Cannes, France (May 19, 2010) – IFC Films, the leading American distributor of independent and foreign films, announced today that the company is acquiring U.S. rights to two films: Xavier Dolan’s HEARTBEATS which is screening in Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and Antoine Blossier’s PREY. IFC Films will release HEARTBEATS via its IFC in Theaters platform which brings critically-acclaimed independent movies to on-demand viewers at home the same day they premiere in theaters. PREY will be released by the company’s recently launched new genre and specialty IFC Midnight label.
The deals for both films were negotiated by Lizzie Nastro, Director of Acquisitions & Co-Productions for IFC Films and with Sebastien Chesneau, Head of International Sales at REZO, on behalf of the filmmakers.
Jonathan Sehring, President of IFC Entertainment said, “It’s with great pleasure that we continue our relationship with REZO with HEARTBEATS and PREY. Xavier Dolan is one of the most exciting young talents working in cinema today and we couldn’t be happier to bring HEARTBEATS to America. We also think audiences are really going to love PREY which is an inventive and wild ride, as welll as an impressive debut by Antoine Blossier.”
HEARTBEATS is the second film in two years for Xavier Dolan at the Cannes Film Festival where his debut I KILLED MY MOTHER won three of the four awards out of Director’s Fortnight. The film tells the story of Francis (Dolan) and Marie (Monia Chokri) who are good friends. One night, they meet Nicolas (Niels Schneider), a young man from the country who has just settled in Montreal. From encounter to encounter, from moment to moment, troubled by innumerable signs — some real, some imagined – Francis and Marie fall deeper and deeper into a fantastical obsession with him. Soon, they find themsleves on the precipice of a love duel that threathens the friendship they once thought indestructible.
PREY tells the story of Nathan (BEAU TRAVAIL’S Gregoire Colin) who is at a countryside retreat for a Fall family reunion that he expects to be particularly stormy. Claire, his wife, has to announce her pregnancy and there are tough decisions that need to be made to prevent the family’s pesticides business from closing down. But on the first night that the family gathers, a terrorized deer mysteriously attacks Claire’s father. The men decide to venture into the surrounding forest to find the reasons for the animal’s odd behavior. Carrying a shotgun for the first time in his life and witnessing the growing tensions between the men in the family, Nathan soon discovers that hunting season is not over yet. Now they’ve become the prey. Marking the debut film for Antoine Blossier, PREY brings together a special effects team from some of Hollywood’s best films.
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 Center is a five 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.