Young Films has secured a deal with Altadena Films, an international sales agent, to sell Gaelic feature film Seachd - The Inaccessible Pinnacle, around the world. Altadena will represent the film at the Berlin Film Festival next week and then at markets and festivals around the world thereafter. For the international market the English title will be Seachd - The Crimson Snowdrop.
Altadena Films (previously Inframe Films) specialises in acquiring rights to exceptional independent feature films by talented directors. The company is part of Hollywood Classics, which represents the classic film libraries of MGM/UA, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros., Canal Plus and Carlton International, as well as a number of films from independent producers.
Seachd, financed by GMS (Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig), Scottish Screen and BBC Alba, was produced for Young Films by Christopher Young. Speaking from Sleat on the Isle of Skye where he lives, Young said, ‘I am delighted to have secured this deal. Altadena are very passionate about this film and Seachd will now reach an audience around the world through a commercial distributor, which is a really exciting prospect and all we could have hoped for.’
At the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Young signed a UK and Ireland distribution deal with Soda Pictures, a UK distributor of art house, independent and world cinema. Following its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival in August 2007, Seachd was released in October across Scotland and continues to screen at selected cinemas throughout the UK. The film has also enjoyed success elsewhere with invitations to prestigious film festivals in Rome, Vancouver, Finland, Cairo and Tehran to name a few.
Seachd, directed by Simon Miller, was also nominated for three Scottish BAFTAs in November including Best Film, Best Actor (Aonghas Padraig Caimbeul) and Best Script (Iain Finlay MacLeod, Aonghas MacNeicail, Ishbel MacDonald, Simon Miller, Jo Cockwell) despite BAFTA UK’s refusal to submit a film to the American Academy for consideration in the Best Foreign Language category. The film received rave reviews in the press; ‘excellent’ - The Sunday Times, ‘breathtaking’ - BBC, ‘glows with warmth and humanity’ - The Observer, ‘tender, graceful…gorgeously-realised’ - The Herald, ‘worth shouting about’ - The Scotsman, ‘dramatic, funny and spectacular’ - The List. Seachd is out on dvd in the UK at the end of February.
