The Match Factory Acquires Locarno Competition Title ‘Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash’ (EXCLUSIVE)

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Leo Barraclough International Features EditorLeading arthouse sales agency The Match Factory has announced a host of sales on Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” which premiered in Cannes Competition on Sunday and is a favorite with the critics.The Japanese drama has sold to the U.K. (Modern Film), Benelux (September Film), Italy (Tucker Film), Spain (Elastica), Portugal (Leopardo), Greece (Ama Films), Former Yugoslavia (Demiurg), Hong Kong (Edko Films) and Taiwan (Andrews Film).

Sony Pictures Classics said Thursday that it has acquired North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Middle East rights to Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6, the Finnish film that just had its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The deal was struck with Totem Films.

EXCLUSIVE: Indie distributor and SVOD service MUBI is continuing its remarkable buying spree at Cannes 2021. The growing player has now taken rights from The Match Factory to Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cannes Competition drama Memoria for Germany, Italy, Latin America (excluding Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador) and India.

If you haven’t heard of The Match Factory, you probably don’t work in the international arthouse film arena. The German sales and production outfit is one of the world’s leading champions of auteur cinema and has consistently been involved in a raft of festival-winning titles since its inception in 2006.

Jamie Lang Having recently wrapped shooting in upstate New York, the producers of Jamie Sisley’s debut feature “Stay Awake,” a dramatic family comedy about opioid addiction, have revealed key cast details.In the film, Emmy and two-time Golden Globe Award Nominee Chrissy Metz (“This is Us”) plays Michelle, a loving and well-meaning mother of two whose struggle with prescription drug addiction is adversely affecting her entire family.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBrussels-based sales agency Best Friend Forever has closed a deal for France with ambitious distributor Wayna Pitch on Anita Rocha da Silveira’s “Medusa,” which plays in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.The drama, set in contemporary Brazil, centers on 21-year-old Mariana, who belongs to a world where she must do her utmost to keep up the appearance of a perfect woman.

Christopher Vourlias Three years after his musical drama “Leto” bowed on the Croisette, Kirill Serebrennikov returns to Cannes’ main competition with “Petrov’s Flu,” a deadpan, hallucinatory romp through a post-Soviet Russia in the grips of a mysterious flu epidemic. The acclaimed director spoke to Variety about living with fear and making the most out of solitude.How did you get involved with “Petrov’s Flu”? I was hired to write the script.

manages to make heads turn everywhere she goes. Over the weekend, the actress made her way to attend the Wimbeldon 2021 Women's Singles Final.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian auteur Gianni Amelio (“Open Doors”) will shoot a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law. The Match Factory has boarded the pic and is launching international sales in Cannes.

Jamie Lang Leading Italian sales agent and production company The Open Reel is at the Cannes Marché du Film selling its newly-acquired Spanish feature “Mía and Moi” (“Mia y Moi”) from director Borja de la Vega.

Naman Ramachandran “Postman” by Russian filmmaker Klim Tukaev has won the first prize at the sixth Nespresso Talents global short film competition.“Bagman,” by Jan Kellner, took the second prize, while “Speaking in Flowers,” by Nicolina Sterbet, took third.

Christopher Vourlias Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun returns to the sun-scrubbed Sahel region of West Africa for his latest feature, “Lingui, the Sacred Bonds,” which competes for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.Set on the outskirts of the capital city of N’Djamena, “Lingui” is the story of a single mother, Amina (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane), whose already fragile world threatens to collapse when she learns that her daughter, Maria (Rihane Khalil Alio Brahim), is pregnant — a

EXCLUSIVE: European arthouse sales force The Match Factory and ICM Partners are teaming up to jointly represent four films playing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorLeading arthouse sales company The Match Factory has pre-sold Austrian director and screenwriter Sebastian Meise’s second feature “Great Freedom,” which plays in Un Certain Regard at Cannes on Thursday, to Paname Distribution in France.

Israeli writer/director Nadav Lapid has been on the international radar for quite some time, 2011’s “Policeman” made international waves, and 2014’s ‘The Kindergarten Teacher” was so well regarded, Hollywood, Netflix, and Maggie Gyllenhaal made a remake in 2018. But things started to really take off for Lapid after “Synonyms” won the Golden Bear award at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2019 and introduced most of the world to breakout star Tom Mercier.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKorean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s “In Front of Your Face” is assured of a release in the U.S. following a rights deal between sales agent Finecut and distributor the Cinema Guild.“In Front of Your Face” will have its world premiere in competition in Cannes and plays late on the second week of the festival.

Christie Brinkley's ex-husband Peter Cook, 62, and fiancée Alba Jancou, 21, celebrated July 4 at a party in the Hamptons.  Cook and Jancou were photographed together at a party hosted by skin-care CEO Peter Thomas Roth.The couple wore matching black and white outfits.  Cook and Jancou got engaged two years ago in Greece. "We are very happy," Cook previously told People magazine.

Will Thorne Staff WriterTaskovski Films is making moves ahead of the Cannes Film Festival next week.The sales and production outfit has acquired “Aya,” the debut feature from Belgium-based director Simon Coulibaly Gillard, Variety has learned exclusively.“Aya,” a co-production between Belgium’s Michigan Films and France’s Kidam, is set to bow in the ACID section of Cannes on July 10, with four subsequent screenings spread across the next few days.The film centers around Aya, a young woman