CrossBorder Films, a new London-based sales company, has launched ahead of this year’s Cannes Market.
The company will be led by Alla May. Before launching the company, she worked across the European film and television landscape, including Evil Doghouse, a co-producer of Hatching and Alma.
The inaugural CrossBorder Films slate include the Australian relationship comedy Zombucha! and the Kyrgyz thriller Mergen.
Zombucha! is directed by Claudia Dzienny and stars Jackie van Beek. The synopsis reads: Built around the kombucha trend, the film uses its offbeat premise to explore relationship anxieties, including commitment and readiness for starting a family. The film is set for release in September in Australia.
Mergen won the Grand Prix and FIPRESCI Prize at the Bishkek International Film Festival and had its international premiere at the 2026 International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film follows a police officer investigating a death in the snowy Kyrgyz mountains, who uncovers a web of violent corruption in a remote former gold-mining town.
“We see a strong global ecosystem around auteur and festival cinema,” Alla May, CEO of CrossBorder Films, said in a statement. “At the same time, there is a gap when it comes to audience-driven films — especially from cross-border contexts that don’t come with major budgets or star-driven packaging. These projects often struggle to travel internationally, and that is where we focus.”
Alongside sales, CrossBorder also said it will expand into development and packaging. The company is bringing Polish My Life, a romcom about a London-based editor who rebuilds her life after a breakup and begins an unexpected relationship with a Polish immigrant, to Cannes.
