Screened to Great Acclaim at Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals
Toronto, Ontario – September 8, 2008 – IFC Films has acquired the North American rights to Academy Award nominee Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments. Written by Troell, Niklas Radstrom, and Agneta Ulfsater Troell and produced by Thomas Stenderup, the film is screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and recently screened to high acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival where Troell was the subject of one of the Festival’s tributes. IFC Films will release Everlasting Moments next year through IFC in Theaters, its day and date distribution platform which makes independent films available to a national audience in theaters and on-demand, simultaneously. It will also be part of the company’s exclusive deal with Blockbuster Video.
"One of the great events at Telluride was the tribute to Jan Troell," said Jonathan Sehring, President of IFC Entertainment. "We watched audiences fall in love with Everlasting Moments there and again here in Toronto. It’s a sublime, moving, perfectly observed film that we are proud to be a part of and bring to the widest possible audience."
Keith Leopard, Director of Content, Blockbuster Inc. said, "We are pleased to continue working with IFC Films on bringing the very best festival films to our customers in store and online. This is a film that deserves to have the opportunity to be seen by as many people as possible."
Arianna Bocco, Vice President of Production and Acquisitions for IFC Films negotiated the deal with Susan Wendt, Head of Sales, Trust Nordisk.
Set in the early days of the last century, Everlasting Moments is based on the life of Troell’s wife’s grandmother and takes a personal look at cultural shifts through the history of one family. Maria (Maria Heiskanen) is swept away Sigfrid (Mikael Persbrandt), and marries him at a young age. Sigfrid can’t keep a job, but possesses a unique gift for stumbling home roaring drunk at the worst possible moment. Eventually, his rage and frustration manifest themselves on the domestic front. Confronted with a bleak future, Maria strikes up a friendship with Mr. Petersson (Jesper Christensen), the proprietor of the local photography shop. She begins taking her own photographs. For her, it’s a near magical window to a world she knows little about, and a welcome respite from her tumultuous home life. Her new pastime poses troubling questions for her, though: is the satisfaction she gets from it worth her marriage, one of the few constants in her life?
Jan Troell’s career has spanned over four decades. His best known film is1971’s The Emigrants, which received two Oscar nominations including Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. His debut film was Here is Your Life which Ingmar Bergman described as "One of the most uncompromising masterpieces of Swedish film history." Other films include The New Land, Il Capitano, Hamsun, As White as in Snow and Presence.
IFC Films has been a major presence at the Toronto Film Festival with 7 films screening at the festival including Arnaud Desplechin’s A CHRISTMAS TALE, Ole Christian Madsen’s FLAME AND CITRON, Matteo Garrone’s GOMORRAH, Kim Jee-Woon’s THE GOOD THE BAD THE WEIRD, Steve McQueen’s HUNGER, Barry Jenkins’ MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY and Olivier Assayas’ SUMMER HOURS. They currently have in theaters and on demand, Claude Chabrol’s A GIRL CUT IN TWO and Catherine Breillat’s THE LAST MISTRESS. Other upcoming films include Madonna’s FILTH AND WISDOM, the animated FEAR(S) OF THE DARK, Abdellatif Kechiche’s THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN.
About IFC Entertainment
A leader in the independent film industry, IFC Entertainment consists of multiple brands that are devoted to bringing the best of specialty films to the largest possible audience: IFC Films, IFC Productions, and the IFC Center. Through an innovative day-and-date distribution model, IFC Entertainment makes films available to a national audience through theatrical release by its renowned film division, while IFC In Theaters, an on demand service, simultaneously releases these titles to cable and satellite viewers. IFC Festival Direct features a wide selection of titles acquired from major international film festivals and offers them exclusively through on-demand and digital platforms. IFC Productions is a feature film production company that provides financing for select independent film projects. IFC Center is a three screen, state-of-the-art cinema with
luxurious seating and HD digital and 35mm projection that shows art-house films in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village. IFC Entertainment’s companies are subsidiaries of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC.
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media is a leading producer of targeted, multi-platform content for global distribution, creating and managing some of the world’s most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands, including AMC, IFC, WE tv, Sundance Channel, LIFESKOOL, SPORTSKOOL, and VOOM HD Networks. Through IFC Entertainment, Rainbow Media also owns and manages the following: IFC Films, a leading distribution company for independent film; IFC Productions, a feature film production company that provides financing for select independent film projects; and IFC Center, a three screen, state-of-the-art cinema in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village. Rainbow Media also operates Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales company; Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company; and 11 Penn TV, a company that manages Rainbow Media’s NYC studios and post-production facilities.