New Distributors of Polish Films

Tribeca Film, the distribution branch of New York’s Tribeca Film Festival, announced its two-year plan yesterday. In 2011 alone, Tribeca Film intends to release 26 films in theatres and through various multimedia distribution channels, including VOD and digital online distribution. Tribeca Film’s lineup includes Essential Killing by Jerzy Skolimowski. Though the picture was never released theatrically in the United States, Tribeca Film plans to release it through VOD and on other platforms.

Skolimowski’s feature is one of nine titles recently acquired by Tribeca Film. Tribeca Film is now more than a festival film; as of last year, the company has grown to be a serious contender on the distribution market, often mentioned alongside such acclaimed independent distributors as Magnolia Film and Oscilloscope. Since its launch last year, Tribeca Film has released twelve pictures in multi-platform distribution consisting of cable television, VOD, Pay-Per-View satellite television, as well as sales through Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, and Netflix Streaming.

In addition to Essential Killing, Tribeca Film’s lineup includes The Bleeding House by Philip Gelatt, the directorial debut from Vincent D’Onofrio Don’t Go in the Woods, NEDS – the third feature from Peter Mullan (author of Orphans and The Magdalene Sisters), the documentary Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston by Whitney Sudler-Smith, The Bang Bang Club – the feature debut from acclaimed documentary filmmaker Steven Silver, and Last Night by Massa Tadjedin.

The latest projects by Agnieszka Holland and Lech Majewski also have good prospects for world distribution. Sony Pictures Classics, specialized in distribution of foreign-language films in the United States, bought the US territory rights to Agnieszka Holland’s latest feature Ukryci (In Darkness), a co-production between Poland, Germany, and Canada. Wide Management will handle world sales of Lech Majewski’s Młyn i krzyż (The Mill and the Cross), and the picture’s US rights have been bought by Kino Lorber. Wide Management has also announced that the film is to be released in Spain, Japan, Argentina, and Australia.

Joanna Ozdobińska, New York

Translated by Karolina Kołtun