Bac Films, Snowglobe Unveil Trailer of Berlinale-Bound Danish Thriller ‘Wildland’ (EXCLUSIVE)

GÖTEBORG, Sweden — Home to the most dynamic streaming markets in Western Europe, the Nordic region still posted solid box office returns in 2019, especially from Hollywood tentpoles “The Lion King,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Joker,” which ruled on all top ten charts, except in Denmark. Local fare, however, lost ground in all five territories.

Fledgling French podcast studio Paradiso is expanding to the U.S. and has tapped L.A.-based executive Emi Norris to develop a slate of original narrative podcasts, as well as adapt Paradiso’s hit formats for the U.S. and other English-speaking markets. Paradiso is Europe’s first podcast studio to expand to U.S. soil.

The Berlin Film Festival has suspended its Alfred Bauer Prize following revelations that the award’s namesake and the Berlinale’s first director was much more closely affiliated with the Nazi Party than previously known.

By Tom Grater

It’s not that the knives were out, exactly. It’s just that the faint whiff of lame duckishness has hung over the Berlin Film Festival since the announcement of longtime director Dieter Kosslick’s 2019 departure, an impression that intensified during the last two editions, which were generally regarded as among the weakest the festival has recently seen.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Swiss/Croatian feature film “Mare,” written and directed by Andrea Staka, which will have its world premiere in the Panorama Section of the Berlin Film Festival.

Distrib Films has acquired U.S. rights to Lucie Borleteau’s “The Perfect Nanny” and Cédric Klapisch’s “Someone Somewhere,” both of which will screen at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York, a festival organised by the Film Society of the Lincoln Center and UniFrance.

The BBC and TVNZ’s adaptation of Man Booker Prize winning novel “The Luminaries,” starring Eva Green, is among the scripted TV projects that will feature in this year’s Berlinale Series Market and Conference program at the Berlin International Film Festival.

By Tom Grater

Variety has been given exclusive access to the international trailer of the Danish film “A Perfectly Normal Family,” due to compete both at Rotterdam’s Big Screen Competition, and at Göteborg’s Nordic Film Competition. Malou Reyman’s debut feature has been a hot property for sales agent New Europe Film Sales, ever since it was sneak peeked a year ago as a work in progress at Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market. “The market response so far has been fantastic and I’m happy that the film has a broader

Gaumont, the once thriving French studio behind “The Intouchables” and “Narcos,” is set to rejig its film and TV strategy as it anticipates heavy losses in 2019.

Reel Suspects has acquired international sales rights to Caru Alves de Souza’s coming-of-age tale “My Name is Baghdad,” which will world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Generation 14 section.

BTS are heading to Twickenham!

Bac Films has closed several deals on Bernard Stora’s “The Case,” a psychological thriller set in the South of France starring Niels Arestrup (“At Eternity’s Gate,” “A Prophet”). The film had its market premiere at the UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris, a five-day showcase of French movies wrapping on Jan. 20.

After delivering two of the highest-grossing French films of last year, Alain Attal’s Paris-based production company Tresor Films (“Sink or Swim,” “Little White Lies 2”) is kicking off 2020 with its most ambitious project yet, Guillaume Canet’s “Asterix & Obelix: The Silk Road.”

New Orleans-based sextet Sweet Crude unveiled the video for their new single, "Déballez" on Friday (Jan. 17), exclusively via Billboard.

By Tom Grater

Julianne Moore has left CAA for WME, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.The Oscar winner (for 2014's Still Alice; she also received nominations for 2002'sFar From Heaven, 1999's The End of the Affair and 1997's Boogie Nights) is one of only two women to have won the "triple crown" at the European film festivals: earning Best Actress for 2014's Maps to the Stars at Cannes, sharing the award with Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep for 2003's The Hours at Berlin and winning Best Actress

On par with 2018, the overseas box office revenue of French movies reached an estimated €244.4 millions ($272 million) from 40 million admissions in 2019, according to a report unveiled by UniFrance.