Leading doc sales outfit Autlook will be in Amsterdam this week with a new title screening in IDFA’s Luminous section. Neshoma, directed by Sandra Beerends, portrays the Jewish community in Amsterdam in the period before the Second World War. The archive-driven documentary is produced by Floor Onrust and Family Affair (the same company behind Autlook’s 2022 hit, Three Minutes – A Lengthening).
“It felt like such a good fit. We came on board when it was still in production,” Autlook’s new CEO Stephanie Fuchs (who took over from Salma Abdalla earlier this autumn) says of the documentary. “It’s one of those titles where we have been part of the team from quite an early stage. It is very natural to premiere it in Amsterdam – it is such a love letter to the city!”
Cinema Delicatessen is already aboard to handle Dutch distribution.
The IDFA slate also includes Ruth Beckerman’s Favoriten, about kids from very diverse backgrounds at a Viennese school. This premiered in Berlin and has already sold briskly (to companies including ICA in the UK and Cinema Delicatessen in the Netherlands). It has also racked up over 30,000 admissions in Austria since being released there by Filmladen earlier in the year. It screens in IDFA’s ‘Signed’ section.
Meanwhile, Finnish doc Once Upon A Time In A Forest, directed by Virpi Suutari and also screening in IDFA Signed, comes to Amsterdam having just won the Golden Dove audience award in DOK Leipzig.
“Having an environmental film with also a more optimistic note we feel is definitely the feel the market is asking for,” Fuchs says of why Suutari’s film is registering so strongly with audiences.
Autlook has already had significant success with another of its IDFA titles, the Israeli-Palestine feature doc No Other Land, released to rave reviews by Dogwoof in the UK earlier this month and nominated in the European Film Awards Documentary category.
“It was one of these films that right from the beginning in Berlin, people could feel the urgency. I don’t think we have ever had so much press on one of our films.”
No Other Land, screening in IDFA’s Best Of Fests, is “basically” sold out in Europe and Fuchs and her team are now looking to close deals for the MENA territories (where they are already fielding offers). It is expectedly to feature strongly in awards season.
There is also strong buyer interest in Ted Passon’s crowd-pleaser Patrice: The Movie, a romcom doc with disabled protagonists which charmed audiences at its TIFF premiere.
“It’s a film we are getting so much reaction about. Buyers are telling us that they want something a little bit more light-hearted – and this is light-hearted without being lightweight.”
Patrice (already released in the US by Hulu) isn’t in the IDFA selection but Passon is still expected in Amsterdam to meet distributors.
Fuchs may just have taken over as boss at Autlook but she already knows the company inside out – she has been working there for more than a decade.
“A culture shock, thank God, it was not!” Fuchs says of her appointment. “Of course, it’s a big step [taking over] but I’ve been working with Salma for 10 years. I felt very secure in knowing the history of Autlook and all the bits and pieces [behind the company].”
For the moment, Fuchs is pursuing a similar strategy to that of her predecessor. “I didn’t want to make huge changes right from the beginning,” she says. “For now, it is business as usual.”
Her goal instead is to build further on the legacy of Abdalla and Peter Jager (who was in charge before Abdalla).
“I am very lucky to have such a strong line-up and such a stable business. If I can keep that going, I will be absolutely delighted,” she says. “Of course, as with Salma and Peter, there will be a natural fingerprint of taste in the films we bring in.”
A new exec, Eve Rawlings (ex-Espresso Media International), has just joined the Autlook team and will be in Amsterdam to meet buyers. The company also continues to work with Jason Resnick in the US.
“Jason is selling our films in the North American market. That makes it easier for us to stay close to buyers…it really has been helpful for us to have someone on the ground knowing that the US is a tough market for everyone. We feel the changes in the market right now. It’s competitive and hard to break through – but that being said, we did have a good year,” Fuchs notes, citing deals successfully struck State-side for titles like So This Is Christmas and Omar and Cedric.
The year also started auspiciously for Autlook with the sale of The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin to Netflix, a film receiving a major awards push following its launch last month.
Fuchs sees the current market as being more competitive than ever. “It feels like it is harder to break through. We have all had to be quite selective with the titles we can take.”
Nonetheless, tough, uncompromising titles like No Other Land and Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother Of All Lies have sold widely, both theatrically and to TV.
“What we feel is that things tend to take a bit longer for us. We have a bit of a longer breath of selling films [up to] two years after they premiere, sometimes,” Fuchs reflects. “It’s about being a bit more patient and waiting for the right moment.”
“It’s [also] about having a mixture of films – films that do very well in the theatrical and festival market but then to also cater to a TV slate. That is the strong point of Autlook, and why we have been around for a long time. We have really been able to stay flexible and dynamic in adapting to the market’s needs,” the new Autlook CEO concludes.
