From steamy Baltic saunas to Mars and beyond, Vienna-based Autlook Film Sales has all bases covered. When she spoke to BDE, Autlook CEO Salma Abdalla was just back from Sundance where Estonian director Anna Hints’ Smoke Sauna Sisterhood was rapturously received, winning the Directing Award in the World Cinema Documentary category.
“Over 20 territories are interested in a theatrical release,” Abdalla says of a doc which clearly has buyers sweating under the collar.
The film was shot over seven years. The filmmakers’ dedication was so intense that they kept on filming even as temperatures rose – and once or twice, they fainted from the exertion.
Autlook came across the hot property at rough cut stage and the company execs went full steam ahead to acquire it. Abdalla expects to announce a North American deal in the coming weeks.
As the European film industry has emerged from the pandemic, documentaries have been struggling for traction in the theatrical marketplace. Viewers are used to streaming them and watching them at home. However, the response to Smoke Sauna Sisterhood suggests that the cinema experience is still best for selected titles. “It is a film that is composed and created for the big screen…it’s a great cinematic experience,” Abdalla emphasises.
The same is true of another new Autlook title, Ido Mizrahy’s The Longest Goodbye, which also played in Sundance. The film asks questions often ignored by those with a romantic view of space travel. What is the psychological toll on astronauts when they are required to be away from home and family for months on end? In the film, Dr Al Holland, a senior NASA psychologist, ponders the loneliness of the long-distance space traveller.
“There seems to be a genuine interest in everything that comes from NASA,” Abdalla suggests. (The Longest Goodbyefollows on from other crowd-pleasing space docs like Ryan White’s Good Night Oppy and Apollo 11). “The nice thing is that it gives the human perspective on science and space and that is something that hasn’t been explored in documentaries yet.”
The doc has pre-sold to broadcasters VPRO for the Netherlands and to the BBC in the UK. Various theatrical distributors are also circling.
Another of Autlook’s Sundance titles, Lin Alluna’s Twice Colonised, has now been chosen to open CPH:DOX. This documentary is bound to cause intense soul searching and debate in Denmark. The film profiles Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter, and in the process uncovers the shameful, still largely shrouded history of both Danish and Canadian colonialism. The doc also marks Autlook’s first collaboration with Inuit production companies (Anorak Film and Red Marrow Media).
Meanwhile, UK director Ella Glendining’s disability doc Is There Anybody Out There? is also winning plenty of plaudits following its Sundance screenings and looks set for a long festival and distribution life.
Autlook will be holding market screenings of all these titles at the EFM in Berlin this month. “I know the outcome will be smaller than before but it is a different level of engagement if you see it on the big screen,” Abdalla explains why she still tries to get distributors into cinema (although many became accustomed to watching films on links during the pandemic).
In Berlin, Autlook will also be giving a market premiere to Aussie director Janine Hosking’s Knowing The Score, about virtuoso female conductor Simone Young who has led orchestras at such prestigious venues as the Met New York and the Sydney Opera House. The documentary deals with the fight for gender equality while looking at the sacrifices Young has made in the course of her career. It is executive produced by Cate Blanchett (who spent time with Young during her preparation for her Oscar-nominated role as a conductor in Tar).
“We picked it up during the pandemic. It is one of the projects that was delayed because Simone Young could not do any concerts during the pandemic,” Abdalla explains the long gestation of the project (made through Serendipity Productions).
Meanwhile, Autlook is handling limited territories (including Spain, Italy, Asia and Australia/New Zealand) on The Corridors Of Power, the new documentary series from Oscar-nominated Israeli director Dror Moreh. This provides a probing look at US foreign policy over the last 40 years. The project is also being sold in a theatrical version.
One intriguing project new to the Autlook slate is Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s The Making Of A Japanese, set in a public elementary school in Tokyo and following various young kids as they learn the behaviour needed to integrate successfully within Japanese society. Self-discipline, cleanliness and good manners are as important as academic achievements. The documentary, currently still shooting, is produced by Eric Nyari (behind Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams) for Cineric Creative. The co-producers are Outi Rousu (Pystymetsä), and Luc Martin-Gousset (Point du Jour). It is expected to be ready by the Autumn.
“That is the first Japanese production we’ve ever had in our line-up,” Abdalla says.
On the eve of Berlinale, Abdalla could see a shift in distributor strategy. During the pandemic, buyers were drawn to “entertaining” and “light” documentaries which would take viewers away from the trauma of Covid and lockdowns. Now, though, there is a new “openness” and willingness to acquire more challenging material.
The streamers are still buying too. “But they’re also producing a lot. They want to step in at an earlier stage. That’s our takeaway from Sundance,” the Autlook CEO concludes.
