London-based indie distributor TVF International confirmed a raft of new sales across Western Europe at Sunny Side of the Doc in La Rochelle this week, following the announcement on Monday (June 23) of the first round of pre-sales for China’s Wild Secrets, its forthcoming natural history project with Chinese streamer Bilibili.
Arte France has licensed a pair of current affairs titles on China: China’s Abandoned Daughters (1 x 48 min., Mediacorp for CNA), a portrait of the victims of China’s one-child policy; and China: Preparing for Dangerous Storms (3 x 48 min.), which investigates the country’s ongoing military build-up. The broadcaster has also acquired the history title Mandate for Murder: Britain’s Struggle in Palestine (1 x 56 min.), and science programs AI & You (1 x 52 min., Animo TV for RTÉ) and Rain: The Untold Story (3 x 60 min., Cwmni Da TV for BBC and tg4).
Hearst Networks Germany has picked up three seasons of the long-running BBC archaeology series Digging for Britain, as well as season 2 of WWI aviation series Wings of the Great War (5 x 48 min.), for The History Channel in its German-speaking territories. The media group also acquired Satanic Panic: The Peter Ellis Story (8 x 25 min., Newsroom New Zealand), an investigative doc on a notorious case of mass hysteria and wrongful conviction in New Zealand in the 1990s.
Also in Germany, newsnet Deutsche Welle licensed Indigiqueer (1 x 44 min.), an exploration of the intersection of queerness and Indigeneity featuring Drag Race’s Illona Verley.
In Iberia, Spanish streamer Movistar+ Plus acquired a sizable package that includes a pre-sale for the forthcoming CBC commission The Ozempic Effect (1 x 60 min.) as well as Fluid: Life Beyond the Binary (1 x 48 min.), from CBC’s science strand ‘The Nature of Things’; history docs How the Second World War Became a Global War (1 x 52 min.) and Ulysses: From Myth to Science (1 x 60 min., Mediatika for France Télévisions); and Theodor Herzl: The Man Who Made Israel (1 x 60 min.), hosted by David Baddiel and featuring narration from Stephen Fry.
In the same region, Catalan pubcaster TV3 acquired current affairs programs My Dad the Sex Tourist (1 x 49 min., Clover Films for Channel 4 and ABC), which delves into the sex tourism industry in the Philippines, and Walk the Line: Escaping from China to the USA (1 x 58 min.).
Also in world affairs, TVI Portugal and CNN Portugal licensed Arming the Arctic (1 x 50 min.) from Wildcat Films and TVF International, about rising geopolitical tensions in the Arctic, along with The Myanmar Earthquake (1 x 47 min.) from Mediacorp, Silent Soldiers: Russia’s Foreign Mercenaries (1 x 47 min.) and When Titans Clash: The Tariff War Hits Asia (1 x 48 min.).
In Benelux, DPG Media acquired Stalking: State of Fear (1 x 54 min., Clover Films for ITV) and The Trials of Kyle Rittenhouse (1 x 85 min.), on the 17-year-old accused of carrying out a mass shooting at a Black Lives Matter protest; while Avotros picked up Welcome to Babel: Painting Communism (1 x 54 min., pictured), which follows a Chinese-Australian artist painting the history of Communist China and the Cultural Revolution.
TVFI also licensed a number of cross-genre titles to TVMonaco, including health docs Burnout: The Truth About Work (1 x 52 min.) and Your 100 Year Life (1 x 60 min.), and true-crime titles Bali Bombing: The Untold Story (2 x 48 min.) from Mediacorp, and The Reckoning: Hollywood’s Worst Kept Secret (1 x 78 min.) from Melbar Entertainment, about sexual abuse in Hollywood.
TVMonaco also took a selection of arts docs, including Keith Haring: Street Art Boy (1 x 53 min.), Quentin Blake: The Drawing of My Life (1 x 60 min.) and Keeping the Music Alive: In Defiance of the Taliban (2 x 48 min.), about an all-female orchestra in Afghanistan; as well as Secrets of the Aquarium (6 x 60 min.), The World’s Greatest Sporting Arenas (3 x 60 min.) and surfing travelogue Brilliant Corners (5 x 52).
The France and Iberia deals were brokered for TVF International by senior sales and acquisitions executive Ben Nohr.