29/07/2003

This month filmgoers throughout the United Kingdom will get a chance to see four new arthouse films, three of which are European productions or co-productions, at mainstream cinemas thanks to the generosity of the UK Film Council’s Distribution and Exhibition Fund. The project is part of a drive to introduce more variety into film programming, especially outside the key cities. Cinema is enjoying a wave of popularity unprecedented for thirty years, but the UK is also one of the costliest places to release films hence smaller arthouse titles have little or no chance of a widespread theatrical release.
The Distribution and Exhibition Fund contributed the following amounts to these titles:
Whale Rider (New Zealand) , released on 11 July Icon Film Distribution, received a contribution of £100,000 (€141,000) and took £400,000 (€566,000) in 10 days on 60 screens.
Goodbye Lenin! [+see also:
trailer
interview: Wolfgang Becker
film profile] by Wolfgang Becker was released on 25 July and received £90,000 (€127,000); Respiro [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Italy’s Emanuele Crialese is scheduled out on 8 August and it received £140,415 (€206,000), and the French/US Spanish-language co-production entitled Raising Victor Vargas by Peter Sollett will be out on 19 September with a contribution of £75,000 (€106,000).