Alpha Violet makes a killing with Apples
- Unveiled in Venice, Greek director Christos Nikou’s first feature film is smiling upon the French international sales agent who are notching up deal after deal
Discovered in a world premiere in Venice (opening the Orizzonti line-up) before travelling on to the Industry Selects section of the Toronto Film Festival, Apples [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christos Nikou
film profile] by Greek director Christos Nikou is turning out to be a winning ticket for Parisian international sales agent Alpha Violet.
Since its acquisition, shortly ahead of the Venice Film Festival, by Curzon Artifical Eye for the UK and Ireland, this production steered by Boo Productions and Polish firm Lava Films (with Slovenia’s Perfo Production in co-production) has won over numerous other distributers: Bodega Films for France (who will also be releasing another film sold by Alpha Violent on 16 December in France: Identifying Features [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Fernanda Valadez, the winner of two awards at Sundance), Scanbox for Scandinavia, Lucky Red for Italy, New Horizons for Poland, Artcam for the Czech Republic and Slovakia (and HBO Eastern Europe for Pay TV), Filmladen for Austria, Filmfreak for The Netherlands, Feelgood for Greece, Fivia MCF for the countries of former Yugoslavia and Trigon for Switzerland. Likewise in on the action are Lithuania, Australia and Singapour, with advanced negotiations simultaneously underway for the US, Spain and Germany.
In the eyes of Virginie Devesa (who heads up Alpha Violet alongside Keiko Funato), this success comes as no surprise: "I had great faith in Apples. The fact that Curzon showed their excitement over it just ahead of Venice had a real impact, which intensified after the world premiere with excellent press coverage and many distributors loving the film. Clearly, it’s a highly topical subject: an amnesia-inducing virus, a pandemic, a secret… which all marries perfectly with the vintage effect of 4:3. In some sense, we’re getting back to basics with a work which isn’t frivolous but is actually truly profound."
Apples will also compete in the 16th Zurich Film Festival (running 24 September – 4 October 2020).
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