have already been sold to Germany, Austria, Sweden, Japan, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

“Despite the pandemic, Russian content continues to arouse keen interest on the international markets. We continue to move forward in line with our strategy to strengthen the position of Russian cinema on the international arena, - said Vadim Vereshchagin, Central Partnership CEO.
 
The biggest result of the AFM 2020 for 1-2-3 Production was the sale of international rights for their drama movie Masha, created jointly with Mars Media, to the Italian distributor TVCO.  The company noted that they have already begun to work together to promote the film with TVCO and believe in the great international potential of Masha, already backed up by international awards and preferences of the festival selectors. The feature films tells the story of thirteen-year-old Masha, who has grown up between the boxing ring and the streets of a provincial Russian town in the turbulent 90’s. The leading role of the adult Masha is played by Russian star Anna Chipovskaya (Hardcore, Netflix’s “The Road to Calvary”).

Art Pictures Distribution presented the family movie A dog named Palma, produced by Mars Media, Amedia Production and OKKO Studios. Deals were closed for Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia, and proposals were received from China, Latin America, Taiwan, Korea, USA, Italy, Germany and France. At the AFM, the company also signed a deal with HY Media to sell Ice 2, a romance movie, to China.

All Media reached an agreement on a number of films. In particular, a package of films was sold to one of the Hungarian TV channels. Also, a leading Spanish distributor, Mediaset, acquired the film Battle of Leningrad.

Yellow, Black and White presented a historical epic series The Conquest of Siberia. The series was a great success on Russian TV Channel One. The company representatives underlined a great interest in Russian content from international partners.

Mirsand sold the rights to the film I Am Dragon to the Encripta company in Latin America. Negotiations were also held with all major players in the international market regarding their film in production - V2. Escape From Hell. Buyers from Japan, Latin America, UK, Germany, and France are ready to close deals based on the script provided. The company is currently in active negotiations for the film Blue Whales with buyers from Asia and Central Europe.

The largest deal at this content market for animation company Wizart, was the conclusion of an agreement in the territories of the United States and Canada. Also during the AFM 2020, Wizart held meetings with several major companies and content sales agents. Distributors from Turkey, China, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Portugal and Italy showed interest in the many of the studio's cartoons.

Wizart Animation has signed an agreement with the global independent American distributor Vertical Entertainment on the full-length animation movies The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands and Sheep and Wolves: Pig Deal - the cartoons will be released on December 18, 2020 and January 29, 2021, respectively.

Rock Films presented The Whaler Boy that won the Venice Days Award (77^th Venice Film Festival section), as well as Coronation and The Battle. There has been interest from Japanese, Spanish and other distributors for all these projects as well.

Planet Inform Group of Companies presented two key films to international buyers - the mystical thriller Mara and horror movie The Ex - both projects attracted great deal of attention from market participants. The companies representative said that there was interest both in countries where these genres are traditionally popular (Southeast Asia, Korea, Japan, Latin America), as well as on the European markets.

Bubble Studios at AFM presented the superhero movie Major Grom and The Plague Doctor. The company plans to show the main materials of the project on the Berlin market EFM 2021 and close all transactions there. However, representatives of the company have already confirmed the interest from all territories of the world. Proposals were received from key territories based on the trailer - these include Germany, Italy, Spain, Benelux, Scandinavian Countries, USA, UK, China, Japan, Korea, Latin America, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, France, Portugal, Mongolia and many other countries.

Russian World Vision presented an animated film Ginger’s Tale, which attracted the interest of distributors from the USA, Canada, Latin America, China, France, Germany, Spain and other countries. The company also continued negotiations for the film Eleven Silent Men, which attracted the attention of many Asian and European buyers. After the screening of the horror Atakan. The Bloody Legend, Japanese and Korean distributors showed interest in the picture; and negotiations are currently underway.

Odin Media held meetings with representatives from TV channels and digital platforms from Europe, the United States, Canada and Latin America. There is a great deal of interest in The Great North Way, Urartu. The Forgotten Kingdom, the documentary series Armageddon and Hazardous World, as well as the wartime TV drama Dzhulbars. During the AFM, preliminary agreements were reached for the sale of content in Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, as well as the digital platforms Huawei, Pluto TV, iTunes and Hulu.

Soyuzmultfilm held about 10 meetings with distributors from the USA, Germany and France. Negotiations have intensified on the adventure film Suvorov (Russian release is scheduled for spring 2021) and The Golden Hive. International buyers were also interested in the Water Formula project.

Mars Media Entertainment, Channel Five, Proline Film, Revoluion Film, Sputnik Vostok Production, PRAD Media, IGMAR, RFG Distribution, KinoAtis, RG Bros Studio, Riverlet Films also held productive meetings with international distributors during AFM 2020 and confirmed high level of interest in their projects.

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