New Europe Film Sales has announced the first sales for Cannes Un Certain Regard-selected “Godland,” directed by Iceland’s Hlynur Pálmason.
The film was picked up in France by Jour2Fete, and the movie was also acquired by three distributors that worked on Pálmason’s Cannes Critics’ Week title “A White, White Day” – Benelux rights were sold to Imagine, Poland was picked up by New Horizons Association and Australia/New Zealand was picked up by Palace.
The film is set in the late 19th century, when a young Danish priest travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, the mission and morality.
The film is produced by Denmark’s Snowglobe in collaboration with Iceland’s Join Motion Pictures, in co-production with France’s Maneki Films, Film I Väst & Garagefilm in Sweden, with support from DFI, IFC, CMC, SFI, NFTF, Creative Europe Media, Hornafjörður Municipality, Sass, DR, Rúv, Sena, Scanbox and New Europe Film Sales.
The producers are Katrin Pors, Anton Máni Svansson, Eva Jakobsen and Mikkel Jersin, and the co-producers Didar Domehri, Mimmi Spång, Anthony Muir, Peter Possne and Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson.
Hlynur Pálmason is working again with his regular collaborators that include his producers, the sales company, DOP Maria von Hausswolff, editor Julius Krebs Damsbo and actors Elliott Crosset Hove (“Winter Brothers”), Ingvar Sigurðsson (“A White, White Day”), Vic Carmen Sonne (“Winter Brothers”) and Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir (“A White, White Day,” “NEST”).
New Europe Film Sales is preparing for Cannes where they will show “Godland” to industry attendees. The company’s lineup also includes Berlin-premiered “A Piece of Sky” by Michael Koch, and “Beautiful Beings” by Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, as well as upcoming feature animation “The Peasants” by Dorota Kobiela (“Loving Vincent”).
Last year in Cannes, New Europe Film Sales premiered “Lamb” by Valdimar Jóhannsson, starring Noomi Rapace, which was released in U.S. by A24, and already over the first weekend became the highest grossing Icelandic film in the U.S. ever.