A New Film from Award Winning Writer/Director Lynn Shelton
New York, NY – July 16, 2008 – IFC Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to award-winning writer/director Lynn Shelton’s My Effortless Brilliance. The film, which had its world premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, will also screen as part of Rooftop Films in New York City on August 1. IFC Entertainment will release My Effortless Brilliance on Festival Direct in August 2008.
Festival Direct is a service available on cable’s On Demand platform that features a wide selection of titles acquired by IFC Entertainment from major international film festivals including Cannes, Toronto, Tribeca, Venice and Telluride. Festival Direct reinforces IFC Entertainment’s commitment to give broad exposure to the many critically-acclaimed independent films that are screened at these festivals each year but often do not reach a wider audience.
"Films like My Effortless Brilliance are why Festival Direct was created," said Jonathan Sehring, President of IFC Entertainment. "With the shifting marketplace, a film as nuanced and beautifully directed might not have the opportunity to find its audience. We are giving audiences the opportunity to discover this wonderful and sometimes mysterious film about friendship and introducing them to an important new voice in American independent cinema, Lynn Shelton."
My Effortless Brilliance was co-written by Lynn Shelton and the film’s lead actors, Sean Nelson (lead singer of Harvey Danger), Basil Harris (We Go Way Back, Awesome) and Calvin Reeder (The Rambler, Little Farm, June & July).
"My Effortless Brilliance ushered in a new way of making films for me," said Shelton. "In my search for easy and authentic performances, I employed a pared down, actor-centered production style. I found it totally exhilarating. I can’t think of a better home for Brilliance than IFC and couldn’t be more excited about its upcoming release."
The film follows successful, self-involved novelist Eric Lambert Jones who has been dumped by his life-long buddy Dylan. In an attempt to piece together the fractured friendship, Eric takes a side trip from his latest book tour to drop in on Dylan, newly settled in the picturesque backwoods of Washington state. An awkward weekend ensues as the two ex-buddies, and Dylan’s enigmatic new friend Jim, chop wood, match wits and ultimately embark on an impromptu, booze-soaked cougar hunt.
Jeff Deutchman, Manager of Acquisitions and Production for IFC Films negotiated the acquisition with writer/director/producer, Lynn Shelton.
After a dozen years spent acting for the stage, and a decade as an experimental and documentary filmmaker and an editor, Lynn Shelton wrote and directed her first narrative feature upon invitation from The Film Company, a nonprofit film studio. The result, "We Go Way Back", premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2006 where it picked up the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature and the Kodak Vision Award for Best Cinematography. It won awards in those same categories at the Polish Torun Film Festival TOFFI, where it was also granted the Award for Best Director. Shelton has also produced music videos for Laura Veirs, Harvey Danger, The Lights, and The Lonely H.
Shelton just wrapped production for her next feature entitled "Humpday", starring Sundance alum Mark Duplass of the Duplass Brothers ("The Puffy Chair" and "Baghead") and Joshua Leonard ("The Blair Witch Project"). The film follows two college buddies as they meet up nearly a decade later, to find their lives have diverged dramatically. The initial jolt of recognition and brotherly love devolves into a crisis of identity for them both and results in a dramatic comedy about what can happen when male bonding goes too far.
About IFC Entertainment
A multi-platform leader in the independent film industry, IFC Entertainment operates a group of companies devoted to bringing the best of specialty films to the largest possible audience: IFC Films, IFC Productions, and the IFC Center. Through an innovative day-and-date distribution model, IFC Entertainment makes films available to a national audience through theatrical release by IFC Films, while ’IFC In Theaters,’ an on demand service, simultaneously releases these titles to cable and satellite. 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.
Recent and upcoming IFC Films releases include: 2007 Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days , which also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film; Gus Van Sant’s critically-acclaimed and award-winning Paranoid Park; Hou Hsiao Hsien’s Flight of the Red Balloon starring Juliette Binoche; and Tom Kalin’s Savage Grace starring Julianne Moore. Other acclaimed films include John Dahl’s You Kill Me, Susanne Bier’s Academy Award-nominated After the Wedding and Ken Loach’s 2006 Palme d’Or winner, The Wind that Shakes the Barley.
About Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media is a leading producer of targeted, multi-platform content for global distribution, creating and managing some of the world’s most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands, including AMC, IFC, WE tv, LIFESKOOL, SPORTSKOOL, and VOOM HD Networks. Through its IFC Entertainment division, Rainbow Media also owns and manages the following: IFC Films, a theatrical feature film distribution company; IFC in Theaters, a day and date theatrical feature film/VOD initiative; the IFC Center in New York City; IFC Productions, a feature film production company; and IFC Entertainment, which owns and operates a film library. Rainbow Media also operates Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales division, and Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company.