by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE

Award-winning Berlin 2005 feature "Paradise Now" by Hany Abu-Assad has been acquired by Warner Independent Pictures in a North American and U.K. rights deal. Mark Gill, president of the L.A. based distributor announced the pact Tuesday. WIP senior vice president, production and acquisitions, Paul Federbush negotiated the deal with Hengameh Panahi and Charlotte Mickie of Celluloid Dreams. Warner Independent Pictures plans an October 2005 release.

"Paradise Now," which won the Berliner Morgenpost Reader's Prize at the Berlinale last week, as well as an Amnesty International prize, is the story of two Palestinian childhood friends who have been recruited for a suicide mission in Tel Aviv. It centers on what is presumably their final day on earth; they are sworn to secrecy and cannot utter a word of their plans to their families. The following day, the two are sent to the border, but are ultimately separated from one another, leaving each one up to their own fate, while struggling with their convictions. In the words of Warner Independent announcement, the film "gives voice to the Palestinian condemnation of violence while offering insight into the individuals behind such heinous crimes."

[A scene from Hany Abu-Assad's "Paradise Now". Image provided by Warner Independent Pictures.]

by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE

The European Film Market here in Berlin is wrapping up with sellers packing up booths inside the DaimlerChrysler Atrium and many buyers already back home or taking long weekends elsewhere in Europe. On the final day of the EFM here, U.S. based Strand Releasing and French BAC Films announced that Strand has nabbed the U.S. rights to Olivier Ducastel & Jacques Martineau's "Crustacés et Coquillages" (Mariscos Beach), a funny French farce about a family on a summer holiday along the Cote d'Azur. The Berlinale Panorama title was a hit during the first weekend of this year's festival.

"Mariscos," which Strand will release this fall, stars Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Gilbert Melki, Jean-Marc Barr, Jacques Bonnaffé, Edouard Collin, and Romain Torres.

[Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Gilbert Melki in a scene from Olivier Ducastel & Jacques Martineau's "Crustacés et Coquillages" (Mariscos Beach). Image provided by Berlinale.]

by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE

While European Film Market attendees are already buzzing about the anticipated move to the larger Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition site next year, a 10-minute walk from the current crowded EFM site in Potsdamer Platz, the 2005 market is proving to be busy for some buyers and sellers. That said, other U.S. acquisitions folks are hoping that a few more titles deserving of a U.S. release will emerge.

A pair of French films has piqued some American buyer interest in the first few days of the Berlinale and the European Film Market. Jacques Audiard's "De battre mon coeur s'est arête" (The Beat That My Heart Slipped), the story of young concert pianist criminal yearning for true love, is seen as a Berlinale film that will likely find U.S. theatrical distribution. While it will have its festival debut for attendees and press later in the week, many buyers screened the movie over the weekend at a special screening for acquisitions folks. Starring Romain Duris, Aure Atika, Emmanuelle Devos, and Niels Arestrup, the movie will screen in its Berlinale competition slot on Thursday here in Germany.

With the European Film Market underway here in Berlin, concurrent with the annual Berlinale, Picture This! Entertainment has announced its acquisition of all North American rigths to the German film "Napola", from Bavaria Film International.

The film, directed by Dennis Gansel, was the audience award winner at the 2004 Hamptons International Film Festival last fall. It also received the EuropaCinema Platinum Award at the 2004 Viareggio EuropaCinema Festival and will be released in theaters this coming autumn. "Napola" is currently in release in Germany by Constantin Film, where it has grossed $2.2 million.

"Napola," written by Gansel and co-written by Maggie Peren, is the story of a young a boxer (played by Max Riemelt) who is discovered by an instructor at a Nazi school (known as a 'Napola' or National Political School). At the school, the boxer develops a friendship with the son of a Nazi Party leader, a young man who is critical of the Nazi teachings of the school.

Riemelt won the best actor award at the 2004 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, for his performance and will receive a prize as one of the Europen 'Shooting Stars', this weekened at the Berlin Film Festival.

Douglas Witkins negotiated the deal for Picture This!, while Michael Weber and Thorsten Schaumann handled the deal for Bavaria.

Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Rian Johnson's "Brick" in a $2 million deal that was announced Sunday at Sundance. Its the latest deal at a market that was busy with buyers paying big bucks for fest films.

"Brick," honored on Saturday here in Park City with a Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision, is a high school fim noir that stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Nora Zehetner, Matt O'Leary, Noah Fleiss, and Richard Roundtree.

by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE

In the third deal today for a comedy announced today at Sundance, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Roadside Attractions have acquired North American rights to Marcos Siega's Sundance American Dramatic Competition film, "Pretty Persuasion". The company announced Thursday that it will release the movie during the late summer of this year.

Siega's "Persuasion" is the story of Kimberly Joyce (played by Evan Rachel Wood), a mouthy teenager going to an exclusive Beverly Hills private school. As Sundance programmer Geoff Gilmore notes in the festival catalog, "When Kimberly and two classmates decide to pursue a sexual harassment suit against one of their teachers, this roller coaster takes off."