Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) Close sales deal with WIDE Management for Dede a F&ME/20 Steps co-production - as well as with Latido on Rajko Grlic’s The Constitution.  The company is bringing a dozen active projects films to Cannes Market from their 2016 Slate.  More acquisitions to be announced during the festival.

London-based production house Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) and Georgia’s 20 Steps have closed a deal for international sales for their Georgian co-production Dede as well as with Latido on Rajko Grlic’s The Constitution.  In addition the company is bringing a dozen active projects to Cannes in varying stages of pre-production, post production and production.  The firm run by EFA Deputy Chairman Mike Downey and Samantha Taylor, is one of the most prolific on the European scene, working with a wide range of writers including Rebecca Lenckiewicz, Colm Toibin, James Ellroy, Gunter Grass, Thomas Kenneally and young British playwright Tim Price.

“We’ve had a bumper 2015 and 2016 so far,” says F&ME co principal Mike Downey, “and we are in Cannes to finalise finance on the rest of the slate, close deals with sales companies on the films we have in post and also scout for projects for 2017.”

On the eve of the festival the company closed a sales deal with WIDE Management for DeDe, Mariam (Dinola) Khatchvani’s debut feature, which wrapped in late January 2016.  Currently completing post production, the film is a Georgian/British/Croatian/Dutch coproduction with Vova Katcharava’s 20 Steps, Igor Nola’s MP Film Production and JaJa Film Productions.  Developed at the Sundance Lab and Fabrique des Cinémas du Monde (Cannes), and supported by the Doha Film Institute and the Georgian National Film Centre. The project was in the Works-in-Progress selection at the Festival du Cinéma Européen des Arcs in December 2015 and is expected to be finished in time for Toronto/Venice.

Antonio Saura’s Latido have also just come on board to handle international sales for Rajko Grlic’s eagerly awaited  The Constitution, which is produced by Zagreb’s Inter Film and co-produced by Rudolph Biermann of Prague’s In-Film and Sever + Sever of Slovenia.

The key Cannes film for which Downey and Taylor are currently looking to complete finance on are How To Sell a War by Rudolph Herzog.  Written by up and coming Welsh screenwriter/playwright, Tim Price, the film is a UK/Poland/Georgia co-production  with 20 Steps Productions (Georgia). Kinomedia (Poland).   Developed by Creative England. The film is a black comedy in the spirit of Thank You for Smoking and Wag the Dog.

Five days prior to the biggest anti-war concert of all time, Rock Against War, the Russian Warlord calls a ceasefire. Harry Hope, the messianic rock star organiser refuses to cancel the event. So PR genius Kate, her team plus idealistic intern/niece Peggy go to Georgia to stop the war...from stopping

Also in the latter stages of financing are  The Disciple directed by Koza helmer Ivan Ostrochovsky and written by Rebecca Lenckiewicz and Ostrochovsky  and Konstantin Bojanov’s  My Eyes Are Yours (working title) which is a partnership with Urban Distribution, and India’s Overdose.

Currently shooting for the company are Volker Schloendorff’s Return to Montauk - Produced by Regina Ziegler (Ziegler Film) and Volker Schlöndorff in co-production with Francis Boesplug (Pyramid productions/France), Gaumont (France), Conor Barry (Savage Productions/Ireland), and in association with Mike Downey and Sam Taylor at F.& M.E. Film & Music Entertainment (GB).   

Also in the final days of shoot is Helsinki Film’s Tom of Finland by Dome Karukoski.  Protagonist Pictures has come on board to handle worldwide sales on Dome Karukoski’s biopic about the life of the iconic Finnish artist and human rights activist. Aleksi Bardy wrote the screenplay for the film which tells the life story of Touko Laaksonen, a Finnish man who would become known around the world by his nom de guerre “Tom Of Finland”.

Continuing their fruitful relationship with Poland, F&ME have come on board  Bodo Kox’s award winning screenplay The Man With The Magic Boxproduced by Iza Igel at Alter Ego productions.  The company is also in an advanced stage of negotiation with Polish partners to join Andrzej Jakimowski’s new production Once Upon a Time as well as an upcoming collaboration with producers Radoslaw Drabik and Michal Kachinski whose rom-com Planet Single has just been trailblazing the Polish box office since Valentine’s day.

Currently in post-production for the company in Berlin is Light Thereafter by AVE writer director Konstantin Bojanov.  The film, a road movie about a young artist’s journey to meet his hero, stars 71’s  Barry Keoghan, Kim (Pusher) Bodnia and Thure Lindhardt (Angels and Demons).  A co-production between UK (F&ME) , Bulgaria (Multfilm), Belgium (Leftfield) the film is being sold internationally by Antonio Saura’s Latido Film Sales the film will be completed in time for Toronto and Venice.

Also just at the end of its  post-production phases and headed to delivery in the new year are Rade Serbedzija and Danilo Serbedzija’s co-directing effort, The Liberation of Skopje (Osloboduvanje na Skopje) made in partnership with Igor Nola in Zagreb, Robert Naskov, Medo Tozija and Vladimir Anastasov in Skopje, Arto Halonen in Finland and F&ME in the UK.