New York (NY) (April 23, 2010) – IFC Films, the leading American distributor of independent and foreign films, announced today it is acquiring North American and multiple foreign rights to the 2010 festival award winner TINY FURNITURE. Written and directed by Lena Dunham, and produced by Kyle Martin and Alicia Van Couvering, the film stars Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, David Call, and Alex Karpovsky. The film, which made its world premiere last month at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, was awarded the top narrative feature prize and Dunham took home the festival’s breakout award for emerging narrative woman director. These wins were followed with the prize for Independent Vision at the Sarasota Film Festival earlier this month. IFC Films will release TINY FURNITURE 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.
TINY FURNITURE tells the story of 22-year-old Aura (Dunham) who returns home after college to her artist mother’s loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her YouTube page, and no shoulders to cry on. Starring Dunham’s real-life family in supporting roles and shot in her family home, TINY FURNITURE is a tragicomedy about what does and does not happen when you graduate with no skills, no love life, and a lot of free time.
The deal was negotiated by Lizzie Nastro for IFC Films and with Josh Braun of Submarine on behalf of the filmmakers.
President of IFC Entertainment Jonathan Sehring said: "TINY FURNITURE is one of the great discoveries of the year. Lena Dunham has a completely original voice and we’re thrilled to be able to work with her and her team on bringing the film to a wider audience on all of our plaforms.
"I can’t imagine a better home for the movie than IFC, a company that has supported so many of my favorite independent films and filmmakers," says Dunham. "The producers and I feel very fortunate that they’ll be applying their expertise to the task of releasing TINY FURNITURE."
IFC acquired worldwide rights on the film, excluding United Kingdom, South Africa, Germany, France, Benelux, New Zealand and Australia.
About the Filmmaker
Lena Dunham graduated from Oberlin College in 2008, where she studied Creative Writing. Her first short film, Dealing, premiered at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival. Her first feature, Creative Nonfiction, premiered at SXSW 2009 and enjoyed a theatrical premiere at Anthology Film Archives. She has made two webseries, "Tight Shots" (www.nerve.com) and "Delusional Downtown Divas" (www.delusionaldowntowndivas.com). In 2009, she was commissioned to make ten more episodes of DDD to project at the Guggenheim’s first annual Art Awards, an event for which she also hosted and wrote the teleplay. In 2009, she was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s "25 New Faces of Independent Film." She writes about film and interesting characters for various publications, including Interview Magazine, Onion A/V Club, HammertoNail.com, and she loves to tweet (twitter.com/lenadunham).
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.