Some watershed news. Fully five projects listed on Slated have just succeeded in raising tranches of film financing from fellow members as a result of introductions forged here on the platform. We can report on a couple of those films already - two very different stories but each, as it happens, revolving around a mother who kidnaps her daughter - and we’ll fill you in on those remaining investments as they become public.
Cordelia Stephens has confirmed that DUKHTAR (DAUGHTER), the Pakistan-set escape thriller she is co-producing, secured backing from Shrihari Sathe of Infinitum Productions. His investment adds to an impressive array of grant money that Afia Nathaniel, a computer-scientist-turned-filmmaker had already garnered for her feature-length debut. Shrihari brings with him a wealth of experience in the South Asian market including his involvement in Partho Sen-Gupta’s SUNRISE, another Slated-listed project that caught his eye through this very site. (In last year’s profile of Slated, The New York Times pegged Shrihari’s investment in Sunrise at $26,000).
Also benefiting from his exposure on Slated is Will Raee, the writer-director behind the adventure caper, LOST IN AUSTIN. He closed two financing deals on the same morning last week, one of them with Tommy Levin of Saguaro Partners Holdings LLC. “Things are looking really good,” marveled Will, who also recently landed both 30 Rock’s Jane Krakowski and Breaking Bad’s Matt Jones as additional cast members. “We still need $250,000, but at least now we have enough to get us through production.” To cap it off, fellow Slated member Mary Pat Bentel has just joined him as a producer.
If this year’s Sundance Film Festival is anything to go by, then the films that are happily coming together on Slated can look forward to a fruitful year ahead on the film festival circuit once they have finished production. Park City may not have been gripped by the same auction fever that has marked previous Sundance festivals, but some two-dozen films still came away with commercial distribution deals to their name. Slated’s community found itself in the thick of the action once again, returning home with several major prizes and an important say in virtually every major seven-figure deal that went down during the festival. Here’s a quick recap of our members’ achievements during those ten days in Utah:
RICH HILL, directed and produced by filmmaking cousins Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo, won the festival’s top documentary award, the U.S. Grand Jury Prize.
Whiplash, executive produced by Gary Michael Walters, won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for best U.S.. Dramatic Feature. Sony Pictures Classics paid a reported $3 million for domestic rights; Sony Pictures Worldwide will distribute the film internationally.
GOD HELP THE GIRL directed by Stuart Murdoch, produced by Barry Mendel and executive produced by Susan Johnson, won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Performance.
Lilting, produced by Dominic Buchanan, won the Cinematograph Award: World Cinema Dramatic.
Dear White People, produced by Angel Lopez, won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent.
The Skeleton Twins, winner of the U.S. Dramatic Screenwriting Award, boasted the festival’s largest single deal, a $3.5 million domestic sale to Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions. Sony Pictures Worldwide acquired all international territories to the drama produced by Jacob Pechenik and executive produced by Jared Goldman.
LOVE IS STRANGE, which was previously listed on Slated, scored a North American deal with Sony Pictures Classics as well as deals in the UK (Altitude Films), Benelux (Wild Bunch) Australia/New Zealand (Rialto), Greece (Faliro), Brazil (Alpha) and France (Pretty Pictures). Abraham Brown executive produced, alongside Jim A. Landé, Blythe Robertson, and Jim Stephens.
PING PONG SUMMER, also once listed on Slated, was picked up for U.S. release by Gravitas Ventures, which will roll the film out theatrically and digitally early this summer. Jeffrey Allard and Michael Gottwald produced.
I Origins, winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, was snapped up by Fox Searchlight, which paid around $3 million for worldwide rights. Mike Cahill wrote, directed, edited and produced the film. Producing alongside him were Alex Orlovsky and Hunter Gray.
Wish I Was Here was acquired by Focus Features in a $2.75 million deal that marked its first major acquisition under new leadership. Michael Shamberg produced Zach Braff’s crowdfunded comedy-drama. Coco Francini co-produced.
Calvary, co-produced by Elizabeth Eves, was another Fox Searchlight acquisition. It reportedly paid north of $2.5 million to take U.S. and select international rights.
Infinitely Polar Bear, on which Carl Sprague served as production designer, was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for North American, Germany, UK, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia.
Land Ho! was acquired for worldwide distribution by Sony Pictures Classics. Mynette Louie produced; Dan Cogan executive produced.
Obvious Child was acquired by A24 for North America. Joey Carey, a partner at Sundial Pictures, co-produced. Stefan Nowicki and David Kaplan executive produced.
Laggies, co-produced by Lacey Leavitt, was another domestic pick-up by A24, which is earmarking a summer theatrical release.
Cold in July was snapped by IFC Films for North America. Jim Mickle is the director, co-writer and co-editor of the thriller that was produced byRené Bastian and executive produced by Jean-Baptiste Babin of Paris-based Backup Films.
God’s Pocket, produced by Emily Ziff and starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, will be released in the U.S. by IFC Films. Electric Entertainment acquired foreign rights. Casting director is Susan Shopmaker.
The Babadook, the Australian horror breakout executive produced by Jonathan Page and Jeff Harrison was acquired for both U.S. and Latin American markets by IFC Films.
The One I Love, the romantic comedy produced by Mel Eslyn, was acquired for the worldwide distribution by RADiUS-TWC.
Cooties, produced by Josh Waller, was bought by Lionsgate for North America.
Happy Christmas, co-produced by Alicia Van Couvering, was picked up by Magnolia for U.S. theatrical and VOD distribution. Paramount will handle US DVD/Blu-ray distribution.
Cesar’s Last Fast, a documentary produced by Molly O’Brien, was jointly acquired in six-figure deal by Participant Media’s TV network Pivot and Univision.
And, finally, Aram Tertzakian and Nick Spicer, founding partners in XYZ Films and part of the team behind the two Raid films, came away from Park City with a seven-figure U.S. pre-sale to RADiUS for their upcoming action film action thriller The Night Comes For Us.
For all the deal-making volume that occurred in Park City – and promises to carry over to Berlin’s European Film Market this coming week – there was a noticeable absence of any of those all-night bidding wars that excite such media coverage. Instead, Sundance saw a welcome return to market sanity in which prices may have dropped but the wealth was spread more widely. As one unidentifed executive acknowledged to TheWrap: “There was a moment in time for that, but now you’re not locking yourself in a condo for 12 hours, and it’s so much better and more efficient and less stressful. Filmmakers romanticize that they’re being deprived of that but the business doesn’t need that.”
The same can also be said for the investment marketplace for independent films. For too long, film financing has been a closed-door process in which a handful of gatekeepers controlled access to a privileged few projects that monopolized much of the industry’s money. Indie sustainability suffered from this bottlenecking. The arrival of more efficient matchmaking technologies means now that a wider shopping list of films can be exposed to a greater array of potential suitors and on more transparent terms. If this takes some of the mystique and romance out of the cinema business, at least there are more hook-ups. Starting right here.