Sydney Levine

Separation's Director Asghar Farhadi accepting the Golden Bear What a thrill is was to go to the Closing Night of the Berlinale. It felt like a night among royalty. Dieter Kosslick, with his funny twists in welcoming guests and sponsors, was accompanied by a golden comedienne who translated into English, occasionally lapsing into other unintelligible languages. My stars are those of the business world. The international audience included Francine Brucher, head of Swiss Films, Claudia Landsberger head of Holland's Eye Film Institute, Mohammad Esfandiari of Farabi Cinema Foundation (Iran), etc. and when Beki Probst entered, my section (I was sitting among my market colleagues) almost broke into a standing ovation. It has been a great market with lots of sales, more pickups from Sundance than ever before which were selling well along with the rest, winning prizes (On the Ice notably won Best First Feature giving me extra nachas for having blogged about it in Sundance.). And the festival fare was solid. The antiticipation among us was high; while we had been tipped that Iran's Nader and Simin: A Separation might win, we were astounded that Isabella Rossellini's jury awarded both Best Actor and Best Actress Awards to the entire male and female ensembles of the film as well. How thrilling to be among the Iranians at that moment, to share their joy after having received rather mixed government orders to return home when the popular uprising took hold once again in Iran. To be at an international film festival in the midst of the world's upheavals, seeing films from the very countries in the news was another extraordinary experience I shall never forget. After the Awards, we watched A Separation, a complex and beautiful film about the nature of justice which cannot exist if it is based upon a lie, how all adults lie even with the best intentions, and how the children, who only want love and truth are the ones to suffer the results. To cap it off, Memento, the international sales company of Emilie Georges with mistress of sales Tanya Meissner, sold off almost every territory by showtime Saturday night, an equally rare event for the festival films, even for the winners. "We had offers five minutes after the very first market screening before any press review came out," said Meissner. See Rights Roundup for sales.For all awards see IndieWIRE.

Andrew MacLean's On the IcePape Boye and Jaume Domenech of Paris based Coach 14 picked up 2 films in Sundance: Terri which ATO had acquired for U.S. in Toronto, and just after Sundance, they picked up what won the Berlinale's Best First Picture Award, On The Ice, a beautifully told story taking place in the isolated, frozen town of Barrow, Alaska about two Iñupiaq teenagers ('Skimos' as they call themselves) who have grown up like brothers in a tight-knit community defined as much by ancient traditions as by hip-hop and snowmobiles and who are caught up in an accidental murder of a third friend while on a seal hunt. Panic stricken, terrified, and with no one to blame but themselves, they lie and declare the death a tragic accident. Terri by Azazel Jacobs

Beki Probst, EFM's Director

Pyramide International is part of Pyramide group which is a French distribution company (Pyramide Distribution) and a French production company (Pyramide Productions) as well as an international sales agent. The company was founded in 1989. As a world sales agent, Pyramide International (former FPI) has deliberately focused on the “film d’auteur”, and promotes international sales of young directors like Sandrine Veysset (WILL IT SNOW FOR XMAS ?), Diego Lerman (TAN DE REPENTE), Wang Xiao-Shuai (BEIJING BICYCLE), Eleonore Faucher (BRODEUSES) and more recently Etgar Keret & Shira Geffen (JELLYFISH – Camera d’Or Cannes 2007) and Lucia Puenzo (XXY – Grand Prize of Critics’ Week Cannes 2007). Of course it continues with representation of the many directors and their producers who have trusted the company throughout its own development.