"BROTHELS" also won The Truer Than Fiction Award at the 20th Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 26th. THINKFilm also received four Independent Spirit Award nominations for the thrilling 2004 Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner, "PRIMER."
The marketing and publicity team at THINKFilm used a very tactical strategy with "BORN INTO BROTHELS," starting with its release in New York City in early December 2004, thus allowing the film to qualify for year-end accolades, garner rave reviews and gather positive word of mouth.. Before expanding into any other markets, "BROTHELS" had already won over 20 audience and critics awards and was named "Best Documentary of 2004" by both the National Board of Review and The Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Only after receiving an Academy Award nomination did it in any theaters outside of New York. The film went into awards weekend with a cumulative gross of nearly 600,000. On March 4th, the film will be on sixt screens, and on the 11th, "BORN INTO BROTHELS" will expand to its widest release pattern, with over 100 working prints.
”I am particularly proud of this achievement. Not only is it the first Oscar of our young history, but it is the result of a very carefully planned distribution strategy and when it works to perfection as it did here it is particularly satisfying,” said THINK’s CEO and President Jeff Sackman.
THINKFilm prominently entered the non-fiction arena with its 2003 release of SPELLBOUND, which earned the company its first Oscar nomination and became one of the top-grossing documentaries of all time. Recently THINKFilm financed its first documentary feature film MURDERBALL (6/05), which world premiered to critical praise and two major prizes at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Other recent documentaries of note were Jonathan Demme's Gotham Award-winning THE AGRONOMIST, and the box-office hit (and Oscar-nominated )THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL. Upcoming on THINKFilm's non-fiction slate is Jonathan Nossiter's Cannes Competition entry, MONDOVINO (3/05,) Mark Wexler's highly anticipated TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE (5/05,) which premiered at Venice and Toronto, THE ARISTOCRATS, the uproarious all-star comedy extravaganza acquired at Sundance(7/05,) and an in-the-works, as-yet-untitled documentary by and about Eddie Izzard, which the company just acquired.
A privately held film distributor with offices in New York City and Toronto, THINKFilm represents specialized cinema at its best - bold, business-oriented, yet fiercely and financially independent. Other recent and forthcoming releases include: Sundance Grand Jury Prize- winner PRIMER; THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON, starring Oscar- winner Sean Penn and Naomi Watts (12/29 limited/1/21 wide), this year's official Hungarian Foreign Language Oscar-entry, KONTROLL (4/1), and Francois Ozon's latest drama, 5 X 2.
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