Cannes Market: The Match Factory Reveals Slate (EXCLUSIVE)

The Match Factory, one of the world’s leading arthouse film sales companies, has revealed its slate for the Cannes Film Market, which runs June 22-26. Its lineup includes three market premieres: one new film, “Ballad for a Pierced Heart,” and two films that won jury awards at the online Tribeca Film Festival recently – “Kokoloko” and “My Wonderful Wanda.”

Following his cutting-edge “Stratos,” which played in Berlinale Competition in 2014, Yannis Economides is back with the gangster black comedy “Ballad for a Pierced Heart.” The story follows Olga, an attractive woman who decides to leave her husband, a businessman, for a nightclub owner and former pop singer. And as if this was not enough, she takes a million euros with her. While her husband becomes paranoid and vows to take revenge, the underworld in the small provincial town is in turmoil over the adulterous couple.

“Kokoloko,” directed by Mexico’s Gerardo Naranjo, grabbed the attention of the press during Tribeca’s online edition, before winning the festival’s best actor award. It is now being shown for the first time to buyers. The film is the story of a tragic love affair, set in a small coastal community in contemporary Mexico. It centers on Marisol, who dreams of joining a Self-Defense Group or Community Guards, and living in freedom. Instead, she ends up in the midst of a battle between Mauro and Mundo, the two men who seek to control her destiny.

Bettina Oberli, whose previous feature “With the Wind” won the prestigious Variety Piazza Grande Award at Locarno Film Festival in 2018, returns with “My Wonderful Wanda.” The film, which stars Agnieszka Grochowska and Marthe Keller, earned a Special Jury Mention for the Nora Ephron Award at Tribeca. It tells the story of Wanda, who nurses the patriarch of the wealthy Wegmeister-Gloor family. When an unexpected complication arises, family secrets come to light and arrangements are made to try and appease everyone in this biting family drama.

The Match Factory’s Michael Weber commented: “The virtual Marché du Film opens a channel of communication for our industry at a time when it’s essential to look forward and find the means to present the work of our filmmakers and discuss our upcoming slate, even if the physical Marché is irreplaceable.”