M ontreal’s Filmoption International has acquired international sales rights, excluding Canada, to Karen Knox’s feature We Forgot to Break Up (pictured) ahead of its U.S. and Canadian premieres.

The film is produced by Nicole Hilliard-Forde of Motel Pictures and is written by Noel S. Baker, Pat Mills and Zoe Whittall, with Knox directing. It will make its Canadian debut as the closing film for the Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival and the U.S. premiere at San Francisco’s Frameline film festival in June.

Filmoption brought We Forgot to Break Up to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month to launch sales for the feature.

Based on the novel Heidegger Stairwell by Kayt Burgess, the film follows a band’s rise to fame during the early 2000s. It was filmed in North Bay, Ont. in November 2022.

Blue Fox Entertainment

L.A.-headquartered Blue Fox Entertainment has sold the YA romance film The QB Bad Boy and Me to multiple territories. Produced and financed by Thunderbird Entertainment’s Great Pacific Media (GPM) and directed by Toronto’s Justin Wu, the feature was unveiled as a Tubi original for North America earlier this month.

The film has been sold to Capelight Pictures in Germany and Austria; Sun Distribution Group for Latin America, Spain, Portugal and South Africa; SND in France; Praesens-Film AG in Switzerland; Videomite in Turkey; Kismet Movies for Australia and New Zealand; Mis.Label in Scandinavia; and Porom for Eastern Europe, excluding Poland.

The QB Bad Boy and Me is based on the popular Wattpad book of the same name by Tay Marley, about a dancer who falls in love with a football player.

Producers include Adam Wescott and McKenna Marshall, as well as Wattpad Webtoon Studios’ Aron Levitz and Lindsey Ramey. Executive producers include Wattpad Webtoons’ David Madden and GPM’s Lindsay Macadam, David Way and Tony Chung.

9 Story Distribution International

Dublin-based 9 Story Distribution International, the distribution and licensing arm of Toronto’s 9 Story Media Group, has sold a number of kids titles to global AVOD platforms.

The new deals cover international platforms Prime Video and Roku, North American streamers Kidoodle and Xumo, and Singapore’s meWatch. Titles included in the sale are Challenge DanTDM (10 x 10 minutes) and Let’s Game (100 x 5 minutes) from the U.K.’s MonRae Productions, Irish preschool series Atom Town (26 x 5 minutes) and Korea/China/Thailand CG-animated series Hero Inside (20 x 13 minutes).

Nelvana Enterprises

L.A.-based MGA Entertainment has appointed Nelvana Enterprises to serve as its licensing agent in Canada, providing regional consumer products, marketing and retail support (excluding toys) for brands including L.O.L. Surprise!, Bratz, Rainbow High, Little Tikes and Miniverse.

These MGA franchises have already built up strong sales and engagement, buoyed by a dual appeal to kids and kidults. For example, Rainbow High was 2023’s top-selling fashion doll in the U.S., as per Circana — and its same-name CG-animated series on YouTube has generated a billion minutes of watch time to date. Meanwhile, L.O.L Surprise’s Roblox games have been played more than 180 million times, and Bratz has 2.6 billion followers across all social media.

This new deal comes on the heels of the Toronto-based company announcing a similar agreement last week to rep the licensing interests of Thunderbird Brands’ upcoming 2D-animated series Mermicorno: Starfall in Canada.

With files from Kidscreen

Image courtesy of Motel Pictures