Category Archives: PRESS RELEASES

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FILMS, HEADLINE, Music Box Films, PRESS RELEASES

Oscar-winning Filmmaker Luc Jacquet’s Latest Documentary Film on Global Warming

ANTARCTICA: ICE AND SKY

Opens in New York City, January 20th

A spectacular portrait of Claude Lorius, the legendary French explorer who foresaw global warming

 

 

With the remarkable ANTARCTICA: ICE AND SKY, Oscar®-winning filmmaker Luc Jacquet (March of the Penguins) tells the inspiring story of Claude Lorius, the 82-year-old glaciologist and explorer who has dedicated his life to studying the icescapes of Antarctica. Lorius’s groundbreaking discoveries over the decades would ultimately sound the alarm for the global warming crisis and expose humankind’s devastating impact on the Earth’s climate.

Continue reading Oscar-winning Filmmaker Luc Jacquet’s Latest Documentary Film on Global Warming →

FILMS, HEADLINE, Music Box Films, PRESS RELEASES

Powerful Female Solidarity in Hands of French Director Anne Fontaine

“The Innocents” by Anne Fontaine

A POLISH CONVENT TRAUMATIZED BY WAR CRIMES IN THE LAST DAYS OF WWII

One of the best reviewed films and top box office performing foreign language releases of the year arrives nationwide beginning September 27th

 

“CRITICS CHOICE! Spellbinding… The Innocents Soars.” – Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES TIMES

“Powerful and Moving! Examines every moral crevice of an unthinkable scenario”  -Justin Chang, VARIETY

“Genius. A stunningly beautiful film.”  – Alissa Wilkinson, CHRISTIANITY TODAY

The Innocents - Photo courtesy of Music Box Films
The Innocents – photo courtesy of Music Box Films

 

The Innocents is director Anne Fontaine’s haunting and ultimately life affirming post-WWII drama about  a young, forward-thinking French Red Cross doctor who comes to the aid of a group of traumatized young Polish nuns whose lives and faith have been dangerously tested. The Innocents is based on the true story of heroic French doctor and Resistance fighter Madeleine Pauliac.

 

The second World War is finally over and doctor Mathilde (rising star Lou de Laage) is treating the last of the French survivors of Nazi work camps in Poland. When a panicked Benedictine nun appears at the clinic begging Mathilde to follow her back to the convent, what she finds there is shocking: a holy sister about to give birth and several more in advanced stages of pregnancy. A non-believer, Mathilde enters the sisters’ fiercely private world, dictated by the rituals of their order and the strict Rev. Mother (Agata Kulesza, Ida). Fearing the shame of exposure, the hostility of the occupying Soviet troops and local Polish communists the nuns increasingly turn to Mathilde as they face an unprecedented crisis of faith.

Continue reading Powerful Female Solidarity in Hands of French Director Anne Fontaine →

Clients, FILMS, HEADLINE, Music Box Films, PRESS RELEASES

Joe Angio’s How To Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) is a glorious commemoration of Melvin Van Peebles

How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)

A FIRST-RATE CHRONICLE OF THE REMARKABLE LIFE AND CAREER OF ARTIST/PROVOCATEUR MELVIN VAN PEEBLES, CREATOR OF THE LEGENDARY 1971 FILM SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG

 

Melvin Van Peebles’ extraordinary life story reveals an artist and a man whose groundbreaking impact on film, politics and pop culture remains as relevant as ever. On the 45th Anniversary of his landmark 1971 film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song—the most successful independent film of its time and a watershed in African-American cinema—Melvin Van Peebles’ life and career are celebrated in a DVD re-issue of filmmaker Joe Angio’s 2005 documentary How To Eat Your Watermelon In White Company (and Enjoy It).

Continue reading Joe Angio’s How To Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) is a glorious commemoration of Melvin Van Peebles →

Clients, FEATURED, HEADLINE, PRESS RELEASES

WeaselWorks launches “Walking Dead” and Washington Wizards TV Spots

 New “Haunted House” and “Tall/Small” D.C. TV Spots Launches New D.C. Lottery Tickets In Continuation of Award-Winning Campaign

The Creative Team Behind Award-Winning D.C. Lottery Campaigns

 

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In promoting the launch of a new season of D.C. Lottery scratch-off tickets, production house, WeaselWorks, Ltd. has unveiled “Haunted House/Zombie” and “Tall/Small” for the new scratch off games celebrating the new season of TV’s “The Walking Dead,” as well as all things basketball. The spots are a follow up to a series of 2014 spots, which earned D.C. Lottery the win for ‘TV Advertising – Coordinated Campaign’ at The North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) Annual Conference.

Both spots are currently running now in the District of Columbia market and marks another successful collaboration between Weaselworks and the ad agency MDB Communications, led by Chief Creative Officer Richard Coad.

The creativity behind the 2015 spots celebrates the motto, “…unless I win the lottery,“ a concept developed by MDB last year and continuing on for 2016 due to its wildly successful run.  “Tall/Small” spot, in launch of the Washington Wizards scratch off ticket, centers around a basketball team waiting for a “monster power player” who instead sends a representative who doesn’t quite live up to expectations.

