International distributor Balanga has secured its first major overseas sales for the history documentary "Beasts of the Colosseum," with Germany's ZDF/Terra X, Sweden's SVT and Canada's Radio-Canada all acquiring the film. The documentary explores the Venationes, ancient Roman spectacles in which exotic wild animals rather than gladiators took centre stage, and notably blends historical research with AI-generated reenactments, marking what its distributor calls a new approach to producing history documentaries more affordably and immersively.

The film was produced by Antoine Henriquet's AH! Production and Jean-Luc Berlot's Adline for France's Novo 19, in association with Italy's Mediaset, and uses AI to recreate capture expeditions, animal transportation and Colosseum arena scenes, all checked against historical research by experts. It premiered out of competition at the Cannes AI Film Festival and will screen for international buyers at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Le Havre on 8 September; producer Enora Contant said the project was partly inspired by wanting to explore where the arena's animals actually came from, a question she felt was less explored than the fate of human combatants.