The European Film Market is heating up as it winds to a close, with several major deals coming out of chilly Berlin. On Monday, arthouse streamer Mubi announced it first big buy of EFM, snatching up DavidHinton’s Martin Scorsese-narrated documentary, Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger for much of the world.
Mubi has acquired all rights in German-speaking Europe, Italy, France and Benelux for the doc, as well as Latin America, Turkey and India. The film has its world premiere in Berlin this week as part of the Berlinale Special. The deal was done between Mubi and Altitude Film Sales.
The latest from the BAFTA and Emmy-award winner Hinton (The South Bank Show, All This Can Happen) explores the life and work of British filmmaking duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who together created some of the greatest films of the British golden age including The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.
Scorsese narrates the film, with the Killers of the Flower Moon director explaining how he was captivated by Powell and Pressburger’s films from an early age, how they helped shape his own filmmaking, and the importance of his later friendship with Michael Powell.
Hinton had access to a wealth of archival material from Powell, Pressburger and Scorsese’s personalcollections and used diaries, audio recordings, home movies, personal snapshots and clips from the Powell and Pressburger films to tell the story.
The Made in England deal follows a pair of major acquisitions by Sony Pictures in Berlin. The studio took worldwide rights for the EFM package A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, a romantic fantasy from After Yang director Kogonada to star Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, for an estimated $50 million, from 30West and CAA Media Finance and boarded A24’s Materialists, the new film from Past Lives director Celine Song, for all international territories outside of Russia, China and Japan. A24 is releasing the film, which Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal are in talks to star, in the U.S..
