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Italy’s Minerva Pictures has unveiled a slew of sales on its EFM slate including for Taavi Vartia’s Finnish survival thriller Ice Skater and Stefano Sardo’s erotic thriller Close To Me.

Ice Skater was acquired by Spain’s Inopia, Cis’s Magic Films, Latin America’s Clube Filmes, and by Foxx Vision for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Now in post, Ice Skater stars Norwegian actress Thea Sofie Loch Næss as a woman who finds herself stranded on an ice floe in the Arctic Sea.

Close To Me, which is co-distributed with Tvco, was acquired for German-speaking countries by Splendid,...

Minerva Pictures has boarded Agostino, the next film from Venice competition regular Andrea Pallaoro, as well as Stefano Sardo’s erotic thriller Close To Me and Taavi Vartia’s Finnish survival thriller I

Minerva is pre-selling Agostino,about a13 year-old boy who idolises his widowed mother, until a young local man becomes her lover.

Pallaoro’s2022 film Monica and 2017 feature Hannah both played in competition at Venice.

The Italy-us co-production between Minerva and Melograno Films, it is based on the novel by Alberto Moravia.

Close To Me is the second film by Stefano Sardo and centres on acouple living together during the Covid lockdown,...

Kazakh feature by Yernar Nurgaliyev has also sold for German-speaking territories.

101 Films has acquired North American rights to Kazakh action-comedy Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It from Berlin-based sales company Media Move during the Pre-Cannes Screenings.

The UK-based distributor also has rights for the UK and Ireland. The feature has also sold to Hamburg-based Lighthouse Home Entertainment for German-speaking territories.

The film marks the international breakthrough of director Yernar Nurgaliyev and received its world premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival before going on to screen at Sitges and Tallinn Black Nights.

Produced by Kazakh outfit Art Dealers, the story...

Third edition will include pitching of 17 projects and screening of 19 completed features.Scroll down for full lists

The Finnish Film Affair is to host its third edition during the Helsinki International Film Festival (Sept 23-25).

The showcase for new Finnish films will include 17 projects being pitched and the screening of 19 completed films. A Project Development Clinic has been added for first and second-time directors.

The 17 new projects will be pitched to 60 guests including sales agents, festival programmers, distributors and TV buyers, including Fortissimo Films, Wild Bunch, Memento Films International, Films Transit, Sundance Film Festival, Koch Media and Zdf/Arte.

The pitches include The Fencer by Klaus Härö, whose previous film Letters to Father Jacob sold worldwide; and Stupid Young Heart from Oscar-nominated Selma Vilhunen (Do I Have To Take Care Of Everything?).

Other titles include Tsamo by Markku Lehmuskallio, documentary Mother’s Wish by Joonas Berghäll (Steam Of Life), and Cross Your Heart by Petri Kotwica, whose...

The second edition of the Finnish Film Affair, scheduled for Sept 24-26 in Helsinki, will again showcase hot local titles and works in progress.

This year’s event boasts an expanded guest list of sales agents, buyers and festival programmers, including representatives from Zdf/Arte, Celluloid Dreams, Wild Bunch, Hanway, Tribeca, Palm Springs, Rotterdam and Locarno. About 200 industry experts will attend.

“The first edition introduced the Finnish Film Affair to international decision makers,” said Sara Norberg, executive director of the Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy, which launched the event. “We’re very proud that the success of last year’s works-in-progress and the positive buzz around the event has attracted even more interest from the international industry.”

The new films to be screened include Toronto-bound titles Concrete Night by Pirjo Honkasalo and Heart of Lion by Dome Karukoski, in addition to other festival selections such as Finnish Blood, Swedish Heart by Mika Ronkainen and Alcan Highway by Aleksi...