In “Haunted House / Zombie” a hired zombie hunter never shows up to meet a waiting couple outside a haunted house, leaving them vulnerable to some hungry zombies.  This post-apocalyptic spot is inspired by zombies to launch The Walking Dead scratch off tickets.

Led by Executive Producer Robert Berman, owner and founder of WeaselWorks and award-winning director, Stan Schofield and in collaboration with D.C. advertising agency, MDB Communications, this creative team has delivered several campaigns over the last few years that have ranged from the outrageous to the poetic.  The branding ties directly into the DC Lottery tag line “Lots of people win. ”

“We love the continued collaboration with Richard Coad and the great folks at MDB Communications.  They continue to do great, conceptual work for Lottery and we are proud to have the opportunity to serve the creative and continue to evolve the work.” says Berman.

Robert Berman has been actively working with a myriad of collaborators over the past few decades creating content across all media platforms, but the DC Lottery is a special assignment.   “I am proud to be associated with a dream team of directors who continue to produce award winning work, understand the financial reality of the times, and keep clients coming back.”

His production company houses three accomplished, award-winning directors,  Stan Schofield, Gilly Barnes and Nika Offenbac, offering a depth of knowledge across narrative, documentary, experiential projects and design .

Stan Schofield is an accomplished director with over 30 years experience in this business, including two much heralded feature films.  Gilly Barnes has an astounding line of credits and accolades including an Emmy® and Addy award and has become a “go to” for celebrities who want to be their unvarnished selves.  Nika Offenbac has directed impressive content for major clients such as: Guess, Discovery, Canon, Major League Soccer and received 12 film awards for her latest feature and has worked all over the world.

Clients, FEATURED, FILMS, PRESS RELEASES

Heidi Philipsen’s This Is Nowhere Introduces Gus Birney in Coming of Age Drama

This Is Nowhere

A film by Heidi Philipsen and Jon Russell Cring, Starring Johnathan Tchaikovsky, David Thornton, and Introducing Up and Coming Star, Gus Birney

SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE IN 2016

A Coming-Of-Age Tale About An Innocent Teenage Girl Living With Her Parents In A Seedy Motel On The Edge Town And The Stranger Who Changes Her World

 

This is Nowhere (Courtesy: Personae Entertainment)
This is Nowhere (Courtesy: Personae Entertainment)

From Executive Producer Kathryn McDermott (The Last of the Mohicans, A League of Their Own), THIS IS NOWHERE is a new coming-of-age feature film co-directed by Heidi Elizabeth Philipsen-Meissner (Marcy, Her Telling Heart) and Jon Russell Cring. Recently shot in Palenville, NY,  THIS IS NOWHERE is slated to be released in 2016.  The film’s cast includes: Johnathan Tchaikovsky (The Wolf of Wall Street, Reservation Road), David Thornton (The Notebook, John Q, Home Alone 3), Paulina Singer (The Intern), Bernadette Quigley (In America; The Suspect; The House is Burning; “Law & Order”; “Third Watch”) and introducing up-and-comer Gus Birney as the film’s young female protagonist.

Continue reading Heidi Philipsen’s This Is Nowhere Introduces Gus Birney in Coming of Age Drama →

FEATURED, FILMS, Music Box Films, PRESS RELEASES

Maison Close: Season Two Continues Sumptuous Parisian Bordello Saga

Maison Close: Season Two

THE CONTINUATION OF THE ACCLAIMED FRENCH TELEVISION SERIES INVITES AMERICAN AUDIENCES INTO A SUMPTUOUS PARISIAN BORDELLO WHERE DESIRE REIGNS

 

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Set in a lavish brothel in 19th Century Paris, the wildly popular French erotic drama series MAISON CLOSE: SEASON TWO returns to further weave its sexy tales of the women of “The Paradise,” an infamous bordello that caters to aristocratic and bourgeois clientele known for its strange and refined practices during a time of legalized prostitution.

Created by Jacques Ouaniche, MAISON CLOSE focuses on a trio of The Paradise’s most provocative women: Rose (Jemima West), a young woman, newly arrived in Paris in search of her mother, who was tricked into service at the brothel; Véra (Anne Charrier),  a courtesan in her mid-thirties nearing the end of her career, hoping a wealthy customer will pay her debt and free her from servitude; and Hortense (Valerie Karsenti), the owner of The Paradise who must do whatever she can to retain her girls, keep the brothel open and steer clear of the forces intent on shutting her business down. The new season of the critically acclaimed drama picks up at The Paradise where Season One left off, as a royalist chief commander rises to power and reinstates a city-wide Moral Order which threatens the brothel’s very existence.

MAISON CLOSE: SEASON TWO has been praised as much for its historical accuracy and political astuteness as its bold eroticism, with Alessandra Stanley of THE NEW YORK TIMES lauding it as “Baudelaire meets The Playboy Channel.”

