01/03/2005

Indie Circle, which is the union of five independant European distributors — Haut et Court (France), Lucky Red (Italy), Cinéart (Belgium), A-Film Distribution (Netherlands), and Frenetic Films (Switzerland)— has just reached a new stage. After creating in September 2003, a European office in charge of buying quality films under the French Company Law, the five partners have changed strategies, preferring preliminary contracts. The strategy works, as the European coproduction Paradise Now by Hany Abu-Assad, pre-bought in February 2004, revealed by gaining everybody’s esteem in Berlin this year — it was one of the films in competition.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

After less than two and a half years, Indie Circle has won the initial challenge, which was to create an efficient working pan-European union, putting together different experiences and methods, and sharing all the risks, since the benefits are put together and shared. On the economic front, this union has been fruitful: it lowered the cost of the films themselves, besides making promotional products and copies more economical. This was proved with the Spanish hit Te doy mis ojos [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Icíar Bollaín. Amongst the five films bought so far by Indie Circle, there is the British and Australian coproduction Pobby & Dingan by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) bought last October from Renaissance Films, a feature sponsored by BBC Films and the UK Film Council.
Based in Paris, under Mirjam Wertheim and Laure Caillol’s supervision, Indie Circle uses the expertise and negociation skills of its founders, Carole Scotta (Haut et Court), Andrea Occhipinti (Lucky Red), Eliane du Bois (Cinéart), San Fu Maltha (A-Film Distribution), and the work-partners Monika Weibel and Daniel Treichler (Frenetic Films).

(Translated from French)