ARTS ALLIANCE AMERICA AND
PRIME ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCE
CO-DISTRIBUTION DEAL FOR 'NEVER FOREVER'
STARRING VERA FAMIGA
Critically-acclaimed Sundance 07 Dramatic Competitor “Never Forever”
to be co-distributed in North America by Arts Alliance America
Toronto, ON September 8– Arts Alliance America, formerly Hart Sharp Video, announces the acquisition of “Never Forever,” a melodrama about passion and forbidden love starring award-winning actress Vera Farmiga. The deal includes North America rights to co-distribute “Never Forever” with Korean studio Prime Entertainment. “Never Forever” will be released theatrically first quarter of 2008 followed by a domestic DVD release. The announcement was made today at The Toronto Film Festival by Joe Amodei, President of Arts Alliance America and Juyoung Park, Senior Manager of Internal Sales & Acquisitions at Prime Entertainment.
Amodei states “What drew me mainly to this film was Kim’s amazing direction paired with the outstanding performance by Vera Farmiga. Once again, much like her role in “The Departed” and “Down To The Bone” (which we also distributed on DVD), Farmiga blew me away. She is an up and coming superstar -- on a career path that will no doubt lead to stardom.”
Set in New York, “Never Forever” is a provocative love story about a Korean immigrant, Jihah (Jung-woo Ha, “Breath”, “Time”) and a Caucasian housewife, Sophie (Vera Farmiga, “Joshua”, “The Departed”). Sophie is married to Andrew (David L. McInnis, “Typhoon”), a successful Asian American lawyer. Their marriage begins to fall apart when they discover that they are unable to conceive. In a desperate attempt to save her marriage, Sophie initiates a series of clandestine sexual encounters with a Korean immigrant worker named Jihah. In this relationship, sex is tolerated as part of a business arrangement, and personal feelings are forbidden. As time passes, however, she begins to question her seemingly perfect marriage as her feelings for Jihah begin to grow. Sophie lets down her guard and the two fall in love. The couple soon find themselves marginalized by their own desires.
This assembled cast of “Never Forever” features for the first time in the history of Korean cinema stars from both countries: Korea and the United States.
Director Gina Kim’s films, including “Never Forever,” have generated critical acclaim in the recent years. She combines the aesthetic rigors of feminist video art and the simple, yet provocative dramatic technique of narrative art films. Cahiers du Cinema, has called her feature length film, “Invisible Light,” “the only truly radical discovery in a landscape [of recent Korean cinema] that depicts “feminine hardness and repressed anger.” Film Comment wrote “Kim has a terrific eye, a gift for near-wordless storytelling, a knack for generating a tense gliding rhythm between images and sounds, shots and scenes, and for yielding a quality of radiance in her actors.” A recipient of the two grants from the Korean Film Commission (KOFIC), “Invisible Light” was awarded a special jury’s prize at the Seoul Women’s Film Festival 2004 and was listed as one of the most daring films of the year by critics. She teaches film production and film studies classes at Harvard University at its Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) Department.
“Never Forever” is repped by a major Korean film studio Prime Entertainment.
- ends -
About Arts Alliance America
Arts Alliance America (AAA), is part of Arts Alliance Media (AAM), Europe’s leading provider of digital film distribution services to the cinema, home and entertainment industry. Arts Alliance America, formerly Hart Sharp Video, was founded in 2003 by Joe Amodei to develop, acquire, market and distribute DVD product in the theatrical feature film, documentaries, special interest and sports categories. The company has built partnerships with Sundance Channel Home Entertainment, ESPN, MLB Productions, Bombo Sports and Entertainment, TV Guide and NESN and other high profile entertainment brands since their inception. Some upcoming AAA releases include Chalk, which pulls you in to the frenetic and awkwardly painful journey of three novice teachers, by director Mike Akel and Impossible to Forget: The Story of the 1967 Red Sox chronicling the most beloved, mythical team in the history of Boston sports.
For more information please visit www.artsallianceamerica.com and www.artsalliancemedia.com
About Prime Entertainment
Prime Entertainment (http://www.primeenter.co.kr) is a vertically-integrated entertainment company with operations in film and TV investment, production, distribution, exhibition, talent management and international sales. The company is devoted to producing and distributing the most innovative films with mainstream and international appeal. Prime Entertainment is part of Prime Group which owns and operates a valuable portfolio of real estate development and constructions operations, IT companies, venture capital corp., shopping malls with multiplex theaters. Prime Entertainment acquired production companies LJ Film (the producer of KIM Ki-Duk’s four films including Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring and Bad Guy) and Corea Entertainment in 2006. Under its umbrella, it owns and operates major talent management companies Namu Actors and Byeol-moa Entertainment. Current and upcoming Prime Entertainment releases include Won Shin-yeon's crime triller 7 DAYS starring Yunjin Kim, Yun Inho's sci-fi thriller THE DEVIL'S GAME; Kwak Jae Yong’s martial arts romantic comedy MY MIGHTY PRINCESS.