“For more than three years I have been thinking of this series whose heroine is a young girl, trapped, forced to prostitute herself in a luxury brothel at the end of the nineteenth century at the beginning of the Third Republic,” says MAISON CLOSE creator Ouaniche of the series’ origins. “I wanted to uncover the daily lives of these sex workers, most of all of the women, and their privileged relationships with powerful men in a time period not so remote from ours.”

Music Box Films Home Entertainment will release MAISON CLOSE: SEASON TWO on Blu-ray and DVD on January 12, 2015 following its broadcast debut across leading markets in Europe, Asia and South America. The MAISON CLOSE: SEASON TWO Blu-ray and DVD editions will include a collector’s booklet and carry the suggested retail prices of $39.95 and $34.95, respectively.

MAISON CLOSE: SEASON ONE is available now on Blu-ray and DVD and will be available to stream on HULU beginning in January 7, just in time to catch up before the  Blu-ray and DVD release of MAISON CLOSE: SEASON TWO.

The release of the MAISON CLOSE series marks Music Box Films’ latest entry in the company’s growing international television catalog, which includes such recent releases as Sweden’s Wallander, Germany’s Generation War, France’s The Returned and Japan’s Penance by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

More information on MAISON CLOSE: SEASON TWO can be found on the MUSIC BOX FILMS website

http://www.musicboxfilms.com/maisonclose

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Clients, FEATURED, FILMS, Hot Trailers, Music Box Films, PRESS RELEASES, Top Picks

Flamenco, Flamenco Features The Most Important Spanish Flamenco Artists

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FLAMENCO, FLAMENCO

A Film by Carlos Saura

A SPECTACULAR, SMOLDERING PORTRAIT OF THE SONGS, DANCES AND MUSIC OF FLAMENCO, FROM LEGENDARY SPANISH FILMMAKER CARLOS SAURA
FEATURING MORE THAN 20 PERFORMANCES BY SPAIN’S MOST REVERED ARTISTS

 

FlamencoFlamencoFrom legendary Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura (Fados, Ay Carmela!, Carmen) comes FLAMENCO, FLAMENCO, a celebration of life, love, passion and, of course, dance. A sequel to his film Flamenco from 1995, FLAMENCO, FLAMENCO offers an impassioned collection of songs and dances, compiling 21 dazzling performances from an ensemble of gifted Spanish musicians, singers, and dancers.

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Clients, FEATURED, FILMS, Music Box Films, PRESS RELEASES

Israeli Actress and Filmmaker Ronit Elkabetz Stars in GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

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 A HEARTRENDING PORTRAIT OF AN ISRAELI WOMAN PUT ON TRIAL BY HER COUNTRY’S UNCOMPROMISING MARRIAGE LAWS

 GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

 

Starring And Co-Directed By Israel’s Renowned Ronit Elkabetz

 

An Israeli woman seeking to finalize a divorce from her estranged husband finds herself effectively put on trial by her country’s religious marriage laws in GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM. Starring famed Israeli actress/filmmaker Ronit Elkabetz, who co-wrote and co-directed the film with her brother Shlomi Elkabetz, this powerful courthouse drama presents a resolute portrait of one woman’s struggle to overcome an unmoving patriarchy and live a life of her own design.

“Critics Pick! “Gripping cinema from start to finish…assured, streamlined and bold” 

–Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continue reading Israeli Actress and Filmmaker Ronit Elkabetz Stars in GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem →

Clients, FILMS, HEADLINE, Music Box Films, PRESS RELEASES

A Sweeping Menage-A-Trois as Germany’s Official Oscar Entry

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A SWEEPING, SUMPTUOUS EPIC STORY OF THE UNCONVENTIONAL ROMANCE BETWEEN TWO ARISTOCRATIC SISTERS AND AN ACCLAIMED POET IN 18TH CENTURY EUROPE

BELOVED SISTERS

 

GERMANY’S OFFICIAL SUBMISSION TO THE ACADEMY AWARDS

Beloved_photos01From the acclaimed director Dominik Graf comes BELOVED SISTERS, an epic yet intimate romantic drama that illuminates the storied lives of two bold young women, Weimar-era sisters Caroline and Charlotte von Lengefeld, and the celebrated German poet Friedrich Schiller.

Germany’s official submission to the 2015 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, BELOVED SISTERS is set in Europe in the late 1700s but offers a surprisingly contemporary story of women who dared to flaunt convention as they approached love, marriage, sexuality and society on their own terms.

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Clients, FILMS, HEADLINE, Hot Trailers, Music Box Films, PRESS RELEASES

A Stunning Year Alongside the World’s Most Extreme Environment

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Antarctica: A Year on Ice

A STUNNING YEAR-LONG EXPERIENCE ALONGSIDE THE ADVENTUROUS FEW WHO LIVE IN THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL, BRUTAL AND EXTREME ENVIRONMENT – THE FROZEN LAND OF ANTARCTICA

 

 

ANTARCTICA: A YEAR ON ICE is a fascinating and visually spectacular journey to the end of the world—the frozen landscape of Antarctica—with the devoted, adventurous people who live there year-round.

Continue reading A Stunning Year Alongside the World’s Most Extreme Environment →