Film to Screen at Prestigious New Directors / New Films Festival This Weekend
Fall 2009 Release Planned
New York, NY – March 26, 2009) – IFC Films, one of the leading American distributors for independent and foreign films, and the U.K. sales agent Protagonist Pictures announced today it has acquired U.S. distribution rights to UNMADE BEDS, a funny, sexy and romantic drama about two expats whose fates become intertwined in a London flat. Written and directed by the acclaimed Argentine director Alexis Dos Santos (GLUE), UNMADE BEDS stars Deborah Francois (THE PAGE TURNER and The Dardennes’ L’ENFANT) and Fernando Tielve (THE DEVILS BACKBONE). UNMADE BEDS premiered earlier this year at Sundance in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition to critical acclaim. The film is having its New York premiere Saturday at the Museum of Modern Art’s New Directors/New Films Festival.
The deal for UNMADE BEDS was negotiated by Arianna Bocco for IFC Films with Ben Roberts of Protagonist Pictures. IFC Films is planning to release the film later this year via IFC In Theaters or IFC Festival Direct.
UNMADE BEDS tells the story of Axl and Vera, two young expats who take up residence in a vibrant, sprawling squat in the melting-pot of London’s hip East End. Axl wants to find his long-lost father and rediscover his past. Vera just wants to forget hers and move on from recent heartbreak. Learning his father is a realtor, Axl pretends to be a student looking for an apartment. But the more he discovers about his father’s new life, the more difficult it is for Axl to admit who he really is. Meanwhile, Vera embarks on a tentative romance with a charismatic stranger. To protect herself from further heartbreak, she insists on total anonymity – but becomes the victim of her own strategy when she finds herself falling in love.
Jonathan Sehring, President of IFC Entertainment said, "UNMADE BEDS is an exuberant, warmly romantic film about youth culture that immediately stands alongside some of the greats. It’s a thrill to introduce such a gifted director as Alexis Dos Santos to American audiences. It’s really a perfect film for all of our platforms."
Alexis Dos Santos’ debut film GLUE won more than a dozen international prizes and opened the 2007 New Directors/New Films program. Last year, he was selected for Cannes’s prestigious Cinefoundation Residence program in Paris. Dos Santos studied in Buenos Aires and Barcelona before attending the national Film and Television school in London.
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, Festival Direct, IFC Productions, and the IFC Center. IFC Films is a leading distributor of independent film. Its unique day and date distribution model, IFC In Theaters, makes independent films available to a national audience by releasing them simultaneously in theaters as well as on cable’s On Demand platform and through Pay-Per-View, reaching 50 million homes. IFC Festival Direct features a wide selection of titles acquired from major international film festivals and offers them exclusively through Video on Demand. 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.
About Protagonist Pictures
Born out of a joint venture between Film4, Ingenious Media and Vertigo Films,
UK-based sales agent Protagonist handles films from its parent companies as well as from third party sources. Protagonist’s current slate includes its three Sundance Festival successes – Armando Iannucci’s In The Loop (opening in the UK 17 April 09 and sold to IFC in the US), Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson (which opened in March 09 in the UK to great critical acclaim and commercial success) and Alexis Dos Santos’s Unmade Beds. Protagonist’s new titles include Nick Love’s The Firm, Debbie Isitt’s Nativity and Samantha Morton’s directorial debut The Unloved, all of which are in post-production.