France’s Other Angle Pictures has expanded its footprint into the US market with a new Los Angeles-based arm focused on distribution, production and international sales of French features with a focus on crowd-pleasing comedies and more commercial dramas. The company will acquire titles independently and release them in association with US distribution partners for limited theatrical release. The company intends to acquire titles independently and release them in association with US distribution partners in limited theatrical release.
Albou told
Screen that Other Angle’s US branch will work with “a regular stream of films that we love and we think audiences will enjoy to maximize all the ancillary revenues including TVoD, SVoD and AVoD.”The stateside set-up “will enable us to grow our business with our majority French slate and also allow us to get on board English language projects from the financing stage.”
Rethinking the remake market
Through its new US branch, Other Angle is aiming to follow projects more closely after the US rights are sold – and give them a better chance of getting made – by matching titles to the best US producers and remaining executive producers of the remakes.
In recent times Other Angle has sold remake rights to French hits
Retirement Home and The Last Diamond, and received offers for Babysitting, but none made it to production in the U.S.“We’ve had many opportunities for remakes in the US particularly in recent years, but for many different reasons, they never got made. Albou added that the stateside set-up “will enable us to grow our business with our majority French slate and also allow us to get on board English “Having lived both in France and the U.S. for many years, it seemed natural to try and bridge the cultures with comedy.” The showcase will feature a handful of current French titles, both its own
The Midwife,
plus [French]A Difficult Year
(Gaumont), Second Round (Pathe)and Only 3 Days Left (Studiocanal)that topped the French box office last week. Albou said, “We have seen proof that US audiences appreciate popular comedies even if they haven’t won awards or been at a film We are not looking to replace sales agents or retain any commissions from the deals. We’ll be on the production side of remakes.” Other Angle is testing the waters with French features, but hopes to extend its reach to titles from other territories in the years ahead.The company has previously sold a slew of titles stateside, including On The Other Side Of The Tracks with Omar Sy
to The Weinstein Company and Jean Claude Van Damme action comedy
The Last Mercenary,
which it co-produced as a Netflix Original in 2021.In 2022, it championed French box office sensation Simone: A Woman Of A Century that was released in the US in August by Samuel Goldwyn Films. It has also sold English-language titles like Anna Kerrigan’s Tribeca-winning Cowboys, Sam Friedlander’s
Babysplitters and Hilla Medalia’s Cannes title The Go-Go Boys which it also co-produced.The company has recently scored multiple territory deals for Melanie Auffret’s Sweet Little Things and Jennifer Devoldere’s Warner Bros feature The Midwife, and is currently selling Geraldine Danon’s ocean-set female sailor biopic
Flo which premiered in official selection in Cannes.Other Angle’s 2023-24 slate of titles includes Reda Kateb’s first feature On the Edge andBenoit Cohen’s My Motherland
starring Fanny Ardant.UK and Spain emerge as the leading European production hubs for global streamers
