The biggest pickup of Sundance was Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire which LionsGate]picked up for $5.5 million for North America from Cinetic. Regent is looking at 2 possible pickups. Fortissimo picked up Against the Current for the world. The Escapist was picked up by IFC]for U.S. Arlen Faber was picked up for the U.S. by Magnolia. Roadside Attractions picked up September Issue for North America. Arthouse picked up Kunstler for North America. Push won 3 prizes - the Grand Jury, Public and Best Actor awards and We Live in Public won the Grand Jury Prize for best doc. Arthouse picked up worldwide rights to Art and Copy. Anchor Bay picked up U.S. and Australia rights to Spread. Sony Pictures Classics has picked up Going to the Moon for North America and North and Latin American rights from CAA to An Education. Elle Driver licensed US rights to Dead Snow to IFC Films, German speaking territories and Benelux to Splendid, E1 for UK, Seville for Canada. Benelux. Deals are expected for I Love You Phillip Morris, The Cove, World's Greatest Dad, Spread, Amreeka, An Education and Push. Sony Pictures Classics reportedly paid $3,000,000 for The Greatest starring Carey Mulligan who also stars in An Education. Lionsgate acquired North America and UK rights to The Winning Season from Cinetic. ContentFilm is handling international sales. Elle Driver picked up international rights to September Issue and Arlen Faber. Fox Searchlight picked up worldwide rights to Adam reportedly for a low seven figure amount. Panorama picked up U.S. rights to Slamdance film The Ante. Little Dizzle went to Beyond for Australia and New Zealand. Senator picked up North American rights to Brooklyn's Finest. Visit Films picked up worldwide rights to Sundance world doc competition film Kimjongilia]and Spectrum title, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. The Canadian distribution rights to Cold Souls have been acquired by E1 Films. Opening night film Max and Mary was a huge success and well attended by acquisition and studio executives. Twentieth Century Fox had a team of 8, Lionsgate's Tom Ortenberg, Steve Beeks and Jason Constantine were there along with every other buyer. The film that landed with Icon Entertainment International[/link]Icon when Icon acquired Becker International will soon announce a North American distribution deal. CinemaVault acquired international rights for Spectrum film Lymelife which originally premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and was picked up for US shortly after by Screen Media. Stephen Raphael is working on the U.S. marketing for the film. HBO has acquired TV rights to Burma VJ the hit of November’s IDFA whose North American debut was Saturday at Sundance. The the film will open theatrically at New York’s Film Forum in May, well ahead of its early 2010 HBO television debut. [Sony Classics acquired North American rights acquisition of Rudo Y Cursi having its U.S. premiere at Sundance.
- 1/22/2009
- Sydney's Buzz
Sundance's 25th year event is remarkably quiet, almost unreal. Allowing a look at the reality, conversations actually can take place. The late night lounge is the place to see everyone after 10 and to talk more. Filmakers Bill Benenson and Eleonore Dailly, producer Gene Rosow and marketer Jeff Dowd hosted the Obama Inauguration party which also celebrated their film Dirt The Movie. Veteran Sundance community members, Nicole Guillemet, former director of Sundance, Paula Silver, Ira Deutschman, Susan Margolin, Todd McCarthy, Sasha Alpert, Mickey Cotrell and so many others bonded with joy as we all listened to the message delivered by President Obama. John Sloss's Cinetic party and William Morris Independent's parties were not as mobbed as in years past. The two films I have heard most praised are Push and The Cove. Latino film buzz is around Sin Nombre. Written and directed by Peter Bratt and starring his brother Benjamin Bratt and Jesse Borrego, La Mission and Don't Let Me Drown starring Yareli Arizmendi, who wrote and produced A Day Without a Mexican, one of the breakout Latino hits some years ago. I would most like to see Mark Stewart's Passing Strange, a Fairfax district Los Angeleno's work about "black folks passing as black folks" and other essentialist curiosities of American life as written up in Sundance Film Festival's Daily Insider of Day 3, Sunday January 18, 2009. Peter Rainer liked Art & Copy and was surprised to learn that it was originally intended as a promotional work of ad agencies. Kirk Honeycutt remarked to Peter Rainer and me how the films are so "lab-worked over". Does the professional finish of a lab make up, improve on or only mask the faults of a filmmaker's first work? Is it like a butterfly being helped to fly (and thereby not developing its own wings) or does it make the beginning filmmaker better? Mary Jane Skalski is here with two films, Dare and Against the Current. Steven J. Wolfe, who has worked on 35 films and has produced five with Jennifer Tilley, who is now playing professional poker, had his film 500 Days of Summer already placed with Fox Searchlight for U.S. and the world, so he was able to enjoy Sundance after 10 years absence from it. Senator picked up North American rights to Brooklyn's Finest. Visit Films picked up worldwide rights to Sundance world doc competition film Kimjongilia]and Spectrum title, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. The Canadian distribution rights to Cold Souls have been acquired by E1 Films. Opening night film Max and Mary was a huge success and well attended by acquisition and studio executives. Twentieth Century Fox had a team of 8, Lionsgate's Tom Ortenberg, Steve Beeks and Jason Constantine were there along with every other buyer. The film that landed with Icon when Icon acquired Becker International will soon announce a North American distribution deal. CinemaVault acquired international rights for Spectrum film Lymelife which originally premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and was picked up for US shortly after by Screen Media. Stephen Raphael is working on the U.S. marketing for the film. HBO has acquired TV rights to Burma VJ the hit of November’s IDFA whose North American debut was Saturday at Sundance. The the film will open theatrically at New York’s Film Forum in May, well ahead of its early 2010 HBO television debut. [Sony Classics acquired North American rights acquisition of Rudo Y Cursi having its U.S. premiere at Sundance.
- 1/16/2009
- Sydney's Buzz
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