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.]

"We're thrilled to be working on Ducastel and Martineau's film, it has a huge amount of warmth and humor that will translate commercially, " said Gerrans and Hu of the film's potential in the US. They closed the deal with BAC's Silvere Moreau and Camille Neel.

Jacques Audiard's (The Beat That My Heart Skipped), which had its Berlinale debut yesterday, is another hot French title. The story of young mobster trying to become a concert pianist is adapted from the 1978 James Toback film, "Fingers." Audiard's follow-up to "Read My Lips," stars Romain Duris, Aure Atika, Emmanuelle Devos, and Niels Arestrup Celluloid Dreams is selling the movie and expects to close a U.S. deal imminently.

Celluloid is also selling Hany Abu-Assad's Berlinale competition title, <>"Paradise Now", the rare competition title that that has been a hot topic among media, buyers and festival programmers alike here in Berlin. In the film, the director of "Rana's Wedding" takes a closer look at a pair Palestinian suicide-bombers planning an attack in Tel-Aviv. Word of mouth on the film has been great for the film and it is one of the movies tipped to win a prize at Saturday's awards announcement.

A late Berlinale entry also has buyers talking. Lagos Koltai's "Fateless" joined the fest roster after "Heights" was dropped from the lineup -- buzz around the fest said that organizers dropped it after Glenn Close decided not to attend. "Fateless," which looks at a group of Hungarian Jews tortured in a Nazi concentration camp, has already been a hit in Hungary. The film boasts top-notch technical credits, features actor Daniel Craig, and a score by Ennio Morricone, making it a potential U.S. buy.

As mentioned, few films have garnered widespread acclaim here in Berlin. On the final day of competition screenings, Jacob Thuesen's Danish title, "Anklaget" (Accused), was seen as a potential hit with critics. Scanning the back page of the Screen International festival daily, which surveys the critical responses from 9 international reviewers, "Paradise Now" and Robert Guediguian's "The Late Mitterand" seemed to be the top critical favorites as of Friday morning, with Marc Rothemund's "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" also scoring positive notices.