For the Sales Agent stationed in the Netherlands, 2011 could be considered an off year with only two titles (Leila Kilani's Sur La Planche and Corman's World gets some replay value) in Cannes. Put they have a solid selection of Asian titles in the pipeline and two Brit titles in Kevin MacDonald's Marley and Michel Winterbottom's The Promised Land which we look forward to with much anticipation.
Meetings at the Focus Features Int. office this year must be short and sweet -- as they don't have plenty of volume in the pipeline -- but do manage to have some titles worth considering and this includes Mike Mills' brilliant Beginners and the pre-fall release of Lone Scherfig's One Day, but also currently in production films from the Wachowskis and one from Paul Weitz that should fetch big dollars.
With a half dozen titles in the sidebars, the Parisian Sales Agent Film Distribution folks are certainly going to be hosting several parties. At the top of the list they've got Bertrand Bonello's House of Tolerance. In the waiting, we find the co. pushing Brillante Mendoza's latest entitled Captured - a film that features a Croisette fixture in the popular Isabelle Huppert.
The sales agent and production company had one heck of a year in 2010 with Le Quattro Volte and Aurora, this year they got two features (Blue Bird and Play) and a Boro in the Box (40-minute film) all playing in the Directors' Fortnight. Of interest we have Ilya Khrzhanovsky still working on Dau (see pic above) --- a Cannes 2012 selection folks?
In a very short amount of time, NYC/LA based Filmnation Ent. have padded themselves a hell of a slate including Terrence Malick's forthcoming film (not The Tree of Life...the other one - see pic above) John Hillcoat's Wettest County and in this year's Cannes they have the excellent Take Shelter (in my top 2 from Sundance) and Pedro Almodovar's huge Main Comp buzz title.