Gomorrah, Hunger and The Secret of The Grain to Compete for Best Foreign Film; Savage Grace and Sangre De Mi Sangre Nominated for Best Screenplay
Other Nominated Titles Include Medicine for Melancholy, In Search of a Midnight Kiss and My Effortless Brilliance
New York, NY, December 2, 2008 – IFC Films, the leader among distributors of foreign and independent films, garnered eleven Independent Spirit Award nominations today, the second most of any U.S. distributor.
Three of the five nominees in the Best Foreign Film category are from IFC Films. They include: Matteo Garrone’s Italian real-life crime drama Gomorrah; Hunger, the highly acclaimed Irish drama from Steve McQueen; and The Secret of Grain, Abdel Kechiche’s French family drama. IFC is planning Academy Award qualifying runs for Gomorrah and Hunger in December with 2009 theatrical and VOD releases. The Secret of Grain will be released on December 24.
Medicine for Melancholy, an inner-city love story set in San Francisco, received three nominations. Director Barry Jenkins and producer Justin Barber were nominated for Best First Feature, James Laxton received a nod for Best Cinematography and Jenkins was also nominated for the Acura Someone to Watch Award. Jenkins was also recently nominated for a Gotham Award for Breakthrough Director. Medicine for Melancholy will be released in February 2009.
Sangre De Mi Sangre, a Mexican film about immigration, also received two nominations. Director Chris Zalla and producers Per Melita and Benjamin Odell were nominated for Best First Feature and Zalla was also nominated for Best Screenplay. Competing against Zalla in the Best Screenplay category is Howard A. Rodman for Savage Grace. Both Sangre De Mi Sangre and Savage Grace were released by IFC earlier this year.
Alex Holdridge, Seth Caplan, Scoot McNairy, the writer/producer/director team behind In Search of a Midnight Kiss, received a John Cassavetes Award nomination. This award goes to the best feature made for under $500,000. My Effortless Brilliance director Lynn Shelton was nominated for an Acura Someone to Watch Award.
Said IFC Entertainment President Jonathan Sehring, "Congratulations to all of the creative talent in the IFC family who were recognized today. These nominations underscore our commitment to bringing original, exciting and prestigious product from around the world to U.S. audiences."
Winners will be announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday, February 21.
About IFC Entertainment
A leader in the independent film industry, IFC Entertainment consists of multiple brands that are devoted to bringing the best of specialty films to the largest possible audience: IFC Films, Festival Direct, IFC Productions, and the IFC Center. IFC Films is a leading distributor of independent film. Its unique day and date distribution model, "IFC In Theaters," makes independent films available to a national audience by releasing them simultaneously in theaters as well as on cable’s On Demand platform and through Pay-Per-View, reaching 50 million homes. IFC Festival Direct features a wide selection of titles acquired from major international film festivals and offers them exclusively through Video on Demand. IFC Productions is a feature film production company that provides financing for select independent film projects. IFC Center is a three screen, state-of-the-art cinema with luxurious seating and HD digital and 35mm projection that shows art-house films in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village. IFC Entertainment’s companies are subsidiaries of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC.