Sales

Celluloid Nightmares has sold out foreign rights to Gareth Evans’ Indonesian actioner ”The Raid” at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival.

”The Raid” screened on the opening at the Midnight Madness section. Nate Bolotin of Celluloid Nightmares and XYZ Films told Variety that the showing helped lead to sales in Italy, Portugal, Poland, Hong Kong, Latin America, Benelux and Scandinavia.

”We generated a lot of excitement because of how unique the film is,” he added. Read Full Article

Tribeca Film has acquired North American distribution rights to The Last Rites of Joe May, written and directed by Joe Maggio. The indie distributor plans a theatrical and VOD release in October.

The drama, which had its world premiere in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, stars Dennis Farina as an aging Chicago short-money hustler plotting a comeback scheme after a long hospital stay. Stephanie Striegel and Bill Straus produced the film in association with Chicago’s Steppenwolf Films. Read Full Article

New Video and 7th Art Releasing have teamed up to release doc “The Swell Season,” the Tribeca Film Festival alum that follows the real-life couple who starred in and wrote the soundtrack to 2006 screen romance “Once.”

Split acquisition will see 7th Art release the film in theaters in multiple markets, while New Video will distribute via VOD, digital and DVD under its Docurama Films label. Read Full Article

Maya Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to the thriller Greetings to the Devil (Saluda al Diablo de mi Parte), directed by Juan Felipe Orozco and written by Carlos Esteban Orozco. Maya will release the film theatrically and on its VOD platform.

Carlos star Edgar Ramirez, Ricardo Velez, Carolina Gomez, Salvador del Solar and Patrick Delmas topline the story of a former guerilla rebel who is forced once again to take up arms after a victim from his former life kidnaps his daughter. Read Full Article

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has picked up U.S. rights for Gareth Evans’ Indonesian actioner “The Raid” from Celluloid Nightmares. Deal was finalized during the Cannes Film Festival.

Evans, who lives in Jakarta, wrote and directed the project, which takes place in a hideout for the world’s most dangerous killers. Los Angeles-based production and sales outfit XYZ Films exec produced alongside producers Ario Sagantoro and PT Merantau Films. Read Full Article

The film premiered in Tribeca last month and will get theatrical releases in both markets. Michael Rogers, Eva Allan, Scott Hylands and Marilyn Norry star. Read Full Article

EXCLUSIVE: Image Entertainment has snapped up U.S. rights to Israeli horror film “Rabies” from XYZ Films. Mongrel Media has nabbed Canadian rights to the pic, which is the directorial debut of Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales, who also penned the script.

Negotiated by XYZ’s Nate Bolotin, Image acquisitions VP Mark Ward and Andrew Frank of Mongrel, the deal includes a theatrical release. Read Full Article

New York, NY (April 21, 2011) – IFC Midnight announced today that the company has acquired U.S. distribution rights from sales and production outfit XYZ Films for director Dick Maas’ evil Santa film SAINT. The deal includes a theatrical component and was made prior to the movie’s North American premiere in the Cinemania section at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. Maas wrote the screenplay for the picture and Read Full Article

Berlin-based Instinctive Film is gearing up to lense Eron Sheean’s “Errors of the Human Body,” a psychological thriller that will be shopped at Berlin’s EFM this week.

Pic, which is skedded to lense Feb. 14, marks the directorial debut from Sheean, who penned the script for Milo Ventimiglia starrer “The Divide.” Read Full Article

The film, formerly called “Phasma Ex Machina,” will be released on DVD and VOD in the second quarter this year.