WiredPRNews.com — BUZZMEDIA NETWORK’s latest feature film, SCUM (SCHOFT, NL 2009), written and directed by Dutch writer/director Heinrich Dahms, has been picked up for worldwide sales by Thomas Mai’s new, Los Angeles based sales outfit, Festival Darlings.
“I really like the film. The acting is good and the story is intriguing. You feel like an observer intruding in their life,” is how Thomas Mai, a twelve-year sales veteran, formerly from Trust International and Trust Nordisk, reacted after seeing BUZZMEDIA NETWORK’S new film, SCUM.
Mai formally announced the formation of his new sales company, Festival Darlings, last week at Cannes. Director Heinrich Dahms and producer Michèle Aimé believe that Mai’s approach and the festival circuit are ideal platforms for bringing their ‘socially engaged dramas’ to their core target audience.
BUZZMEDIA NETWORK has meanwhile learnt that SCUM, as well as their previous film, SURVIVING (OVERLEVEN, NL 2007) have both been selected for screening in ‘double bills’ at upcoming international festivals: the National Arts Festival in South Africa, in July, and the Ireland International Film Festival in September. SURVIVING, in 2008, won two Best Picture awards at international film festivals in South Africa and the Netherlands. Both films deal with current issues in contemporary society: SCUM with random violence and substance abuse amongst small-town youth, while SURVIVING takes a disturbing and intimate look at schoolyard bullying and the consequences on a sensitive teenage schoolgirl.
According to Mai, Festival Darlings will focus on selling quality films to a global audience. The company handles traditional theatrical, TV and video rights, and will place a heavy focus on digital rights exploitation, such as VOD, DOD and COD; an area Mai has built up substantial expertise in at Trust Nordisk over the past few years and believes to be the future of indie distribution.
BUZZMEDIA NETWORK is a Netherlands-based film production company that focuses on the production of socially engaged feature films, and web clips for non-profits. Besides its slate of feature films, the company is currently also producing, among other things, a series of web clips for a women’s service organization on water projects in distressed regions in Africa. Dahms quips: “We’re idealists. We do socially engaged projects, because we obviously want to change the world!” Aimé adds: “We’re looking forward to working with Festival Darlings to get our movie to the biggest possible audience.”
For more information, please contact Michèle Aimé (producer) at [email protected] or visit our website: www.buzzmedia.net
Tel: +31 (0)35 772 5225
Also see:
http://www.screendaily.com/thomas-mai-sets-up-new-la-sales-outfit-festival-darlings/5000893.article
http://www.amritsa.com/
http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/event/113
