29/05/2006

Last evening’s awards ceremony in Cannes was a victorious night for British cinema with the Palme d’Or awarded to veteran filmmaker Ken Loach for The Wind That Shakes the Barley [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ken Loach
interview: Rebecca O’Brien
film profile], and the Jury Prize going to Andrea Arnold for her debut feature, Red Road [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. But the top awards will also be celebrated by the numerous European financial and creative partners who helped the directors’ visions make it to the big screen.

Loach’s film was produced by Rebecca O’Brien, his partner at Sixteen Films, in co-production with Element Films (Ireland), EMC Produktion (Germany), BIM Distribuzione (Italy) and Tornasol Films (Spain), with support from the UK Film Council, the Irish Film Board and a dozen other financiers.

The film is being sold by Pathe International will be released by Pathe in the UK and Ireland on June 23. Other European territories will follow, including France (Diaphana), the Netherlands (A Films), Spain (Alta Films), Belgium (Cineart), Cyprus, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece (Prooptiki), Portugal (Filmes Lusomundo) and Switzerland (Filmcooperative).

Red Road was produced by Red Road Films in the UK, in co-production with Zentropa Films in Denmark and with support from the UK Film Council, Scottish Screen, the Glasgow Film Office and BBC Films in association with Zoma Films and Verve Pictures, who will release it in the UK next fall.

In Cannes, the film was sold by Trust Film Sales to the US (Tartan Films), Spain (Golem), Benelux (A Films), France (Equation), Portugal (Prisvideo), Greece (Strada) and the former Yugoslavia (First Production).

Paul Trijbits, head of the UK FC’s New Cinema Fund congratulated both filmmakers: “Ken continues on his quest of raising difficult political issues and has made one of his most powerful films in a most uncompromising way”, he said. "With Red Road, Andrea has created a stunningly visual film that reaches to the very heart of society through uncompromising observations using CCTV. This shows that she is one of the most exciting new filmmakers in the world".