News

Slate includes Nigerian comedy-drama ‘Niagara’.

Sphere Films International, formerly WaZabi Films, heads to Toronto with sales rights to TIFF Platform pair Viking and Riceboy Sleeps and Australian Discovery selection Sweet As.

Viking is a French and English-language sci-fi drama directed by Montreal’s Stéphane Lafleur about researchers who try to replicate a manned mission to Mars in the hopes of solving conflict among the real crew.

Luc Déry and Kim McCraw of micro_scope produced Viking, which Lafleur co-wrote with Eric K. Boulianne. Hamza Haq stars alongside Fabiola N. Aladin, Marie Brassard and Larissa Corriveau.

Lafleur’s first film Continental,...

Slate includes Australian Discovery selection ‘Sweet As’, Nigerian comedy-drama ‘Niagara’.

Sphere Films International, formerly WaZabi Films, heads to Toronto with sales rights to TIFF Platform pair Viking and Riceboy Sleeps.

Viking is a French and English-language sci-fi drama directed by Montreal’s Stéphane Lafleur about researchers who try to replicate a manned mission to Mars in the hopes of solving conflict among the real crew.

Luc Déry and Kim McCraw of micro_scope produced Viking, which Lafleur co-wrote with Eric K. Boulianne. Hamza Haq stars alongside Fabiola N. Aladin, Marie Brassard and Larissa Corriveau.

Lafleur’s first film Continental, A...

Film to premiere on September 10.

WaZabi Films has boarded worldwide sales excluding Canada on documentary Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine ahead of its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) next week.

Sam Dunn and Marc Ricciardelli directed the film about the Canadian rock trio that rose to fame in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s before their abrupt departure.

The film, set against a backdrop of spandex, glam hair and pyrotechnics, explores fame and the human condition as the band reunites for what might be the last time. Banger Films produced Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine in association with Revolver Films.

Roster includes Lantern’s Lane, Flee The Light.

Montreal-based WaZabi Films will launch sales on Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) world premiere selections Maria Chapdelaine from Sébastien Pilote and Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Birds (Les Oiseaux Ivres).

Maria Chapdelaine will screen in Contemporary World Cinema and takes place in rural Quebec in the early 20th century where a teenage girl must choose one of three suitors. Pilote adapted the screenplay from Louis Hémon’s 1913 novel. WaZabi represents worldwide rights excluding Canada, where MK2|Mile End will distribute.

Pierre Even (War Witch) of Item 7 and Sylvain Proulx produced the film, which...

Doc joins Ma Belle, My Beauty on sales roster.

Montreal-based sales outfit WaZabi Films has acquired worldwide rights excluding Canada to Hot Docs crowd-pleaser My Tree and will launch sales at the virtual Cannes market in June.

The film follows writer-director Jason Sherman as he embarks on a trip to Israel to find the origins of a tree that was planted in his name 40 years earlier.

My Tree combines political undertones with environmental and social issue concerns and explores one man’s journey to find the truth no matter where it takes him.

Sherman’s Some Canadian Inc. and Hawkeye Pictures...

Good Deed Entertainment to release in US in August.

Montreal-based sales company WaZabi Films has bulked up its virtual Cannes sales slate for next month, picking up international rights to Sundance Next audience award winner Ma Belle, My Beauty.

‘Ma Belle, My Beauty’: SXSW Review

Marion Hill’s USA-France drama was also a SXSW selection and tells of old passions and jealousies that are reignited in the south of France between two women who were formerly polyamorous lovers.

Idella Johnson, Hannah Pepper, Lucien Guignard, and Sivan Noam Shimon star. Producers are Ben Matheny, Kelsey Scult, and Hill.

Good Deed Entertainment...

Good Deed Entertainment to release in US in August.

Montreal-based sales company WaZabi Films has bulked up its virtual Cannes sales slate for next month, picking up international rights to Sundance Next audience award winner Ma Belle, Ma Beauty.

‘Ma Belle, Ma Beauty’: SXSW Review

Marion Hill’s USA-France drama was also a SXSW selection and tells of old passions and jealousies that are reignited in the south of France between two women who were formerly polyamorous lovers.

Idella Johnson, Hannah Pepper, Lucien Guignard, and Sivan Noam Shimon star. Producers are Ben Matheny, Kelsey Scult, and Hill.

Good Deed...

Montreal sales agent also adds The Vinland Club to the roster.

Montreal-based WaZabi Films has picked up worldwide sales rights excluding Canada to Tracey Deer’s feature debut Beans, which will premiere in TIFF Next Wave Discovery section next month.

Beans is inspired by true events and centres on a young Mohawk girl who comes of age during the 1990 Oka Crisis armed stand-off over land rights.

Straddling childhood and adolescence, the youngster struggles to build her own identity amid the chaos of the uprising and a world that views her as different.

“Beans is a very timely film,” said WaZabi...

Film Movement, Level 33 among Us buyers.

Heading into the Cannes virtual market, busy WaZabi Films has closed Us and European sales on Mafia Inc, a key territory on Cannes official selection Nadia Butterfly, and a North American deal on Broken Mirrors starring Unorthodox breakout Shira Haas.

The Montreal-based sales outfit run by Anick Poirier and Lorne Price has licensed Us rights on Mafia Inc to Film Movement in the Us, Koba Films in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and French-speaking Switzerland, and One 2 See in Dutch-speaking Benelux.

Film Movement plans a digital launch in early winter later this year.

Daniel Grou directed...

Film Movement, Level 33 among Us buyers.

Heading into the Cannes virtual market, busy WaZabi Films has closed Us and European sales on Mafia Inc, a key territory on Cannes official selection Nadia Butterfly, and a North American deal on Broken Mirrors starring Unorthodox breakout Shira Haas.

The Montreal-based sales outfit run by Anick Poirier and Lorne Price has licensed Us rights on Mafia Inc to Film Movement in the Us, Koba Films in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and French-speaking Switzerland, and One 2 See in Dutch-speaking Benelux.

Film Movement plans a digital launch in early winter later this year.

Daniel Grou directed...

Sales slate includes Cannes Official Selection Nadia, Butterfly, You Will Remember Me.

With a week to go before the Cannes virtual market kicks off, Anick Poirier and Lorne Price’s WaZabi Films has picked up worldwide rights excluding Australia and New Zealand to Australian family drama Moon Rock For Monday.

Writer/director Kurt Martin’s film stars Aaron Jeffery, George Pullar and newcomer Ashlyn Louden-Gamble in the title role of Monday.

Moon Rock For Monday centres on a terminally ill girl and a fugitive who embark on a road trip to visit a moon rock the girl believes will heal her.

Vertical Entertainment to release in Us and UK, Game Theory in Canada.

Montreal-based WaZabi Films has picked up worldwide sales rights excluding North America and UK to Andrea Dorfman’s “anti” rom-com Spinster starring Chelsea Peretti of Brooklyn Nine Nine.

Vertical Entertainment will release the film from Woods Entertainment, Northeast Films and Shut Up & Colour Pictures in the Us and UK, while Game Theory will handle distribution in Canada.

WaZabi will launch talks with buyers immediately on Spinster, which follows Peretti’s character Gaby as she is unceremoniously dumped on her 39th birthday and embarks on a dating rampage...