Horror film Bloody Tennis sells to three more territories ahead of Los Angeles market
Three more countries have bought the right to release Bloody Tennis, an English-language horror film directed by Nikias Chryssos, according to Variety. Blue Finch picked up the United Kingdom and Ireland, Bir Film took Turkey, and Svoe Kino took Ukraine. The deals were announced ahead of the film's market premiere at the American Film Market in Los Angeles.
A "territory" is a country or region where a film can be released. Each buyer pays for the right to show the film there, often in cinemas, on television or on streaming services.
The film has already been sold in several other markets. Shudder, a streaming service devoted to horror, holds the United States. Umbrella Entertainment has Australia, and BestFilm.eu has the Baltics. Plaion Pictures has Italy, Extreme Film has Japan, 9th Plan has Poland, Gulf Film has the Middle East, and Njutafilms has Scandinavia. Port au Prince is the German distributor.
The Playmaker Munich is handling international sales. A sales company works as a middleman, taking a film to buyers around the world and negotiating the deals. Its job is to find a distributor in each country, which is why a list like this grows over time.
The film first appeared in public at the Locarno Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 7 August. It then travelled to other festivals. It won best director among horror features at Fantastic Fest in Austin, and it took the Méliès d'Argent for best feature at Slash Filmfestival. It also screened at Sitges, Thessaloniki and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
Festivals matter for films like this one because they put a finished movie in front of the people who buy films. Sales companies use them to show work to distributors, and a festival run can help a title find buyers before a single ticket is sold.
The story centres on Sophie, played by Sandra Guldberg Kampp, who is admitted to an elite tennis academy hidden in Southern Europe. Helena Zengel also stars. Jonas Katzenstein and Maximilian Leo produced the film for Augenschein Filmproduktion, in co-production with Port au Prince Film & Kultur Produktion and ZDF's "Das Kleine Fernsehspiel" strand. Jim Williams wrote the original score, and Constantin Campean shot the film.
No release dates in the territories named have been reported so far, and the deals show only that buyers have acquired rights, not when or where the film will open.
