Xavier Beauvois's hit film has been sold in around fifty territories.
More than half of these sales deals were signed at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where the film won the Jury Grand Prize.
With acquisitions in North America and Europe, South Africa and the Mideast, not to mention the majority of Central American countries, this story of the French monks of Tibhirine in Algeria has found enthusiastic buyers across the globe.
Widely acclaimed in France by critics and audiences alike (attracting 3 million French spectators), Of Gods and Men went on to light up screens in other French-speaking territories. After ten weeks in Belgian theaters, the film ranks as the most successful French film of the year (ahead of Camping 2), with 140,000 admissions. This achievement is all the more impressive considering the genre of the film: it is neither a comedy nor an animated film, French genres that usually reach the top of the Belgian box office. In Switzerland, it pulled in close to 40,000 spectators, ranking in 5th place for French films in this territory this year, behind Oceans, Heartbreaker, The Ghost Writer, and Gainsbourg. Released three weeks ago in Italy, the film has proved a surprise hit, with already 130,000 admissions to its credit and attendance figures rising each week (56 prints released).
Release dates in other territories will be staggered until the second six months of 2011, with the Baltic States launching the film Thursday of this week and its release scheduled in Germany in mid-December and late December in Scandinavia.
Let us keep in mind that Of Gods and Men has been selected to represent France at the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign-Language Film category.
