Irish film company Element Films, run by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, has
scored with Peter Mullan’s latest film THE MAGDALENE SISTERS which scooped
the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday.
Following the award in Venice deals are being closed on a raft of
international territories at the Toronto Film Festival including a sale to
Miramax which outbid rivals including Fine Line and Sony Pictures Classics
to land the film for the U.S. THE MAGDALENE SISTERS will go on to screen at
the New York Film Festival before its Irish premiere at the Cork Film
Festival on October 6th followed by nationwide release on October 25th.
Executive Producer Ed Guiney (whose credits include DISCO PIGS, SWEETY
BARRETT and BACHELORS WALK) said ‘I am absolutely thrilled by this
prestigious international award for THE MAGDALENE SISTERS. Peter Mullan has
made a deeply moving and uncompromising film that deserves to be seen by as
many people as possible and I am sure that audiences everywhere will respond
very emotionally and strongly to it. It also showcases a group of
wonderfully talented young Irish actresses which bodes very well for the
future.’
Element Films, previously known as Temple Films, has been particularly
identified with discovering and breaking new Irish filmmaking talent with
films such as DISCO PIGS (Kirsten Sheridan, 2001), ON THE EDGE (John Carney,
2000), SWEETY BARRETT (Stephen Bradley, 1998), GUILTRIP (Gerard Stembridge,
1995) and AILSA (Paddy Breathnach, 1994).
THE MAGDALENE SISTERS is a co-production between Glasgow based PFP Films and
Dublin based Element Films (formerly Temple Films) and was backed by the
Irish Film Board (Ireland), The Film Council, Scottish Screen and Momentum
(UK), Lucky Red (Italy) and Wild Bunch (France). It is written and directed
by Peter Mullan, produced by Frances Higson and executive produced by Ed
Guiney and Paul Trijbits.
For further information at Element, contact: mail@elementfilms.ie
