International Newswire: Berlin’s Market Rocked, Yes, But Now Comes the Reality Check

The 30th European Film Market, which wrapped Feb.

23, proved quite a remarkable event, the most vibrant in years, with a half-dozen or more big commercial titles, budgeted up to $70 million, hitting the bazaar, often down-to-the-wire, confounding industry pessimism.

A week later, rolling off upbeat reviews, a series of arthouse competition winners or faves sold briskly: “Museum,” “Dovlatov,” “U-July 22,” “The Heiresses” and “Touch Me Not.”But now comes the reality check, at least for many Berlin art films.

One case in point: Ramón Salazar’s mother-daughter drama “Sunday’s Illness.” It drew glowing reviews: “A perfectly calibrated drama boasting exquisite attention to detail,” “elegant visuals,” and “astonishing performances,” wrote Variety.

Selected in Variety’s 10 Best Berlin Films, it opened in Spain on Feb.

23 by a prestige ultra-experienced distributor, Caramel, and over its first weekend, it grossed just €35,600 ($43,752), ranking No.

23 at the box office, according to comScore.Above it, are the two kinds of movies really lighting fires in international:

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