The Orchard Lands Cannes Competition Pic ‘BPM’; Samuel Goldwyn Inhales Tribeca’s ‘Holy Air’

The Orchard has acquired U.S. distribution rights to BPM (120 Battements Par Minute), Robin Campillo’s feature which is playing in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. A 2017 theatrical release is planned. The pic, which centers on a group of AIDS activists in the early 1990s in Paris, has been one of the more well-received pics in the lineup so far when it debuted Saturday, after Campillo made Deadline’s Ones To Watch list heading into the festival. The deal is the third on the ground here for The Orchard, which scored the Halle Barry-Daniel Craig pic Kings and the Matt Walsh romantic comedy Under The Eiffel Tower at the market. Films Distribution is handling international sales on BPM and co-produces with Memento Films Production.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to Holy Air, the Shady Srour comedy that had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Srour wrote, directed, produced and stars as Adam, a Christian Arab living in Nazareth who, when he discovers he’s going to be a father, tries to make it big after many failed business ventures by selling the actual air from the Holy Land — who wouldn’t buy the very air the Virgin Mary breathed during her annunciation? Laetitia Eido, Samuel Calderon, Tarik Copti, Dalia Okal and Byan Anteer star.