Culture 3 min read By Trevor Kendall
Soccer drama Forza with AC Milan great Costacurta heads to Tokyo market
EST N8 has picked up international sales rights to Marco Balsamo's soccer drama Forza, which will be presented at the TIFFCOM market in Tokyo after a public debut at Jakarta Film Week.
Marco Balsamo's soccer drama «Forza» has been picked up for international sales by EST N8, which will take the film to the TIFFCOM market during the Tokyo International Film Festival from October 28 to 30. The movie, which features AC Milan legend Alessandro Costacurta, is set to reach international buyers after a first public screening.
Before its Tokyo appearance, the film will have its first public showing on October 25 at Jakarta Film Week. The Jakarta screening gives the production an early audience before it enters the business-focused setting of TIFFCOM, where distributors and sales agents gather to acquire titles for markets around the world. The sequence of the two events means the film will be seen by a general public before it is presented to buyers.
The film marks Balsamo's first feature as a director. It was shot between Bali and Milan, two locations that reflect the film's blend of Italian football culture and Southeast Asian production settings. The choice of locations places the production across two very different environments, with the Italian setting tied to the football world the story depicts and the Indonesian island providing a second visual backdrop.
Costacurta spent much of his career as a central defender for AC Milan, one of the most decorated clubs in Italian and European football. His presence in the film connects the story to the club's history and offers a familiar reference point for audiences who follow the sport. The project sits within a longer tradition of soccer-centered films that use the game as a backdrop for personal and emotional stories, and the inclusion of a former player with such a strong record at one club gives the production a recognizable link to the sport's fan culture.
The selection for international sales signals early interest from the distribution community in a sports-themed drama with a recognizable football figure in its cast. Sales deals at festival markets like TIFFCOM typically serve as the first step toward finding distributors in different territories, and the film's presence at the event places it in front of buyers looking for fresh content across genres.
For EST N8, the deal adds a new title to its slate at a festival market where buyers look for new films to acquire. Balsamo's film will be presented to those buyers in Tokyo, where its prospects for distribution in Asia and beyond will become clearer. Further details about release dates, territories, and the film's plot were not disclosed in the source material, and no statements from the filmmakers or the sales company were included in the announcement.
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