MK2 Films buys Archipel 35, adding 20 Dardenne brothers films

MK2 Films is acquiring producer Denis Freyd's Archipel 35, a deal reported by Variety on 7 October 2026. The agreement covers 43 titles and takes the Paris company's collection past 1,000 films. Twenty of those titles were directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.

The Dardenne titles come via Les Films du Fleuve, the Belgian company run by the two brothers. Archipel 35 is the French production outfit behind work by the Dardennes as well as Laurent Cantet and Pierre Schoeller, according to earlier reporting by Variety. It also produced Koji Fukada's A Girl Missing. MK2 Films is headed by Nathanael and Elisha Karmitz and works across international sales, which means selling films to distributors country by country, alongside production and distribution.

The brothers have a long history at the Cannes Film Festival. They won its top prize, the Palme d'Or, for Rosetta in 1999 and for The Child in 2005, as reported by Variety on 7 October 2026. They took the Grand Prize for The Kid With a Bike in 2011 and best director for Young Ahmed in 2019. They returned to Cannes competition in 2025 with Young Mothers and won the best screenplay prize.

Their 2014 entry Two Days, One Night earned Marion Cotillard an Oscar nomination for best actress. The 43 films in the deal have sold nearly seven million tickets in France, according to MK2 Films. All counts refer to France.

The Kid With a Bike drew more than 800,000 admissions, which means tickets sold, in France. Rosetta, Two Days, One Night and The Minister each passed 500,000 admissions in France. Two Days, One Night sold more than 520,000 tickets in France and grossed more than $9 million worldwide, figures reported by Variety on 7 October 2026.

MK2 Films was founded in 1974 and is based in Paris. Its catalogue spans fiction, animation and documentary work and already includes Justine Triet's Anatomie d'une chute, Céline Sciamma's Portrait de la jeune fille en feu and Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War. In May 2026 it also added films by Michael Haneke, Ang Lee and Xavier Dolan. Frederique Rouault serves as head of collections at MK2 Films.

For fans, this means the early festival winners and the recent competition titles now sit in the same catalogue. One address handles the restorations, re-releases and licensing.