Memento Intl., the well-established Paris-based international sales company behind “Call Me by Your Name,” is rebranding as Paradise City Sales and is bringing “My Notes on Mars,” starring Greta Lee and Andrew Scott, to the EFM.
Emilie Georges, who founded Memento Intl. 20 years ago, launched the production vehicle Paradise City a few years ago with London-based Naima Abed. The pair have had great success with the pics they delivered, notably 2025 Sundance hit ”Atropia,” starring Alia Shawkat and Channing Tatum, and Anthony Chen’s 2023 drama ”Drift,” with Cynthia Erivo. “My Notes of Mars,” Hungarian director Lili Horvát’s English-language debut feature, is the latest co-production on Paradise City’s slate.
The rebranding comes at a pivotal time as Georges and Abed seek to build a closer bond between production and sales. As such, the sales outlet will now operate under the same Paradise City banner, which has offices in Paris and London, and will be more involved in projects at an earlier stage.
“This rebranding of our sales activities feels like the natural evolution of what we have been doing for years with both our production and sales hats — accompanying talents into ambitious projects with a global appeal and allowing them to exist in an ultra-competitive market,” said Georges, who will be celebrating the banner’s new identity with a big bash organized at the Berlin Film Festival.
Over the last two decades, Georges’ boutique sales company has sold many movies by renowned directors, from Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me By Your Name” (which Georges co-produced), to Cannes Palme d’Or winning films “The Class” by Laurent Cantet and “Winter Sleep” by Nuri Bilge Ceylan; “Good Time” by the Safdie brothers; Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-nominated “A Separation” and “The Salesman”; “Still Alice,” with Oscar-winning Julianne Moore; “Cairo Conspiracy” by Tarik Saleh; and the Cesar-winning “The Night of the 12th” by Dominik Moll.
Going forward, Alexandre Moreau, head of sales, and Sata Cissokho, head of acquisitions, will continue to lead the sales team. The plan is for them to buy around 10 films per year from independent producers worldwide and work with both new voices and established filmmakers.
Georges, Moreau and Cissokho pointed out the “synergies between development, production, financing and sales are not only organic, they are necessary today. By bringing our two very experienced teams in their respective fields closer, we’re helping each other in maintaining our ambition but also our relevancy.”
Paradise City Sales, they said, will be focusing on arthouse projects that are director-driven, as well as market-friendly, with a special focus on English-language projects, alongside genre and animation. The idea is also to finance projects through international co-productions and tap into French and U.K. resources and talent pools.
Set to shoot mostly in Budapest starting this summer, Horvát’s “Notes on Mars” stars Lee as Margot, a brilliant young scientist with a troubled marriage, who disappears inexplicably while hiking with her husband Sam (Scott) and a group of friends. A few weeks later, she reappears the day of her own memorial service. Margot is clearly not the same as before the accident. Nevertheless, Sam sees his wife’s miraculous reappearance as a second chance.
“Notes of Mars,” which took four years to get made, is precisely the type of indie projects that Georges wants to help finance through Paradise City Sales. “We want to provide solutions for ambitious European films that are very difficult to finance at the moment, particularly for slightly younger directors,” Georges said.
She pointed out the movie was initially supposed to be filmed in the U.S. and Canada. “Then, at a certain point, we thought we’d shoot it in France, but we quickly gave up and said to ourselves, ‘We’ll play the card of setting this story in its own country, Hungary, and try to get the initial funding there. And that’s what we managed to do,” she said, adding that the film was supported by the National Film Institute of Hungary.
“Notes on Mars” was produced Dóra Csernátony under their Poste Restante banner, together with Paradise City, Anne Carey, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu and Bady Minck of Amour Fou; and Mirsad Purivatra and Jovan Marjanovic of Obala Art Center. The project has already lured high profile partners, such as Komplizen film in Germany.
Post-rebranding, the company’s remaining team also includes Jeanne Loriotti, Vincent Comoy and Anaïs Gargliardi working on sales, marketing and festivals; Morgane Le Dissez as CFO; Christina Komninou, legal and business affairs, and Fatim Camara, chief accountant. The banner’s current slate includes Norwegian genre title “The Ugly Stepsister,” which opened the Sundance Midnight section and is playing in Berlin’s Panorama sidebar, and “Unidentified” by Haifaa Al-Mansour, as well as “Primavera” by Damiano Michieletto.
