Young film-maker Chaitanya Tamhane’s award-winning film Court has been acquired by New York-based Zeitgeist Films for distribution in the United States, a statement from the film-maker said.
Zeitgeist Films has a reputation for picking up auteur-driven works and offering them wider international release.
Zeitgeist Films had picked up Christopher Nolan’s debut film, Following , Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Three Monkeys and Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry for distribution in the U.S.
Nolan went on to make films like Insomnia, Inception, Dark Knight Trilogy, and Interstellar.
Tamhane’s Court, which uses the trial of an ageing folk singer accused of performing an inflammatory song that may have incited a sewage worker to commit suicide in a manhole to expose the flaws of the Indian judicial system, has had a fascinating 2014, travelling to 19 national and international film festivals and picking up 16 awards.
The film won two coveted awards — the Horizons Award for Best Film which carries a $100,000 prize and the Lion of the Future award for a debut film — at the Venice International Film festival in 2014, among several.
“Anyone who is interested in the constantly changing face of India — with its fascinating contradictions — will appreciate Court ,” co-president of Zeitgeist Films, Nancy Gerstman, said in a statement.
Writer-director Chaitanya Tamhane said: “We could not have asked for a better collaborator for our U.S. release. Given the fact that over the past two decades, Zeitgeist has discovered and supported films of some of my favourite film-makers, this feels like a true honour.” The 27-year-old’s debut feature film is slated for a 2015 summer release in India.
Published - February 07, 2015 02:32 am IST
