New Wave Films enjoys Cannes film success

by Annika Pham

19/05/2012 - Gently strolling across the corridors of the market, veteran UK distributors Pam Engel and Robert Beeson are delighted with the screen performance of last year’s the Cannes Grand Prix winner Once Upon a Time in Anatolia [trailer] that has grossed £267,000 so far in the UK. “We started with 16 prints and have widened the release to 30 cinemas,” says Beeson.

Beeson and Engel are in Cannes to acquire at least two new titles for New Wave Films, although the distributors still have several festival award-winning films in the pipeline, such as Elena by Russia’s Andrei Zvyagintsev, winner of Special Jury Prize at Cannes-Un Certain Regard 2011, and this year’s Golden Bear winner Caesar Must Die [trailer, film focus] by the Taviani brothers. “Screen competition is touch in the UK. We just have to wait” says Beeson.