Pretty Pictures snaps up raft of international rights; Rialto Pictures to release documentary in the US and Canada.
Pretty Pictures has acquired rights to documentary Ingrid Bergman - In Her Own Words from TrustNordisk for the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium - marking a new direction for the Paris-based distributor.
The company has already secured a US and Canadian theatrical release through New York-based Rialto Pictures, which will release the doc on Nov 13 - making it eligible for the Oscars - following its US debut at the New York Film Festival.
The French rights were previously picked up by Pretty Pictures ahead of the Cannes Film Festival, where the feature received its world premiere and won the L’Oeil d’Or (Golden Eye) for best documentary. The festival also used the face of the Swedish star for its official poster, marking the centennial of her birth.
James Velaise, president of Pretty Pictures, said: “We absolutely fell in love with Stig Björkman’s documentary and when all these territories remained open just after Cannes we had to jump in and do something new for us.
“It is not really a question of acting as sales agent but seeing how we can best nurture the film in these territories so that the film really gets noticed, as it thoroughly deserves to be.”
Velaise added: “It is vital that in today’s changing world of French distribution to broadens ones horizons and looks to other territories.”
Bergman was one of the most famous actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age with performances in classic films such as Casablanca (1942), Gaslight (1944) and Notorious (1946).
Through never-before-seen private footage, notes, letters, diaries and interviews with her children and former colleagues, the documentary presents a personal portrait and look behind the scenes of the life of a young Swedish girl who became one of the most celebrated actresses of American cinema.
The film is directed by Stig Björkman and produced by Stina Gardell for Mantaray Film, co-produced by ZDF, SVT, NTR, YLE, Jonas Gardell Produktion, Spellbound AB and Örebro Invest through Filmregion Stockholm-Mälardalen and Chimney Pot AB with support from Swedish Film Institute, EU Creative Europe, Nordisk Film & TV Fond and Konstnärsnämnden.
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