EXCLUSIVE: UK distributor Modern Films is launching a new venture called Modern Projects, with the release of Thor Klein and Lena Vurma’s Leonora In The Morning Light in the UK and Ireland.
The film is a biopic of British surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, starring Olivia Vinall, acquired from Paris-based Indie Sales.
Leonora In The Morning Light had its UK premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival last month and will now open in UK and Ireland cinemas on April 24.
Modern Projects has been created by Eve Gabereau, the co-founder of Modern Films, who is now also director of distribution at Vue Lumiere, the theatrical releasing arm of exhibitor Vue Cinemas.
In her Vue Lumiere role, Gabereau said she is acquiring more mainstream arthouse titles, such as Iain Pollard and Jane Forsythe’s Marianne Faithfull documentary Broken English, now on release, and Ferzan Ozpetek’s Italian box-office hit, Diamanti. The latter will open in over 25 UK and Ireland cinemas on April 17.
Modern life
Gabereau described Modern Projects as a “collaborative distribution division” that brings together third-party sales, marketing and PR agencies with the producers of each film. Among the partners are marketing agency Mustard Studio, publicity agency Margaret Communications and consultants across theatrical delivery, promotions, outreach and digital platforms.
Gabereau said the partners will work together to raise money to cover the P&A costs, “either privately or through cultural funds or through sponsorship”. A typical Modern Films release would see the company handle these costs itself.
“We want to have four [titles] a year but they’re not that easy to find,” said Gabereau. “It has to be a film that is good, available and where the producer is prepared to put something in as well.”
She explained Modern Projects is looking to acquire films that are more “niche” and “event-driven” than typical Modern Films releases. The company, founded in 2017, has handled titles such as the Bafta-winning I Am Not A Witch and the Oscar-winning Drive My Car.
Gabereau still owns Modern Films and is chair of the company but confirmed she is not involved in the day-to-day running of the company due to her role at Vue Lumiere.
“I see Modern more as a film agency,” says Gabereau. “We have a core team with freelancers and consultants on specific projects according to their skillset and area of expertise,” she added.
“It is also part of the company’s growth strategy to be innovative and nimble in the market and more international in scope, which is also part of their remit in the Global Screen Fund Grant for Business Development and Transformational Strategies that Modern received in 2024.”
For Leonora In The Morning Light, co-director Vurma, a Swiss national who now lives in Scotland on the island of Skye, is actively participating in promoting and showing the film in Scotland. She is planning a special screening at the Skye Community Cinema, which she founded four years ago.
Modern Films had previously tried out the collective releasing model on 2025’s Uberto Pasolini’s The Return, with which the company collaborated with Pasolini, who also produced and part-financed the film.
Leonora In The Morning Light had its world premiere at Mexico’s Guadalajara International Film Festival last summer and went on to have a successful arthouse run in Mexico via distributor Piano where it was in the top five for five weeks.
The film has also been released in Germany and Austria where it was released by Alamode and will be broadcast on Arte later this year.
The new venture comes in the wake of comments from Janet Yang, former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, who recently told a Hong Kong Filmart panel that she predicted a “dissolution” of traditional distribution companies and suggested “it will become more and more incumbent on artists to carve their own path and become their own ecosystem, and put things out there.”
Gabereau said she was looking at the work being done on partner-driven screenings by companies such as Kinema in the US.
“If you don’t have major resources, how do you make a film work in its own space? That is what it is really about,” she said. “It’s about a much more focused, concentrated release in partnership with the producers.”
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