“In Our Day,” the film by South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo which closes the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes film festival, has seen distributors in multiple territories move early to strike rights deals.
French rights were picked up by Capricci), Spanish rights by L’Atalante Cinema and Greek rights by Ama Films. The film has its official premiere on May 25.
Seoul-based Finecut has long been the sales agent for Hong’s plentiful output. In addition to the deals on “In Our Day,” Finecut signed agreements with L’Atalante, with France’s Ariona Films and Taiwan’s Cola Films for “In Water,” Hong’s first film of 2023 which premiered in the Encounters section in Berlin in February. The film was previously sold to Cinema Guild for North America.
Finecut continues to do business on “Next Sohee,” the Jung July film which played at Cannes last year as the closing film of the Critics’Week section. It has recently been licensed to Australia (Special Broadcasting Service Corporation), China (Beijing BlueMedia Times Cultural Development) and Spain (La Aventura Cine) in addition to the previous deals for France (Arizona Films Distribution), India (Pictureworks), Japan (Rights Cube), Taiwan (Sky Films Entertainment), and for Switzerland and Liechtenstein to Trigon Film. Starring Bae Doona and Kim Si-eun, “Next Sohee” has gathered more than 93,600 admissions since its opening on April 5 in France.
Greenhouse, another female-directed title, which premiered at last year’s Busan International Film Festival and secured a trio of prizes, has been the subject of multiple rights deals. It was licensed to France’s Art House Films, Japan’s Mimosa Films and Taiwan’s AV-JET International.
“The Hill of Secrets,” by a third woman director Lee Ji-eun, was licensed to Plaion Pictures for Germany, Austria, Alto Adige, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg and Switzerland. The film had its world premiere in Berlin’s Generation Kplus section. It was previously licensed to Edko Films for Hong Kong and Macau and to AV-JET for Taiwan.
