Gigantic Digital Cinema Pacts With First Run Features to Open Award-Winning Film Bliss

http://2-pop.com/DigitalCinematography/article/84514

 

July 7, 2009

 

August 7th online nationally and theatrically in New York.

 

Gigantic Digital Cinema (www.giganticdigital.com), an online exhibition venue for new independent films, will release First Run Features's award-winning drama "Bliss" August 7th nationally online on the same date it opens on screen in New York. Unique in the field of online film, Gigantic's geographically-targeted, ad-free platform will bring high-quality new indies to every broadband household in America, ad-free and in the highest available streaming quality. This is the new company's first deal with a distribution company.

 

New York, New York -- Hot on the heels of last week's announcement by indie-studio Gigantic Group of their new online platform for first-run films, a deal has been struck with distributor First Run Features for nation-wide streaming of its award-winning feature title "Bliss" on GIGANTIC DIGITAL CINEMA. The digital release will come in tandem with a theatrical opening on August 7th at New York's Cinema Village, with online ticketing blocked in the New York metropolitan area - as well as in all markets where theatrical engagements are either booked or anticipated - until at least two weeks after the conclusion of those runs.

 

This deal represents Gigantic Digital Cinema's first venture with an established distribution house, and follows Gigantic's previously announced agreement to release award-winning feature documentary "Motherland" on August 26th with production company Smush Media. Gigantic Digital president Mark Lipsky remarks, "First Run Features has been a mainstay for decades in delivering exciting and engaging independent movies to audiences across the US. With this deal, Gigantic will have the honor of dramatically extending the reach of "Bliss" across the country. It's precisely films of this

caliber, power and beauty that will enable us to deliver a wider audience and added revenue to our distributor partners while empowering us to help grow the independent film audience with each new release."Gigantic Digital Cinema streams films at the highest possible quality and commercial-free for a ticket price of $2.99.

 

"Bliss" ("Mutluluk"), produced and directed by Abdullah Oğuz, is one of the most acclaimed Turkish film of the decade, and the one of the first narrative films to tackle the highly charged subject of honor killings. Based on the internationally acclaimed 2002 novel by Ömer Zülfü Livaneli (published in 2006 in the U.S. by St. Martin's Press), and set against the

backdrop of Turkey's natural wonders, the film has collected rave reviews and a long list of awards worldwide. An unconventional road movie, "Bliss" pits tradition against modernity, urban against rural and East against West when a 17-year-old girl is believed to have been sexually 'tarnished.' When she refuses to take her own life to uphold her family's honor, a distant cousin just out of the military is charged with the duty of killing her.

 

Marc Mauceri, VP of First Run Features, notes: "It's quite an honor to be working with Mark Lipsky, one of the original gurus of Indie film." He continues: "We're very excited to be working with Mark and Gigantic in releasing BLISS online nationally. Making the film available to audiences outside the usual arthouse stongholds will bring much-deserved attention and exposure to this superb film."

 

About Gigantic Digital Cinema and the Gigantic Group:

Gigantic Digital Cinema (www.giganticdigital.com) is the first true online exhibition platform for independent film. Under the leadership of noted industry veteran Mark Lipsky, president of the company, Gigantic Digital Cinema offers distributors and filmmakers the ability to reach every broadband household in the US in the first-run window, with publicity and marketing support included. Unique in the field of online film, Gigantic's geographically-targeted, ad-free platform allows first-run films to open day-and-date with bricks and mortar theatrical engagements, without competing with or cannibalizing those engagements.

 

Gigantic Digital Cinema is one of four companies in the New York-based Gigantic Group, an innovative indie studio with the mission to reinvent the music and film businesses. Gigantic Pictures is a film/television production arm with over 20 titles to its credit including, most recently, the acclaimed titles DARE and GOODBYE SOLO. Gigantic Music is one of New York's premiere recording facilities and a record label which recently released The Walkmen's Billboard-charting "You & Me." Gigantic Studios, a state-of-the-art post-production facility, is slated to open this summer.

Film producer and musician Brian Devine founded Gigantic in 1996 and is CEO of its companies.

 

About First Run Features:

First Run Features (www.firstrunfeatures.com) was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers to advance the distribution of independent film. Under the leadership of the late independent film pioneer, Fran Spielman, First Run Features quickly gained a reputation for its controversial catalog of daring independent fiction and non-fiction films. First Run remains one of the largest independent theatrical and home video distributors in the United States, releasing 12 a year in theatres nationwide and 40 to 50 DVDs annually. First Run has also formed a non-theatrical division that sells directly to the educational market.