IFC Teams With SXSW To Release Swanberg’s Latest, Four Others

Joe Swanberg and David Lowery on the set of "Alexander The Last." Image courtesy of Film Science.

Among a slew of announcements today in Park City, UT, IFC Films unveiled a plan to simultaneously release Joe Swanberg’s new film, “Alexander The Last,” on VOD simultaneous with its world premiere at the upcoming South by Southwest Film Festival. Four other SXSW ‘09 titles will also screen on-demand via IFC Festival Direct, concurrent with the upcoming festival. IFC also announced the launch of of a new IFC Festival Direct genre label, branded IFC Midnight and unveiled some twenty titles that have been added to the slate for its on-demand platform.

The company organized a press conference on Main St. in Park City to make their announcements, with “Che” director Steven Soderbergh, SXSW’s Janet Pierson and “Alexander The Last” filmmaker Joe Swanberg on hand alongside company president Jonathan Sehring.

Launching next month, IFC’s new midnight on-demand brand will include Duane Graves and Justin Meeks’s “Wild Man of Navidad,” Thomas Vincent’s “The Protocol,” Carolyn Miller’s “Still Waters,” Mark Tonderai’s “Hush,” Bernard Rose’s “The Kreutzer Sonata,” Pablo Proenza’s “Dark Mirror,” and Laurence Trillings’ “Group Sex.”

International titles added to the IFC Festival Direct lineup include Gerardo Naranjo’s “I’m Gonna Explode,” Francois Ozon’s “Angel,” Denys Arcand’s “Days of Darkness,” Phillipe Garrel’s “Frontier of Dawn,” Amos Gitai’s “Disengagement,” and Hong Sang Soo’s “Night and Day.” Meanwhile, new English language acquisitions include Oliver Irving’s “How To Be,” Spencer Parson’s “I’ll Come Running,” and Vito Rocco’s “Faintheart,” and the aforementioned Swanberg film, “Alexander The Last.”

Produced by Noah Baumbach, Anish Savjani and Joe Swanberg, “Alexander the Last” stars Jess Weixler, Justin Rice, Barlow Jacobs, Amy Seimetz, Josh Hamilton and Jane Adams in what is described as, “a tender exploration of the pleasures and pitfalls of creativity, and the impact that intimate professional relationships can have on a young marriage.” IFC previously released Swanberg’s “Hannah Takes the Stairs” and “Nights and Weekends.”

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Two other SXSW premieres are set for the IFC Films-SXSW partnership, Javor Gardev’s “Zift,” Bulgaria’s 2009 Oscar entry, along with a new acquisition, Matthew Newton’s “Three Blind Mice.” Barry Jenkin’s “Medicine For Melancholy” and new acquisition “Paper Covers Rock,” by Joe Maggio, from SXSW 2008, will have encore showings at SXSW this year. “Conversations are getting louder about how festivals can and should aggressively help filmmakers use new technologies to reach a reach a broader audience, and IFC Films is a natural partner for us to make this happen,” SXSW festival produced Janet Pierson said in a statement. The new IFC titles join a 2009 Festival Direct lineup that already includes Christophe Honore’s “La Belle Personne,” Caroline Link’s “A Year Ago in Winter,” Thomas Vinterberg’s “When a Man Comes Home,” Kristian Levring’s ““Fear Me Not,” Bela Tarr’s “The Man From London,” Anna Melikyan’s Mermaid,” Baltasar Kormakur’s “White Night Wedding,” Niels Arden Oplev’s “World’s Apart,” and Benoit Pilon’s “The Necessities of Life.” Carlos Moreno’s “Dog Eat Dog,” Jan Troell’s “Everlasting Moments,” and Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” are on tap this year for the IFC In Theaters label. IFC Festival Direct is a program from IFC Films which gives national exposure to independent films screened at film festivals each year.  Every month, millions of viewers nationwide can choose from six new films that have premiered at major film festivals such as Cannes, Toronto, Venice, Berlin, Sundance, SXSW and AFI.   Login to recommend this article » posted on January 19, 2009 |Share Login to Leave a Comment »