28/10/2005

Two multiple award-winning films majority produced in Europe are hitting UK screens today: Marc Rothemund’s historical drama Sophie Scholl [+see also:
trailer
film profile] released on 8 prints by ICA Projects and Carlos Reygadas’ controversial Battle in Heaven [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Reygadas
interview: Jean Labadie
film profile] (see our Focus) released with 11 prints by Tartan Films.

Attracting arthouse audiences during the most crowded week of the year for film releases in the UK was a real challenge for both distribution companies as the London Film Festival (LFF) –the major film event of the year in the UK capital– is in full speed. But both ICA and Tartan kept focused and confident, orchestrating mostly publicity-led marketing campaigns.

ICA project in fact used the LFF screening venues to try to reach Sophie Scholl’s target audience with flyers promoting the film. According to ICA Project’s marketing coordinator Victoria Benjamin, the company organised many preview screenings - put together in collaboration with Film Education -, to spread the word of mouth and took selected ads in national and regional newspapers as well as in the key weekly entertainment magazine Time Out. Marc Rothmund also attended a special preview screening of his film followed by a Q&A in Manchester last week.

Tartan Films had a bigger P&A budget which gave them the means to use a powerful outdoor-flyposting campaign on top of targeted press advertising. Jule Hartung, marketing coordinator for Tartan said that the campaign on Battle In Heaven started already at the Edinburgh Film Festival last August where the film received a lot of acclaim. Carlos Reygadas and the main star Anapola Mushkadiz came on two occasions in London which gave Tartan the opportunity to organise press interviews and photo shoots with the major UK film publications.