16/06/2006

Miguel Courtois' ETA thriller and double 2005 Goya winner El Lobo (released as Lobo) is among the ten new releases of the week that have taken on the challenge of luring UK audiences into dark cinema halls in spite of the Football World Cup and the exceptional good weather across the country.

Dogwoof Pictures' release today of Lobo on twenty 35mm prints and 10 digital prints is being backed by the UK Film Council's P&A Fund, which means the UK independent distributor has been able to book a strong advertising campaign on broadsheet newspapers such as The Guardian, The Telegraph and the Independent as well as in monthly film magazines such as Sight & Sound and the weekly entertainment guide Time Out. The mix of digital screens and normal 35mm screening venues had already been used for previous Dogwoof releases such as King's Game and Fateless [+see also:
trailer
film profile], one of the company's biggest successes so far.

According to Anna Godas, head of acquisitions, the marketing campaign for Lobo was also heavily PR-based with interviews set up with lead actor Eduardo Noriega, who came to London last month to promote the film. Dogwoof also worked with the Spanish Institute in London for a mail out campaign to reach the Spanish and Latin American communities in the UK capital.

Also new on UK screens today is the UK/US/German romantic comedy Imagine Me & You, the first feature film by critically acclaimed screenwriter Ol Parker. Released by Universal Pictures , the film, starring Piper Perabo, Mathew Goode and Lena Headey, was produced by UK-based Cougar Films and Germany's X-Filme Production for BBC Films and Ealing Studios.

Two other European films are also being introduced to Londoners: French filmmaker Raymond Depardon's documentary 10th District Court is being platformed at London’s ICA Cinema, and Michelangelo Antonioni's English language The Passenger (Professione: Reporter), starring Jack Nicholson, is being re-released by NFT/Sony Pictures at London’s National Film Theatre.