Ipso Facto Films To Be Honoured At 'European Oscars'

Established Newcastle film production company Ipso Facto Films has are to be honoured in what is widely regarded as the most prestigious pan-European movie awards of the industry.
The European Film Awards, commonly referred to as the 'European Oscars', have announced that Ipso Facto’s spring 2007 release Irina Palm has been selected to compete alongside some of the UK’s most notable films of the past year, among them the critically acclaimed This Is England, The Last King of Scotland and Oscar favourite The Queen.
Starring Marianne Faithful (Marie Antoinette, Paris I Love You) and Miki Manojlovic (Underground, When Father Was Away On Business – both Palme D’Or winners at Cannes) as the leads, and with support from the emerging new face of the small screen Star Stories’ Kevin Bishop, Dorka Gryllus (named “European Shooting Star” in 2005), and BAFTA award-winning Jenny Agutter (Equus, Blue Juice), Irina Palm tells the story of a 50 year old widow who becomes a Soho sex worker to pay for the medical treatment of her critically ill grandson.
Written by North East writer Martin Herron (School For Seduction), the film has proved to be a substantial crowd pleaser across Europe and has drawn universally glowing reviews from the international press. Already a winner of the Reader Jury award and a nominee for the Golden Berlin Bear at its premiere at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, it seems that Irina Palm may very well have a strong chance of holding it’s own in such exalted company. And with Faithful the recipient of the Liv Ullman Prize at the recent Norwegian International Film Festival, where Irina Palm had the honour of marking the official close of the festival, it looks like Ipso Facto are on a roll – or perhaps that should be a “rock n roll”!
The company will find out in early November, at this year’s Seville Film Festival, for which of the award categories the 1,800 members of the European Film Academy (amongst them such luminaries as Wim Wenders, Brenda Blethyn and Sir Ben Kingsley) have nominated the film. But the Ipso team, along with their European co-producers, will have to hold their breath until December to see whether this little independent diamond will outshine The Queen’s Crown Jewels at the awards ceremony itself.
For further information:
irinapalm-themovie.com
europeanfilmacademy.org
(DS)