French TV Screenings: ‘Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games’ & ‘Syndrome E’ Sell As Sky Italia, Canada’s CBC & Others Swoop
EXCLUSIVE: Sky Italia and CBC are among the international buyers swooping for Gallic content following last week’s inaugural French TV Screenings.
Local distributors are calling the event a success and are hopeful it will become a fixture in the international calendar.
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Nine French sales houses held screenings events over two days as part of Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris at the Club de l’Etoile. With 106 buyers in town, deals were always likely. Deadline has learned Newen Connect and France TV Distribution were among those to strike international sales.
France TV Distribution sold library title Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games to Sky Italia Seasons 1 and 2. First airing in France in 2009, the light crime drama is a French adaptation of novelist Agatha Christie’s murder mystery stories.
“The Rendez-Vous Unifrance in Paris has been a great occasion for our full sales team to start the year with pitching our new drama series, documentary titles and animation series,” said Julia Schulte, SVP, International Sales at France TV Distribution. “Our main European fiction and factual buyers from linear networks were present.”
TF1-owned Newen Connect secured several deals, which emerged during the event. On the drama front, Syndrome E, Promethea and Addict all secured international homes, while doc series Paris: The Mystery of the Lost Palace pre-sold to SBS in Australia and RTVS in Slovakia.
Syndrome E will air on LRT in Lithuania, Québecor in French-Canada and RTP in Portugal. The show stars Vincent Elbaz, Jennifer Decker, Kool Shen and Emmanuelle Beart and follows a brooding, loner cop investigating a case of missing children and a disturbing 1960s movie that spurs people who watch it to commit bizarre and dangerous acts. A single mom detective joins forces with him after realising that events in her own past could be tied to his case.
Addict, which is from the writers of Face au Diable and Rebecca, has sold to Radio Canada/CBC. The show will also air on Switzerland’s RTS and French-speaking Belgium’s TVI, although these deals were struck directly by producer Morgane Production.
The domestic thriller series follows a family whose lives start to disintegrate after moving house. Directed by Didier le Pecheur, it stars Cecile Bois, Sagamore Stevenin, Cecile Rebboah and Medi Sadoun.
French streamer Salto has also secured deals for Syndrome E and UGC Fiction’s coming-of-age fantasy drama series Promethea. However, the status of those agreements is unclear with Salto reportedly shutting at the end of the week.
Mediawan Rights, whose parent company made news by acquiring Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, screened shows such Haven of Grace and Start Over, and is in follow up discussions with buyers.
Randall Broman, Head of International Distribution, Scripted Content at Mediawan Rights, said: “The French TV screenings were no doubt a good and successful initiative, as displayed by the very positive feedback we received from clients in the days following. And with the success of this first edition, we trust – and hope – Unifrance will make it a yearly fixture going forward.”
Alix Lebrat, COO of TV Series for Studiocanal said she was “very pleased to start the year attending this insightful market in Paris, and it was a great opportunity to showcase our factual slate, which has been incredibly well received.
“Paris was the perfect venue to screen our highly anticipated series Air Cocaine and to expand on the three editorial pillars we will be focusing on for our non-scripted pipeline: true crime, sports and spotlights on Europe.”
Unifrance created the French TV Screenings to give the country a chance to ride the wave of interest in Gallic content that has followed streaming series Call My Agent! and Lupin. The UK, Germany and Nordics are among European territories that already hold annual screenings events.
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