Every month, in order to better understand the issues surrounding international sales, festival strategies, and foreign releases of French films, Unifrance will offer the point of view of a sales agent involved in a film's career.
Nicolas Philibert's documentary On the Adamant inaugurates this focus, while the Année du Documentaire (Year of the Documentary) has just begun. Sold by Les Films du Losange, its trajectory has been straight and perfect: after winning the Golden Bear in Berlin, it will be released in France on April 19 and has already been sold worldwide. Alice Lesort, sales agent at the Films du Losange, talks about the film's still-new but sterling path on the international scene.
Unifrance: When did On the Adamant arrive at Les Films du Losange?
Alice Lesort: Losagne is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and one of the hallmarks of the company is its loyalty and fidelity to its filmmakers, among whom Nicolas Philibert, since the international service has existed, which is to say more than twenty years. We sold Philibert's To Be and to Have, a major documentary success in France and around the world. Nicolas works independently, in the sense that he doesn't let his subjects dictate to him, but on the other hand he talks about them very early on with his partners, including Losange. For several years now, we have been discussing On the Adamant's subject with him, namely mental health, which is a strong and universal subject, and extremely present in the world today.
At what point in the film's existence did you start working on sales strategies?
As soon as we saw an early version of it, in the summer of 2022. We immediately wondered how the film fit into today's world, and it's a slightly unfortunate to say, but Covid-19 has caused the number of people with mental illnesses to skyrocket. On a more positive note, the subject is more easily talked about today. We knew that it wasn't an easy subject, but we also knew that the film was more accessible than the subject may give audiences reason to believe: it is an extremely luminous and positive film, without naivety, extremely sensitive toward the people filmed. It brings hope. We know that in the international market, tough and dark films have a lot of trouble selling at the moment, and we told ourselves that we were going to emphasize to foreign distributors the great humanity of Nicolas's gaze, his optimism, so that the theme wouldn't worry them.
When did the film start being shown?
As soon as the Berlinale competition slot was confirmed and the French release was scheduled for the spring, we decided to organize two private screenings in Brussels and Geneva, prior to Berlin. Knowing that releases in French-speaking countries were going to follow the French release, we couldn't leave them to discover the film in Berlin, it would have been a little bit unfair. In Switzerland, José Michel Buhler (Adok Films),who goes back a long way with Nicolas Philibert, loved the film and bought it right away. We were delighted, because we know that times are hard and that remaining loyal to filmmakers is unfortunately not always possible with certain specific films. The difficulty of the local markets can sometimes block certain arthouse distributors in their momentum.
On the other hand, Andrea Romeo (I Wonder Pictures) had bought Nicolas Philibert's catalog for Italy a year earlier, and in the continuity he pre-purchased On the Adamant, without even seeing it. It's a very bold move, and one that worked for him!
When you have the film of a famous documentary filmmaker like Nicolas Philibert in your hands, how does the festival strategy begin?
From the outset, we were aiming for a major festival, and since the film was ready for Berlin, it made sense for us to show it there, especially since Nicolas has a good connection with Carlo Chatrian, who had already selected his films for Locarno. If we hadn't been happy with the Berlin proposal, there was no rush, we would have turned to Cannes or Venice. Our condition was really that the film would be selected for competition – which is a rather daring position for a documentary film, because placement is limited and highly sought after. But we were convinced that it was a very, very big film and that we could afford to be so firm. Carlo himself was very courageous in his choice to enter it in competition, because the Berlinale was coming out of two very difficult years and we knew that he was under some pressure to make the festival a little more "red carpet." And the question of glamor and stars in the selection of films in a festival is important, whether we like it or not. And here we were presenting a documentary that seeks the opposite of sensationalism.
It was the first time that Nicolas was in competition in a A-list festival. He had always understood programmers' choices and accepted to be presented in parallel sections, with the great humility that characterizes him. With this film, we said to ourselves that it was his turn, that he had always played the game, and that On the Adamant was a sufficiently crucial film and merited a competition slot.
"Something is happening with documentaries right now"
The film garnered the top award, the Golden Bear.
The feedback was very good, so I wasn't totally surprised that the film was included in the list of winners, even though Nicolas was more taken aback! Something is happening with documentaries right now, and I'm very happy about this because it's a time when releasing a documentary in theaters has become extremely difficult, more so abroad than in France. People see them on platforms, but less and less in theaters. And that's unfortunate, because a documentary is a film, and Philibert's cinema is really meant to be seen in a setting where the experience and emotion can be shared. In view of what's happening in the market, this momentum of documentary films in the major festivals is timely and will help us fight against the reflex of many countries to redirect them to platforms or TV.
Was there a Golden Bear effect on the film's sales?
Totally. For a documentary, the "all rights" distributors question the way they'll make the film exist on their market, and the Golden Bear eradicated this fear and gave us a lot of support. But the film was shown on the last day of the festival, so everything was done very quickly, and we didn't have the time to step back from the official screening and its initial media coverage. We signed about thirty territories, with a certain number still under negotiation, and roughly speaking, apart from Latin America, which is still very complicated, the film will be sold all over the world, and I am sure that it wouldn't have happened like this without the Golden Bear.
What is the proportion of sales for theatrical releases?
Absolutely all the sales we have made so far are full rights sales with theatrical releases, especially in Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan), but also in the United States and Quebec. So it's very, very good for the documentary genre and for the story that On the Adamant is specifically about. This film is about people who are very damaged, who we tend to turn away from when we meet them in the subway! Here, we give them time to develop their thoughts; the documentary doesn't sensationalize. It's a political film but without being political. It doesn't show everything that's wrong with psychiatry today, but it shows that it can be also function well, and allows us to see that art therapy, time spent with these people, is a very fine and productive way to treat and take care of them or help them find their balance. At the same time, there is nothing naive about the film's gaze.
This is a film whose release will most likely generate a lot of debate.
A huge amount. This is what is being done in France and Switzerland at the moment, and will be replicated abroad by the distributors, who will try to mobilize actors from the world of mental health, who will come to meet the public and reappropriate the subject, beyond the Adamant and what the film specifically says about mental health in France. Nicolas will travel as much as possible, he has made room in his agenda because he knows how much, for films to exist internationally today, we need artists to get involved. His support will be absolutely essential, and he recognizes this.
On the Adamant is the first film in a trilogy about mental health. How far along are the other two films?
Everything has already been shot: it was a fairly homogeneous gesture, with many of the same people filmed from one film to the next. The second film is in the process of being finished, and because of the Golden Bear and the sales of the first film, because of the spotlight cast upon it, we'll probably wait a little while before releasing the second film, which may not be before 2024.
