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BORDERLINE FILMS SIGNS FIRST LOOK DEAL WITH FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

Posted Friday, November 4th, 2011 - Comments Off on BORDERLINE FILMS SIGNS FIRST LOOK DEAL WITH FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
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For Immediate Release

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE Filmmakers Set Up Shingle at Fox Searchlight Pictures

LOS ANGELES, CA, November 3, 2011 – Fox Searchlight Pictures Presidents Stephen Gilula and Nancy Utley announced today that Borderline Films, the creative team behind the critically acclaimed psychological thriller MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, and Fox Searchlight Pictures have signed a two-year, first-look deal.  Borderline Films is the partnership of Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin and Josh Mond.  Currently in theatres, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, Durkin’s feature debut, was picked up by Fox Searchlight at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and was the winner of the Dramatic Feature Directing Award.  The film went on to play such key festivals as Festival de Cannes, Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival just to name a few.

Says Borderline Films: “Fox Searchlight is an ideal home for our company.  This partnership allows us to take the momentum we’ve built since launching Borderline in 2003 to an entirely new level. Over the years, we’ve worked very hard to create a support structure which offers us the ability, resources and independence to grow as filmmakers, both individually and collectively.  We’re excited and grateful that Fox Searchlight, who recognizes our company’s dynamic model and has already been an incredible partner, will continue to be invested in Borderline’s upcoming projects.”

Utley and Gilula state: “Sean, Antonio and Josh are an exciting talent collective with unique voices and a bold vision.  They are not afraid to challenge audiences with thought provoking films. We are thrilled to be in business with them and look forward to a very creative partnership.”

Borderline was represented by David Flynn at United Talent Agency, Melissa Breaux at Washington Square Arts and by attorney Peter Nelson from the law firm of Nelson Davis & Wetzstein, LLP. Fox Searchlight was represented by Senior Vice President Megan O’Brien.  Zola Mashariki, Senior Vice President of Production, will oversee Borderline’s production slate.

A New York-based feature film production company, Borderline Films was formed in 2003 by Tisch film school alums Campos, Durkin and Mond.   Rotating the roles of writer, director and producer, the three filmmakers have earned acclaim around the world for their stylized and original films.

Borderline’s first feature film, AFTERSCHOOL, a riveting look at the dark side of youth in the media age written and directed by Antonio Campos and produced by Mond and Durkin, premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard.  The film went on to screen at numerous other festivals around the world including New York, London, and Berlin.  AFTERSCHOOL was released theatrically by IFC Films and was nominated for Best First Feature by the Independent Spirit Awards and Breakthrough Director for Campos by the Gotham Awards.

Borderline’s latest film, the critically acclaimed psychological thriller MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, was recently nominated for three Gotham Awards: Sean Durkin for Breakthrough Director, Elizabeth Olsen for Breakthrough Performance and Best Ensemble.

Other acclaimed Borderline projects include: BUY IT NOW, Borderline’s first short film directed by Campos which won the Cinefondation prize at Cannes in 2005; writer-director Alistair Banks Griffin’s lyrical feature film TWO GATES OF SLEEP which premiered at Cannes Directors Fortnight in 2010; MARY LAST SEEN, Sean Durkin’s short film which won Best Short at Cannes Directors Fortnight in 2010; and Josh Mond’s highly praised music video for the hit Mayday Parade song KIDS IN LOVE which was shown at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival.

Fox Searchlight Pictures is a specialty film company that both finances and acquires motion pictures.  It has its own marketing and distribution operations, and its films are distributed internationally by Twentieth Century Fox.  Fox Searchlight Pictures is a unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

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