20/05/2013 - Three UK distributors - Artificial Eye, Arrow Films and Metrodome Distribution - have acquired competition entries and market premieres in Cannes

Artificial Eye, Arrow Film and Metrodome Distribution, three of the UK’s leading independent distribution companies, have nabbed rights to official selection entries and market premieres in Cannes.

Artificial Eye has acquired from Pathé International the Italian competition film La Grande Bellezza [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
film profile] (the Great Beauty- photo) by Paolo Sorrentino, ahead of the film’s official screening on Tuesday. Louisa Dent, managing director of Curzon Film World, said: “We had great success releasing Il Divo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicola Giuliano
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
interview: Philippe Desandre
film profile] in the UK. We are looking forward to bringing another distinctive and immaculately made film to UK audiences.” The company plans a late 2013 theatrical release in the UK. The drama about an aging journalist who remembers his lost and passionate youth had been pre-sold in Berlin to another Paolo Sorrentino collector: DCM in Germany. Pathé Distribution will release it in France on May 22, 2013.

Another Palme d’or contender, Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s Like Father, Like Son that screened on Saturday and received an average 3 stars (out of 4) from UK reviewers in Cannes, was acquired from Wild Bunch by Arrow Film Distributors. The distributor will release it in UK cinemas late 2013/early 2014. Hirokazu’s previous family tale I Wish is already in Arrow Films’ catalogue and will be launched on Blue-Ray and DVD on May 27.

Meanwhile Metrodome Distribution acquired from West End Films Gabriele Salvatores’ English language debut feature Siberian Education that screened at the market. The English-language debut of Italian director Gabriele Salvatores features a gang of children who grow up in a community of banished criminals. John Malkovich plays the role of a grand-father. The film was also picked up for US distribution by Wrekin Hill Entertainment, which will release it in late 2013.