More wins for The Wedding Party but no local distribution
Actors Josh Lawson and Isabel Lucas have been named Best Hollywood Newcomers at the Beverly Hills Film, TV and New Media Festival for their roles in an Australian film which is yet to get distribution two years after being made.
Despite gaining recognition at a number of festivals including picking up the Melbourne International Film Festival audience award, it now looks like The Wedding Party will not get a release this year.
Directed by Amanda Jane and produced by Nicole Minchin, The Wedding Party opened MIFF last year.
In late May, Minchin told Encore: “We are looking forward to a local release in the second half of this year with an announcement in the coming weeks.”
However, she today told Encore: “The thing is, we haven’t struggled to get distribution, it’s about finding the best distribution plan. It’s an audience film, as our MIFF win shows, so it’s only spurred us on to make sure it gets seen in cinemas.
“We’re planning on releasing it early next year. I can’t say who’s distributing it. We’re currently finalising the distribution agreement.”
Originally specialty distributor Arkles Entertainment was due to distribute the film locally but Minchin said the two parties came to an agreement that Arkles wouldn’t distribute the film.
Arclight is looking after the international sales. Minchin said the upcoming American Film Market should see the film secure an American distribution deal.
After the MIFF screening, the film was re-cut with consulting editor Jill Billcock. It had its market debut in Cannes. Minchin said at the time: “The film went well with two screenings and a really positive response including interest from United States, Canda, France, Italy and airlines.”
Minchin said she doesn’t fear the film has lost steam since its MIFF win as it’s “a fresh version of the film.”
Over the past six months, The Wedding Party has won a number of awards in the US festival circuit this year:
- Bel Air Film Festival: best film and best director (Amanda Jane)
- NYC International Film Festival: best feature, best comedy director, best actor (Lawson) and best supporting actress (Nadine Garner)
- Manhatten Film Festival: best international feature
- Los Angeles Movie Awards: best feature, best screenplay, best actor (Lawson) and best production design
- Las Vegas International Film Festival: Golden Ace award
- Mexico International Film Festival: Silver Palm award
The film also had numerous honourable mentions and secured finalist positions at other festivals.
Lawson is currently in America filming TV new series House of Lies about management consultants, alongside Don Cheadle for Showtime.
Isabel Lucas has completed Red Dawn, starring with fellow Home and Away alumni Chris Hemsworth. She also has Loft in post-production and has starred in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and A Heartbeat Away.
- Based on information provided on The Wedding Party’s website, we originally reported that it won the audience prize at MIFF. It did not (see comment thread below)
Why doe the film funding bodies spend millions of dollars makign films and then spend nothing four walling them in cinemas so that audiences have an opportunity to see them? I haven’t seen ‘The Wedding Party’ but I have seen ‘Caught Inside’ – another Aussie film that deserves to be seen and which would excite a certain type of audience (its a thriller) if only audiences were given a chance to see them. Bravo makers of ‘Caught Inside’. Hope the film does well for you. And for the makers of ‘The Wedding Party’ also.
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erm, didn’t win the audience award at MIFF. ‘Boy’ did.
was certainly opening night, though.
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hmm.. trailers with no dialogue.
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Thanks for alerting us, Paul. Now amended.
Cheers,
Tim – Encore
I’ve seen it. Great movie. Can’t understand why Australian audiences can’t see and yet it’s winning all these overseas awards!!
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I keep saying this…distribution…it’s the thing that matters. Unless distributors and exhibitors come on board to support local film makers we will get nowhere. It’s the one thing that we need help with more than anything else. The government bodies which support film need to recognise this and do something constructive about it. How hard would it be for them to act as a go between to hook up film makers with reps from the distributors so people could talk and discuss projects?
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The Wedding Party was most popular AUSTRALIAN film at MIFF as it says on their website. It was 7th overall.
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Too easy to blame distributors.
They might have had a look at “Wedding” and thought “we can’t sell this.”
Local filmmakers don’t always make it easy for them.
Hardly ever…
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All the more reason why someone (Film Vic, etc) should make it easy for film makers to connect with distributors from the outset…how else can film makers find out from the horse’s mouth what a distributor is looking for?
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I agree with Adrian Sherlock. Distribution, distribution, distribution. That’s the huge, seemingly insurmountable bottleneck.
I don’t know if Sherlock is talking about Australia, but it’s very true here in the U.S.
I wish there was a distribution system for independent films and for foreign films.
Here’s a sad example: I live near Melbourne, Florida. I didn’t go to the festival, It was badly advertised.
Another example: Near and around Melbourne, there are probably a dozen or more movie theaters. Not one of them is showing The Artist, which may be on its way to winning the Academy Award and BAFTA, also. I think it has just won the Golden Globe award for comedy and musical.
That is a glaring example of how bad the distribution system is here in the U.S.
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