Top Unsold International Films of 2023 – The Hollywood Reporter
“Wind City”, “Little Blue Girl” and “There’s Still Tomorrow”
Courtesy of Aurora Films; Cannes Film Festival; Courtesy of Claudio Iannone
Despite its many flaws, 2023 has been a great year for global blockbusters. Awards season is abuzz with international gems like director Justine Triet’s French courtroom thriller Anatomy of a fall (released by Neonstateside), a German-language Holocaust drama from director Jonathan Glazer Area of interest (A24), Japanese anime by Hayao Miyazaki The boy and the heron (GKids), and the true-life Spanish-language survival story of JA Bayona Snow Association (Netflix) is only scratching the surface.
Among many other notable foreign events from the past year is MOBI Fallen leaves And How to have sex – the former a succinct triumph for Finnish film master Aki Kaurismäki, the latter a stunning feature debut by Molly Manning-Walker, a British first-timer – Sony Pictures Classics. Teachers’ loungea German school drama directed by İlker Çatak and an Iranian drama Shaida From director Nora Nesari; Agnieszka Holland is awful Green borderabout Poland’s treatment of potential refugees on its border with Belarus (acquired by Kino Lorber and Modern Films for domestic release); and Trần Anh Hùng’s French foodie romance Taste of things (IFC Films and Studio Saban).
Despite this embarrassment of riches, many of the best international films from last year’s festival circuit are still searching for a home in the United States.
here Hollywood ReporterList of the top 10 unsold international features from 2023 that American audiences deserve to see.
There’s still tomorrow
Paola Cortellisi’s black-and-white drama – the story of a domestically abused woman (played by Cortellisi) living in post-World War II Rome – was the number one Italian film of 2023, overtaking Barbie To the office box. In its turns tragic, romantic, and deeply funny, Cortellisi’s directorial debut filters the style of Italian neorealism through a 21st-century feminist sensibility.
US Sales: Distribution of vision
Wind City
Another feature film debut, this Mongolian drama from director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir debuted, which premiered in Venice, where newcomer Tergel Bold-Erdene took home the Best Actor award in the festival’s Horizons sidebar for his role as Ze, He is a teenage shaman in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. . Zee’s shy romance with city girl Marala (Nomin Erden Arionbiamba) is the beating heart of the film, but the real surprise comes with Borev Osher’s hopeful take on the “old versus new” story trope, which negotiates a compromise between old and new. Tradition and the modern world.
US sales: Best friends forever
Little blue girl
Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard stars in this critically acclaimed documentary/psychodrama directed by Mona Aashash. the Life Rosary And beginning The star plays Ashash’s mother, Carole Ashash, a writer, photographer and actress who committed suicide in 2016. Hollywood ReporterIt’s called a review Little blue girl “A powerful, personal family portrait (and) very honest.”
US Sales: Charades
Explanation of everything
A hit from Venice, where it won the main prize in Horizons’ sidebar, this slice of social satire from Hungarian director Gábor Riesz also won over audiences at the Chicago International Film Festival, winning Best Picture and Best Screenplay. The story of frenzied tabloid reporting and polarized politics that turns an underachieving high school student into an unlikely right-wing cause feels uncomfortably topical and resonates beyond its national borders.
US Sales: Movie boutique
As for Gloria
Mary Amashukele As for Gloria It wowed them at Cannes this year, opening the Critics’ Week sidebar and making reviewers rave about the performance of lead Louise Mauroy-Panzani as 6-year-old Cleo. The nuanced domestic drama about Cleo’s relationship with her widowed father (Arnaud Rebottini) and her Cape Verdean governess, Gloria (Ilka Moreno Zigo), explores issues of privilege and the history of French colonialism but is primarily a tribute to compassion.
US Sales: Pyramid Films
Just the two of us
The phenomenal Belgian star Virginie Efira (deer, Benedetta, Other people’s children) shines in this taut French psychodrama. Director Valery Donzelli (heart’s Queen) removes flashy genre tropes in it Sleeping with the enemy The story – Efira plays a woman whose perfect husband (Melvil Poupaud) is revealed to be a psychotic abuser – provides a horrifyingly realistic portrait of domestic violence.
US Sales: Good guys
Seven blessings
Ayelet Menachemi’s crowd-pleasing drama, which follows the complex dynamics of a Moroccan-Israeli family coming together to celebrate a week-long wedding, has swept the Israel Film Academy Awards, but has yet to attract much international attention. Despite strong local buzz, the film still does not have an international sales agent.
US Sales: No sales agent attached
Finally dawn
Saverio Costanzo’s homage to Fellini and his “Hollywood on the Tiber” days at Rome’s Cinecittà studio may seem like the perfect match for cinephiles around the world. A starry-eyed young Italian woman (Rebecca Antonacci) gets swept up in a wild night straight from… La dolce vita While American film star Liz Taylor is accompanied by Josephine Esperanto (Lily James) and her entourage, including Willem Dafoe as an expatriate American art dealer, and Rachel Sinnott as an up-and-coming actress who wants to become the next Hollywood queen. . A lively love letter to cinema that still manages to be clear about the cynicism behind much of the film’s charm.
US Sales: Utah
A woman from…
Malgorzata Szomovska and Michal Englert’s tender portrait of one woman’s life’s journey through 45 years of struggle in Poland — a country whose voters recently ousted a right-wing, conservative, transphobic government — has been hailed in its Venice debut as a rare window into a society that remains Have official recognition. This fact contributed to the casting of cisgender actress Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik in the lead role. Acting schools in Poland remain strictly binary, but trans and non-binary people have participated as consultants and appeared on screen in many supporting roles.
US sales: International Film Souvenir
The mother of all lies
Despite winning the Golden Eye Award for Best First Feature Film at Cannes and being shortlisted for the 2024 Academy Awards for Best International Feature, Asmaa Director’s Moroccan film is still searching for a home in the United States. The hybrid documentary recreates the events surrounding the 1981 Casablanca bread riots and their impact on the director’s family, using a dollhouse scale model of her childhood neighborhood and figurines representing family, friends, and neighbors. A fun and innovative but also deeply moving examination of family, memory and generational trauma.
US sales: Outlook movie sales
