Kino Lorber Acquires North American Rights to Senegal’s Oscar Submission ‘Banel & Adama’ (Exclusive)
Kino Lorber has acquired from Best Friend Forever all North American distribution rights to Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s directorial debut “Banel & Adama,” a beautifully haunting story of young love and Senegal’s official entry for the 96th Academy Awards. Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release in 2024, followed by a home video, educational and digital release on all major platforms.
“Banel & Adama” made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was the only first feature to premiere in Competition, and went on to play at the Toronto and London film festivals.
The film centers on young married couple Banel and Adama, who are fiercely in love. They live in a remote village in northern Senegal. For them, nothing else exists. Yet their perfect everlasting love is on a collision course with their community’s customs. Because in this world, there is no room for passion, let alone chaos.
“Banel & Adama” made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was the only first feature to premiere in Competition, and went on to play at the Toronto and London film festivals.
The film centers on young married couple Banel and Adama, who are fiercely in love. They live in a remote village in northern Senegal. For them, nothing else exists. Yet their perfect everlasting love is on a collision course with their community’s customs. Because in this world, there is no room for passion, let alone chaos.
- 11/28/2023
- by Leo Barraclough and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has revealed a raft of deals for key territories for Ramata-Toulaye Sy‘s feature film debut, “Banel & Adama,” which played in competition in Cannes and makes its North American premiere in Toronto. Variety reviewed it as “a dreamlike debut” in May.
The film just won the Melbourne International Film Festival’s top prize, the Bright Horizons Award.
The film was sold in Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Switzerland (trigon-films), Scandinavia (Njuta Films), Australia and New Zealand (Ahi), South Korea (Green Narae Media), Spain (Filmin), Greece (Cinobo), Portugal (Alambique), Poland (Afrykamera), and Baltics (From Afar). North America, U.K. and Japan are in discussions among others.
Previously announced deals are Tandem Films for French distribution, who just released the title in France and Pathé BC Afrique is releasing in Senegal on Oct. 4.
Ahead of TIFF, Best Friend Forever also unveiled the international trailer in exclusivity with Variety.
The film just won the Melbourne International Film Festival’s top prize, the Bright Horizons Award.
The film was sold in Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Switzerland (trigon-films), Scandinavia (Njuta Films), Australia and New Zealand (Ahi), South Korea (Green Narae Media), Spain (Filmin), Greece (Cinobo), Portugal (Alambique), Poland (Afrykamera), and Baltics (From Afar). North America, U.K. and Japan are in discussions among others.
Previously announced deals are Tandem Films for French distribution, who just released the title in France and Pathé BC Afrique is releasing in Senegal on Oct. 4.
Ahead of TIFF, Best Friend Forever also unveiled the international trailer in exclusivity with Variety.
- 9/9/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Senegalese and French director Ramata-Toulaye Sy is only the second Black woman to make it into Competition in Cannes. Her debut feature, Banel & Adama, which had its debut Saturday, follows in the footsteps of Mati Diop’s 2019 Atlantics.
Sy draws on her roots in the Fulani, or Peul, culture of the Futa region in northern Senegal for her magic-realist film about a young couple whose passion brings chaos to their remote rural community. “The people of Futa have the reputation of being very dignified and sticking to their community,” says Sy, who was born and grew up in France. “I was raised in the Fulani tradition at home and French culture outside.”
Inspiration for Banel & Adama came from a desire to create a tragic African heroine on par with Pierre Corneille’s Médée or Jean Racine’s Phèdre. “We don’t really have these mythical, tragic characters, or we do,...
Sy draws on her roots in the Fulani, or Peul, culture of the Futa region in northern Senegal for her magic-realist film about a young couple whose passion brings chaos to their remote rural community. “The people of Futa have the reputation of being very dignified and sticking to their community,” says Sy, who was born and grew up in France. “I was raised in the Fulani tradition at home and French culture outside.”
Inspiration for Banel & Adama came from a desire to create a tragic African heroine on par with Pierre Corneille’s Médée or Jean Racine’s Phèdre. “We don’t really have these mythical, tragic characters, or we do,...
- 5/20/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Debutante director Ramata-Toulaye Sy will join one of world cinema’s most select clubs when she climbs the stairs of the Grand Theatre Lumière on May 20 for the premiere of “Banel & Adama,” which unspools in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It marks just the second time in the French fest’s 76-year history that a Black woman will compete for the Palme d’Or, a glass ceiling that was shattered only four years ago by Sy’s French Senegalese compatriot, Mati Diop (“Atlantics”).
While acknowledging the honor, it is a club, Sy admits, about which she has some ambivalence. “I really hope that soon all this will be taken for granted — that we won’t be counting the Black directors, that we won’t be counting women,” the helmer tells Variety. “It means that there’s still something wrong, that there’s still something that hasn...
