The European Film Market has named Romania’s Bad Unicorn and its founders Monica Felea and Stefan Bradea as winner of its EFM Distributor Award.
Launched last year to recognise the work of film distributors, the award comes with a cash prize of €7,500 and is sponsored by Fintage House. It will be presented during the EFM’s Kick-Off event on February 11.
Felea and Bradea launched Bad Unicorn in 2016. Their first acquisition was Ildiko Enyedi’s 2017 Berlinale Golden Bear winner On Body And Soul.
They have since have built Bad Unicorn into one of Romania’s leading arthouse distributors, and last year released 18 titles including Flow, No Other Choice and Sentimental Value. Other recent releases include Perfect Days, The Zone Of Interest, We Live In Time and Maria.
Going into this year’s Berlinale, Bad Unicorn has pre-bought Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s anime title A New Dawn, which plays in competition.
Before launching Bad Unicorn, Bradea was programme manager at the Transilvania International Film Festival, while Felea worked in film PR and marketing.
“We’re very happy and surprised to get this award,” Felea told Screen. “We’re not used to having prizes for distributors – we are usually in the background of the industry, while the red carpet is for the directors and actors.”
Bad Unicorn has released around 60 titles to date, and this year expects to cross the one million total admissions market since launch – an impressive feat for an arthouse distributor in Romania where annual admissions stand at around 10 million a year.
The company’s main focus is European auteur films, but in recent years it has expanded its range of genres to include animation and horror.
Among its top performing titles are animation Niko: Beyond The Northern Lights, which scored 120,000 admissions, and Oscar winner Flow with 70,000 admissions.
“We are very picky. We like to think of ourselves as curators, not only as a distributor,” said Bradea, pointing to the company’s strapline “Movies that break your mind and heal your heart”.
Romania only has 10 arthouse cinemas, so Bad Unicorn has to fight for space and audiences in the country’s multiplex circuit. It also works with film festivals in Romania and organises screenings for NGOs programmes, outdoor cinemas and film clubs.
Bad Unicorn was selected for the EFM Distributor Award by a three-member jury comprising Dorothee Pfistner, head of acquisitions at Neue Visionen, Marta Fernandes, head of distribution and acquisitions at Midas Filmes, and Nicolai Korsgaard, sales director at TrustNordisk.
In a statement, the jury said: “In a country like Romania, which has one of the lowest numbers of cinema screens per capita in the EU, securing screens and building audiences for European arthouse cinema is a genuine challenge…
“For each release, [Bad Unicorn] design tailored and innovative distribution campaigns, constantly seeking new ways to reach audiences and foster meaningful engagement with the public. Their creativity, perseverance, and deep belief in the power of cinema allow these films to find their place even within a highly challenging market.”
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