23/10/2006

Icon Distribution was awarded £150,000 from the UK Film Council’s P&A Fund towards the release of Michele Placido’s award-winning film Crime Novel [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michele Placido
film profile] on November 3. Icon will be able to expand the Italian film’s release from 20 to 60 sites (including 40 sites for distribution via the UK FC’s Digital Screen Network) and to increase its media campaign and university promotions.

Another arthouse film, Ed Blum’s Scenes of a Sexual Nature, also scheduled for release on November 3, received an initial award of £23,503, which could be increased to £103,533 if it takes off with audiences. The low-budget film starring Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okonedo will be released through Miracle Communications.

Optimum Releasing was awarded £158,000 for the November 24 release of Guillermo del Toro’s Spanish-language fantasy film Pan’s Labyrinth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. The award will be used towards increasing the print run from 40 to 75, as well as the publicity and advertising campaign. On a smaller scale, Eric Khoo’s Be With Me, shown in the English, Mandarin and Cantonese language, was awarded £20,597 which will help Peccadillo Pictures triple the number of prints from 2 to 10, increase the film’s promotion and advertising campaign and produce audio description for the visually impaired ahead of its distribution on October 27.

Among the arthouse or foreign language films currently on release, Pathé was awarded £250,000 towards Pedro Almodovar’s Volver [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agustín Almodóvar
interview: Carmen Maura
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
interview: Pénélope Cruz
film profile] so that the film could be available on 80 screens nationwide; ICA received £4,500 to ensure wider distribution of Sophie Fiennes’ feature documentary The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema; and Dogwoof Pictures was able to book 22 extra screens for Ramin Bahrani’s Man Push Cart thanks to £2,811 in support.

Even UIP was provided a comfortable £106,380 in support towards the September 29 release of Richard Laxton’s debut feature Life & Lyrics, considered to be “a British film with a commercial potential nevertheless difficult to market”.