While acknowledging the honor, it is a club, Sy admits, about which she has some ambivalence. “I really hope that soon all this will be taken for granted — that we won’t be counting the Black directors, that we won’t be counting women,” the helmer tells Variety. “It means that there’s still something wrong, that there’s still something that hasn...
- 5/20/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Sales banner Best Friend Forever has unveiled the teaser for Ramata Toulaye-Sy’s buzzed-about Senegalese drama “Banel & Adama,” which is the sole feature debut slated for the competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
The lushly lensed female emancipation drama, set to bow on May 20, takes place in a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues.
The film was shot in Pulaar language with a cast of local non-professional actors, including Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine Sy and Moussa Sow.
Toulaye-Sy said she wanted the film to tell a tragic love story that would be relatable to everyone. The helmer, who studied...
The lushly lensed female emancipation drama, set to bow on May 20, takes place in a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues.
The film was shot in Pulaar language with a cast of local non-professional actors, including Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine Sy and Moussa Sow.
Toulaye-Sy said she wanted the film to tell a tragic love story that would be relatable to everyone. The helmer, who studied...
- 5/11/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Best Friend Forever has boarded Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s debut feature “Banel & Adama,” a lushly lensed Senegalese female emancipation drama. Now in post, the movie is expected to have its world premiere later this year.
‘Banel & Adama’ is set a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues.
Sy studied at France’s prestigious film school La Femis and previously directed the short film “Astel” which played at Toronto, New Directors/New Films and Clermont, where it won the Special Jury award, among 80 festivals to date. Ramata, meanwhile, previously co-wrote “Our Lady of the Nil” which played at Toronto, and “Sibel” which played at Locarno and Toronto.
‘Banel & Adama’ is set a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues.
Sy studied at France’s prestigious film school La Femis and previously directed the short film “Astel” which played at Toronto, New Directors/New Films and Clermont, where it won the Special Jury award, among 80 festivals to date. Ramata, meanwhile, previously co-wrote “Our Lady of the Nil” which played at Toronto, and “Sibel” which played at Locarno and Toronto.
- 2/17/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Indie Sales unveils starry French line-up and boards ‘Green Tide’, ‘Take A Chance On Me’ (exclusive)
French sales company to showcase comedy and drama slate at Rendez-Vous.
Paris-based Indie Sales has boarded Jean-Pierre Améris’ Take A Chance On Me and Pierre Jolivet’s Green Tide, expanding the company’s star-powered French slate.
Indie Sales’ French language line-up also includes Noémie Lvovsky’s The Great Magic, Mathias Gokalp’s The Assembly Line, Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s A Tale of Shemroon and Marc Fitoussi’s Two Tickets to Greece.
Take A Chance On Me stars popular French singer turned actress Louane Emera, whose credits include The Belier Family, who plays a young woman juggling between odd jobs to support her agoraphobic father.
Paris-based Indie Sales has boarded Jean-Pierre Améris’ Take A Chance On Me and Pierre Jolivet’s Green Tide, expanding the company’s star-powered French slate.
Indie Sales’ French language line-up also includes Noémie Lvovsky’s The Great Magic, Mathias Gokalp’s The Assembly Line, Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s A Tale of Shemroon and Marc Fitoussi’s Two Tickets to Greece.
Take A Chance On Me stars popular French singer turned actress Louane Emera, whose credits include The Belier Family, who plays a young woman juggling between odd jobs to support her agoraphobic father.
- 1/10/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobtchuk’s debut feature also unveils theatrical trailer.
Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight title Pamfir, the debut feature from Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobtchuk, has sold to several major territories via Paris-based sales company Indie Sales and has unveiled its theatrical trailer.
The film has sold to France’s Condor, Canada’s FunFilms, Italy’s Movies Inspired, Poland’s Gutek Film, Switzerland’s Trigon, Greece’s Ama Films, Indonesia’s Falcon Pictures, Slovakia’s Asfk and to A-One Films for the Baltic states.
Condor will release the film in France on November 2 after an ambitious tour with the director throughout the country.
Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight title Pamfir, the debut feature from Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobtchuk, has sold to several major territories via Paris-based sales company Indie Sales and has unveiled its theatrical trailer.
The film has sold to France’s Condor, Canada’s FunFilms, Italy’s Movies Inspired, Poland’s Gutek Film, Switzerland’s Trigon, Greece’s Ama Films, Indonesia’s Falcon Pictures, Slovakia’s Asfk and to A-One Films for the Baltic states.
Condor will release the film in France on November 2 after an ambitious tour with the director throughout the country.
- 10/11/2022
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
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