French TV Screenings: ‘Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games’ & ‘Syndrome E’ Sell As Sky Italia, Canada’s CBC & Others Swoop
19.01.2023 - 13:05
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Sky Italia and CBC are among the international buyers swooping for Gallic content following last week’s inaugural French TV Screenings.
Local distributors are calling the event a success and are hopeful it will become a fixture in the international calendar.
Nine French sales houses held screenings events over two days as part of Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris at the Club de l’Etoile. With 106 buyers in town, deals were always likely. Deadline has learned Newen Connect and France TV Distribution were among those to strike international sales.
France TV Distribution sold library title Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games to Sky Italia Seasons 1 and 2. First airing in France in 2009, the light crime drama is a French adaptation of novelist Agatha Christie’s murder mystery stories.
“The Rendez-Vous Unifrance in Paris has been a great occasion for our full sales team to start the year with pitching our new drama series, documentary titles and animation series,” said Julia Schulte, SVP, International Sales at France TV Distribution. “Our main European fiction and factual buyers from linear networks were present.”
TF1-owned Newen Connect secured several deals, which emerged during the event. On the drama front, Syndrome E, Promethea and Addict all secured international homes, while doc series Paris: The Mystery of the Lost Palace pre-sold to SBS in Australia and RTVS in Slovakia.
Syndrome E will air on LRT in Lithuania, Québecor in French-Canada and RTP in Portugal. The show stars Vincent Elbaz, Jennifer Decker, Kool Shen and Emmanuelle Beart and follows a brooding, loner cop investigating a case of missing children and a disturbing 1960s movie that spurs people who watch it to commit bizarre and dangerous acts. A