17 oct 2023 The Iconoclast Bruno Dumont Entrusts His Catalogue to mk2 Films

The international sales company is proud to announce the acquisition of the rights of the majority of the multi-award-winning French director’s films, with their iconic and offbeat style.

The Bruno Dumont collection acquired by mk2 films includes the bulk of the director’s work, from his first feature film Life of Jesus (1997) to Slack Bay (2016), eight films in all, as well as the TV series Li’l Quinquin (2014).

“Bruno Dumont is of course a major figure of contemporary cinema,” declares Nathanaël Karmitz, chairman of the executive board of mk2. “But it is above all the originality of his unusual, unpredictable cinema, veering from gravitas to some unnerving, comedic tangents that we find invaluable. Iconoclastic and consistently courageous in its form, his work perfectly represents the free and ambitious cinema that we are proud to promote.”

The producer’s share of the films from Bruno Dumont’s collection have been acquired from 3B Productions, represented by Muriel Merlin and Rachid Bouchareb. The films Life of Jesus and Humanity are now available in 4K.

Writer, director, and editor, Bruno Dumont is a French filmmaker appreciated by audiences and critics both in France and abroad. Firmly rooted in the territory of the North of France, Bruno Dumont’s films compose a fascinating, baroque world, with singular and identifiable humour, regularly bringing his gaze to bear on characters at the margins of society, often played by non-professional actors. His films have been presented and won awards in many international festivals. Life of Jesus was selected at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 1997, where it received a special mention from the Caméra d’Or jury. Humanity received the Grand Jury Prize and two awards for its two non-professional actors at Cannes in 1999. The road movie Twentynine Palms was selected in competition at the Venice Mostra in 2003. Bruno Dumont again won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 2006 for Flanders. Hadewijch won the FIPRESCI Prize in Toronto in 2009. Outside Satan was presented in the official selection at Cannes in 2011 in the Un Certain Regard category. In 2021, the filmmaker was honoured with a first retrospective at the Cinémathèque Française.

The catalogue of films represented by mk2 films in France and abroad includes the films of Charles Chaplin, François Truffaut, David Lynch, Agnès Varda, Jacques Demy, Abbas Kiarostami, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Buster Keaton, Claude Chabrol, Michael Haneke, Stan Laurel, and the RKO collection. Previously, mk2 films had announced the acquisition of the films of Jacques Rozier, including Adieu Philippine in restored version and Du Côté d’Orouët (informally known in English as The Beaches of Orouet). The company is also representing Moving, by Shinji Somai (1993), winner of the Prize for Best Restoration at the most recent Venice Film Festival.