Film Will Have its North American Premiere at the New York Film Festival Friday, October 10th at the Ziegfeld
New York, NY – October 8, 2008 – IFC Films has acquired the U.S. rights to Agnes Jaoui’s sparkling social satire Let it Rain starring herself, Jean-Pierre Bacri and Jamel Debbouze. The film, making its North American premiere this Friday, October 10th at the New York Film Festival is IFC’s third French film screening at the Fest, joining Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale and Olivier Assayas’s Summer Hours and its 6th overall. Let it Rain will be released next year through IFC in Theaters, its day and date distribution platform which makes independent films available to a national audience in theaters and on-demand, simultaneously.
"Agnes Jaoui is at the top of her game," said Jonathan Sehring, President of IFC Entertainment. "She has established herself not only as one of our most sophisticated directors, but also gives a performance of rare wit, matched every step of the way by the incredible Jean-Pierre Bacri and Jamel Debbouze. We couldn’t be happier to be working together and are looking forward to American audiences embracing the film as we did."
IFC Films’ Arianna Bocco, Vice President of Production and Acquisitions and Lizzie Nastro, Director of Production and Acquisitions negotiated the deal with StudioCanal’s Executive Vice President Harold van Lier and Vice President of International Sales Anna Marsh.
Set in southern France, Jaoui plays Agathe Villanova, a self-regarding feminist novelist weighing a run at politics, who returns to her childhood summer home to sort out family business with her homebody sister Florence (Pascale Arbillot). Florence lives with her husband, their children, and Mimouna, the housekeeper who came to France with Villanova family when they left Algeria, in the moment of independence. Mimouna’s son, Karim (Jamel Debbouze), and his friend Michel Ronsard (Jean-Pierre Bacri) decide to make a documentary on Agathe, for a collection dedicated to the women who became successful.
Agnes Jaoui is the award-winning director of the Academy Award nominated The Taste of Others, the Cannes Prize winner Look at Me. Both films have featured Agnes and Jean-Pierre Bacri who also collaborates on the screenplays. This is their third film together.
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, 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 its renowned film division, while IFC In Theaters, an on demand service, simultaneously releases these titles to cable and satellite viewers. IFC Festival Direct features a wide selection of titles acquired from major international film festivals and offers them exclusively through on-demand and digital platforms. 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.
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, Sundance Channel and VOOM HD Networks. Through IFC Entertainment, Rainbow Media also owns and manages the following: IFC Films, a leading distribution company for independent film; IFC Productions, a feature film production company that provides financing for select independent film projects; and IFC Center, a three screen, state-of-the-art cinema in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village. Rainbow Media also operates Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales company; Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company; and 11 Penn TV, a company that manages Rainbow Media’s NYC studios and post-production facilities.