It has been over a year since Stephen Bradley’s ‘Noble’ first hit the festival circuit but the acclaimed biopic continues to sell worldwide through LA based sales agents Continental Media.
The film chronicles the life of children’s rights activist and humanitarian Christina Noble, who overcame a harsh childhood to find her destiny on the streets of Saigon, fourteen years after the end of the war. The film captures the drama of a life that has culminated in Christina helping almost a million street-children and their families in Vietnam and Mongolia.
The film was released in Ireland theatrically last year where it made €220k before the DVD opened at number two in November of this year – being distributed by Xtravision. It was also nominated for three IFTA Awards (including Best Film) at this year’s IFTA Film & Drama Awards – where Deirdre O’Kane and Sarah Greene won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively for portraying Christina at different stages of her life.
In the USA, ‘Noble’ won The Panavision Independent Spirit Award at Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) and audience awards at Dallas, Nashville, Newport Beach, San Diego and Boston Irish Festivals before receiving a small theatrical release in May 2015 ($347k). It is now on 15 VOD platforms including iTunes and has also just sold to Amazon Prime there for an exclusive two year TV window.
The film was also a resounding success in New Zealand where it spent five weeks in the Box Office top 10 making $500k.
So far, the film has struck deals in the following regions:
USA (Aspiration Media)
France (L'Atelier D'Images/Saje/Condor)
Australia/New Zealand (Rialto)
Spain (Avalon)
South Korea (Able)
Ireland (Eclipse)
Israel (Shoval)
Poland (Mayfly)
Malaysia (Sureya)
Middle East and North Africa (Falcon)
Taiwan (Av-jet)
UK (Miracle)
Worldwide In-flight Screening (Entertainment in Motion)
Speaking to IFTN, writer/director Stephen Bradley said: “It has been great to see ‘Noble’ distributed in so many varied international territories this year and the journey continues into 2016 with a day-and-date release in the UK in February. Following a successful multi-festival strategy in the USA and other boosts such as the IFTA wins for actresses Deirdre O'Kane and Sarah Greene, our international distributors have had the confidence to release ‘Noble’ theatrically. This exposure has been vital in setting the film up for the maturing VOD market which provides the audience with a much longer potential viewing period and also maintains the momentum for continued distribution into additional territories."
The film stars Deirdre O Kane, Ruth Negga, Sarah Greene and Liam Cunningham. Released to cinemas last year, the film was described by the Hollywood Reporter as “a joyful and rousing affirmation of the human spirit that will resound widely” while Roger Ebert in one of his last film reviews called the film “engrossing” The Irish Times stated that the film “will do very nicely as tribute and shameless crowdpleaser.”
The film is produced by Melanie Gore-Grimes and Stephen Bradley, with Michael J. Hunt acting executive producer through his private equity investment company Ansty Productions.
Nick Laws (production manager on ‘War Horse’, ‘Blood Diamond’, ‘Constant Gardener’) serves as line producer. The director of photography is Trevor Forrest, winner of the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival award for Best Cinematographer (‘Una Noche’,‘Grabbers’). Other key department heads include editor Mags Arnold, costume designer Charlotte Walter, hair and make-up designer Marese Langan, and composers Giles Martin and Ben Foster.
