Cannes: Don McKellar’s Last Night was the sole Canadian feature to take a prize – the Prix de la Jeunesse – at the 51st annual Cannes film festival, but that didn’t stop Canadian companies from doing business at the fest’s market where activity was considerably down this year, reportedly as much as 30% over last year’s figures.

On the heels of McKellar’s special prize, awarded by a jury of French students to honor a film that touches them in an unusual way, Last Night’s producer, Toronto-based Rhombus Media, reported significant sales to major territories including the u.k., Scandinavia, Italy, Korea, Switzerland, Belgium, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg and Poland. It also reportedly generated strong interest from u.s. and Japanese buyers, with deals pending in both those territories.

The film was part of the Collection 2000 film series, coproduced by Haut Et Court, which holds the French rights to Last Night.

Motion International’s vp, international distribution Jean Bureau closed a number of deals in France, picking up the Canadian rights to director Luc Besson’s (Fifth Element) Taxi – which is doing boffo b.o. with over three million moviegoers in France – and signing an output deal with French company TF1 for between six and 10 films per year.

Bureau says the majority of the films in the TF1 deal will be released theatrically including In All Innocence, starring Gerard Lanvin and Carole Bouquet and up-and-coming French star Virginei Ledoyen.

International rights to Camden Girls, to be coproduced by London’s Focus Film and Montreal’s Allegro, were also acquired by Motion. Described as Trainspotting for girls, the London-based production will be helmed by first-timer Patricia Murphy, reputed to be the most in-demand commercial director in London.

Motion sold the Canadian flick Perpetrators Of The Crime (Montreal’s Industry Entertainment) from director John Hamilton to Medusa in Italy and Televix in Latin America, with deals pending for Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Produced by David Reckzeigel, Perpetrators Of The Crime has wrapped principal photography and is slated to be delivered by the end of June.

Alliance Communications reports offers pending from Japan and Spain for Jack Blum’s BabyFace, which screened alongside Last Night in the Directors’ Fortnight.

A lot of activity surrounded Alliance’s Un Certain Regard entry, Un 32 Aout Sur Terre, which registered sales in France to Studio Canal+, with theatrical to BAC Films as well as Spain, Taiwan and Russia.

Deals on the Roger Frappier-produced and Denis Villeneuve-helmed feature are pending to Italy, Germany and Australia.

Presales for Thom Fitzgerald’s sophomore offering Beefcake were also reported for Africa and Brazil.

Alliance Independent Films acquired Simon Shore’s directorial debut Get Real from Distant Horizon for worldwide distribution excluding the u.s., Canada and the u.k. The gay coming-of-age film is a Distant Horizon presentation of a Graphite Films production in association with British Screen and The Arts Council of England and stars Ben Silverstone (The Browning Version, Lolita).

A three-year product output agreement between Alliance and Artisan Entertainment (formerly Live) was confirmed at Cannes. It will give Alliance Releasing all media rights to Artisan programs in Canada. Alliance will release approximately 12 theatrical titles and 24 video titles each year. The deal also includes Artisan’s catalogue of over 2,600 titles including Sophie’s Choice and Basic Instinct.

Alliance says as part of the agreement, ‘It is the intention of the two companies to distribute pictures in other markets as well.’

Quebec division Alliance Vivafilm acquired Canadian rights to two French feature films, the Diane Kurys historical drama Les Enfants su siecle and James Huth’s feature debut, the black comedy Serial Lover. Rights negotiations to both films were conducted by Patrick Roy of Vivafilm and John Kochman of France’s Studio Canal Plus.

Les Enfants chronicles the passionate love story between famed literary legends George Sands and Alfred de Musset, with Juliette Binoche playing the controversial Sands. Shooting is slated to start in September in France and Italy.

Serial Lover played to strong reviews at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and is slated to be released by Vivafilm in the Quebec market this fall.

Current Euro feature film acquisitions by Alliance Vivafilm include Andre Techine’s Alice et Martin, Roberto Benigni’s La Vitae bella, Nanni Moretti’s Aprile, Nicole Garcia’s Place Vendome and Todd Haynes Velvet Goldmine.

Vivafilm also signed a development and distribution deal with Quebec producer Roger Frappier (Jesus of Montreal), who was honored at Cannes this year, and his company Max Films.

The development agreement, which remains in effect for a minimum of two years, calls for Vivafilm to contribute development money to Frappier’s upcoming feature films. The agreement also covers worldwide distribution of all upcoming features produced by Max as well as worldwide distribution, excluding Canada, of the completed films Un 32 aout sur Terre, La Comtesse de Baton Rouge and 2 Secondes.

Behaviour Distribution inked a pre-Cannes deal with Redeemable Features and Capitol Films to acquire the Canadian rights to Paul Auster’s Lulu On The Bridge, which opened Un Certain Regard. Billed as an ‘insightful look at life and death,’ Lulu stars Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino and Willem Dafoe.

Behaviour reported brisk sales with High Art for which it holds foreign rights, and did a number of presale deals on upcoming features.

Vancouver distribco Red Sky Entertainment made its international debut at Cannes even though it wasn’t selling anything.

‘It went very well acquisitions wise,’ reports vp marketing Mary-Pat Gleeson, who expects detailed announcements on Canadian rights acquisitions on a number of films once Red Sky president Tony Cianciotta returns from Italy.

The news out of Lions Gate was, of course, the much-heralded American Psycho deal done with Leonardo DiCaprio. Lions Gate officials could not be reached for word on any other deals, but questions arose as to whether Canadian screenwriter Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol) would remain involved with the American Psycho project.

Despite this activity, all agree that the market was considerably down this year, with few, if any, needles in the haystack, prompting acquisition execs to bemoan the lack of interesting product. The market seemed to pack up even earlier than usual with little to no fanfare about significant buying or selling.

With files from Leo Rice Barker in Montreal.