Culture 3 min read By Morgan Griffin
French Action Film Red Bird Sells to CIS Territories at Tokyo Market
Cappu Films has sold the French action film Red Bird to Kinologistika for the CIS region, while taking on international sales for the American indie romance Step Back, Doors Closing at the TIFFCOM market in Tokyo.
The French action film Red Bird has found a distributor for the Commonwealth of Independent States, a region covering Russia and other former Soviet states, as international buyers gather at the TIFFCOM market in Tokyo. Cappu Films has sold the title to Kinologistika LLC for that territory, according to the deal reported at the Tokyo International Film Festival's content market.
The same market is also showcasing an American indie romance. Cappu Films has taken on international sales duties for Step Back, Doors Closing, a Washington, D.C.-set romance, giving the film a sales agent as it presents to overseas buyers in Tokyo. The pairing of an action title and a small romantic drama illustrates the range of projects being shopped to distributors during the festival week.
TIFFCOM, the Tokyo International Film Festival's content market, serves as a meeting point for producers, sales agents and distributors from across Asia and beyond. Deals of this kind, in which a sales company licenses a film one territory at a time, are a core function of such markets, allowing independent productions to reach audiences in multiple countries before or after release.
The market is also tied to a broader push to build cross-border partnerships around Japanese content. Cannes Marché du Film and TIFFCOM have announced that they will co-organize the Japan IP Market in Cannes for a second consecutive year, from May 14 to 15. The announcement was made at TIFFCOM during a seminar titled Beyond Country of Honour: Building the Next Global Partnerships with Japan.
Separately, the film industry's festival network continued to expand. NewFilmmakers Los Angeles has announced an inaugural partnership with the Mar del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina, under which it will bring a selection of eight short films by its alumni to the November festival and take part in an industry panel on the role of festivals, markets and creative organizations. Los Angeles-based Asian World Film Festival has also unveiled its full competition line-up, with Kyrgyzstan's Kassandra set as the opening film. Directed by Bekzat Pirmatov, the mysticism and psychological horror film is Kyrgyzstan's submission for the Best International Feature category at the Oscars.
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