Cannes 2025 Recap Part Two: Neon & Mubi Share The Spoils; Asian Sellers Quiet

Part Two of Streamlined’s Cannes 2025 recap looks at the sales business announced (or not announced) in the market this year. I’m keeping the recap of activity by the African continent and Arab world at the Cannes market for another newsletter, to be published shortly, as there’s a lot to say and some news about funds and events that sometimes gets lost in the heat of the market (I’m trying to keep these free newsletters shorter moving forward, which is easier said than done).

Neon, Mubi & A24 Divide Official Selection Spoils Between Them

Similar to last year’s Cannes, three companies – Neon, Mubi and A24 – acquired a big chunk of the Cannes official selection for US distribution, and in the case of Mubi, several other international territories also. Some deals were done in eye-catching fashion on the ground in Cannes, including Mubi’s $24m swoop on Lynne Ramsay’s Competition title Die My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence, while others had already been acquired before the market started. A24 came into Cannes with three titles (see below) but didn’t take any big swings during the market itself. Focus Features came to market with Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme already in the bag.

Neon of course made history by acquiring Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, marking its sixth Palme d’Or acquisition in a row following Parasite, Titane, Triangle Of Sadness, Anatomy Of A Fall and Anora.

Netflix came in late with its first acquisition – and oh the irony – took North America rights on Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, a French-language film about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, and of course a love letter to cinema. It will be interesting to see if Netflix arranges theatrical screenings ahead of an Oscars campaign. Goodfellas has sold the film to a raft of theatrical distributors in Europe, but so far only a few Asian deals have been reported so I sincerely hope we don’t all end up watching this film online.

Sony Pictures Classics also came in late with the acquisition of North America and multiple territories on Camera d’Or winner The President’s Cake..

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