01/07/2011

At the start of September, British and German distribution companies Optimum Releasing and Kinowelt will take the name of their parent company: French group StudioCanal.

For StudioCanal CEO Olivier de Courson (photo), this change is a logical harmonisation: "We already work together as one single company across the three countries. It will reinforce our position as the only European studio operating in the UK, France and Germany. It will also make things clear to all our creative and financial partners." StudioCanal will also use the opportunity of the world premiere of Thomas Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (see news), no doubt at the Venice Mostra, to unveil its new logo.

StudioCanal, which operates in France as a producer, distributor and international seller, acquired Optimum Releasing in May 2006 (see news) and Kinowelt at the end of 2007 (see news).

Optimum Releasing, which handled the successful release of François Ozon’s Potiche [+see also:
trailer
film profile] on UK screens on June 17, will this summer distribute three other French films: Bertrand Tavernier’s The Princess of Montpensier [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (July 8); Romain Gavras’s Our Day Will Come [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (July 29); and Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s Sarah’s Key [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (August 5). They will be followed by John Michael McDonagh’s Irish comedy The Guard [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: John Michael McDonagh
film profile] (August 19); Brit horror flick Kill List [+see also:
trailer
interview: Ben Wheatley
film profile] (September 2); and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier,Spy (September 16). The line-up also includes non-European films like today’s release of US feature Larry Crowne and Japanese animated title Arrietty on July 29.

On Kinowelt’s slate are Adnan G. Köse’s German family film Homies [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (August 18); and French director Cédric Klapisch’s My Piece of the Pie [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (September 15), among others.

On the French distributor’s side, upcoming releases include Denis Thybaud’s Mythos (July 13); Michel Ocelot’s 3D animated film Tales of the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michel Ocelot
film profile] (July 20); Franck Mancuso’s thriller R.I.F (August 31 – see news); and Sylvain Estibal’s When Pigs Have Wings (September 14 – see news).

(Translated from French)