EVOKATIVE FILMS Acquires the Canadian Rights to DAYTIME DRINKING!

It is with great pleasure that Evokative Films announces its acquisition of DAYTIME DRINKING. This South-Korean dramatic comedy, produced with a micro-budget of $9 000 CAD (10 000 Won), seduced audiences and juries alike in various International film festivals and found an unexpected success on its domestic market. As well as Producer, Writer and Director, NOH Young-seok took on the roles of Cinematographer, Production Designer, Editor and Composer of the Original Soundtrack for this first feature film.

On a drunken night out with his friends, Hyuk-jin, a broken-hearted young man, gets swayed into going to the countryside with them for a getaway weekend. But when he gets there, he finds that not only none of them showed up, but the tiny seaside town is shuttered - no shops are open, no tourists are around, the beach is freezing and there’s no cell phone signal. And that’s only the beginning of his bad luck. Unable and reluctant to return to Seoul, he finds himself in the company of some very unusual locals and, subject to the rigid rules of Korean drinking culture, on an increasingly strange odyssey nursing a never-ending hangover. Ushering a new era of independent filmmaking in South Korea, DAYTIME DRINKING is a comedy in the spirit of STRANGER THAN PARADISE and SIDEWAYS - but with a distinctly Korean twist.

Evokative Films signed the distribution deal with Eleven Arts, owner of the North-American rights. The films’ International sales agent is Finecut. DAYTIME DRINKING started its festival career at the Jeonju International Film Festival in 2008, where it won the JJ-Star Award and the Audience Critics' Award, to follow with the Locarno International Film Festival, where it won a Special Mention of the Jury and a NETPAC Award, and the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2009 it followed with the Vessoul Asian Film Festival, where it won an Inalco Jury Award and then, amongst others, the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009, the SXSW Film Festival and the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Eleven Arts plans a US theatrical release in June and July of this year and Evokative Films will follow with July and August screenings. A DVD release is planned for September.

Posted in Acquisitions

Glowing reviews for ADRIFT IN TOKYO!

Following the April 10th release of ADRIFT IN TOKYO, we’ve been blessed with all-around positive reviews! This love-fest in the media translated in a very good box-office for the 1st week-end at the AMC Forum Theatre: $6 600. Yes, these are small bucks compared to the Hollywood blockbusters, but it still puts us in second place of the Quebec per-screen box-office for 1st-week films, and in 5th place for per-screen box-office on all films playing in Quebec. To say that we’re thrilled is an understatement!

So here’s a little round-up on the good things that have been said in the press for the release and beforehand…

Print Media
At the Montreal Gazette: John Griffin’s review, Liz Ferguson’s review, Al Kratina’s review
At the Montreal Mirror: Mark Slutsky’s review
At the Hour: Meghan Hick’s review
At Exclaim!: Katarina Gligorijevic’s review
At The McGill Tribune: Brahna Siegelberg’s review
At Variety: Russell Edwards’s review
At the Japan Times: Mark Schilling’s review

Web
At Twitchfilm: The release news, Todd Brown’s review, Todd’s Best films of 2008, Andrew Mack’s review
At the Toronto J-film Pow-wow:The release news, Chris MaGee’s Review
At Cinema Strikes Back: David Austin’s review, Their Top-10 picks of 2008
At Midnight Eye: Keith Fancher’s review
At They Shoot Actors, Don’t They?: Katarina Gligorijevic’s review
At eFilmCritic: Jay Seaver’s review
At UGO: John Lichman’s review
At LunaPark6: Luna6’s review
At MovieMoxie: Shannon Riddler’s review

ADRIFT IN TOKYO will be playing in Montreal until April 23rd, to then play in Toronto at the AMC Yonge & Dundas theatre from May 1st. Next up will be Vancouver from May 22nd.

Posted in In the Press, Theatrical Releases

Evokative is one year old today!

The 1st of April isn’t just a day to pull pranks or the day just before my own birthday – it’s also the day when Evokative finally got incorporated last year.

At this time I get to appreciate the great distance the company has gone in one short year. I could not have gone through this road without the help of many persons, so I’d like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the big and small input all of you have had on the growth of Evokative!

Posted in Events

ADRIFT IN TOKYO in theatres from April 10th!

We are very pleased to finally announce the theatrical release of ADRIFT IN TOKYO (TEN-TEN), a film written and directed by Satoshi Miki. This walking road movie stars the “Johnny Depp of Japan” Jô Odagiri (Retribution, Shinobi, Hazard), Tomokazu Miura (Always - Sunset on Third Street, Survive Style 5+, The Taste of Tea) and Kyôto Koizumi (Tokyo Sonata, Sakuran, Survive Style 5+).

The film will be screening from April 10th, for a two-weeks run, at the AMC Forum theatre in Montreal, with a Japanese with English subtitles copy. ADRIFT IN TOKYO will then go on to play in Toronto at the AMC Yonge & Dundas theatre from May 1st and Vancouver from May 22nd. Quebec-made French subtitles will be available on the DVD to be released subsequently.

Leading a lazy life, Fumiya has been a university student for 8 years and owes money to loan sharks. One day, a man named Fukuhara comes to collect the loan, which Fumiya cannot pay. So Fukuhara makes a proposition: He will cancel the debt as long as Fumiya agrees to walk with him across Tokyo to the police station of Kasumigaseki, where he intends to turn himself in for a crime he deeply regrets. Not having much choice, Fumiya accepts the deal. Thus begins their journey which will lead them to various unusual encounters, most of all with themselves. Based on the original novel by Naoki Prize winner Yoshinaga Fujita comes a fascinating, humorous and wildly clever film that is sure to charm you.

In Quebec, ADRIFT IN TOKYO was part of last year’s Fantasia Festival’s programming, where it got two sold-out screenings, as well as the Ottawa Film Festival / Festival du film de l’Outaouais just recently. In 2008 the film garnered praise following its screenings at the Udine Far East Film Festival, the New York Asian Film Festival, the Neufchâtel Fantastic Film Festival, the Raindance Film Festival and finally the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival, where it had the honour of being the Closing Film. Besides being hailed as a masterpiece by some and being featured in many Best-films-of-2008 lists, ADRIFT IN TOKYO won the Kinema Junpo Award for the Best Supporting Actor, as well as the Best Scenario Award and a Special Mention of the jury for Jô Odagiri and Tomokazu Miura’s acting at the Fantasia Festival.

See the Montreal event on Facebook here and the Toronto event here.

Posted in Theatrical Releases

A return on the world premiere of BLACK @ SXSW

It’s bad, I’ve been back in the office from my trip in Austin, Texas for SXSW for a few days and I only get to do a recap now. Things are very busy in the office you see, in-between HANSEL & GRETEL starting its run in Toronto on Friday, the Crying Fist DVD getting in its final stages of production and ADRIFT IN TOKYO to come out in theatres soon. Amongst many other things! Tim League and the Fantastic Fest folks were nice enough to program BLACK in their SXSW Presents Fantastic Fest programming, which got us all very excited to have BLACK’s World Premiere there. Both March 14th and March 18th screenings were at the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse Theatre, to sold-out audiences that seemed very eager to see this new genre of French action flick with Blaxploitation influences starring MC Jean Gab’1.


The sold-out house on the 1st screening.


Lauranne Bourrachot, one of the producer of the film, and Pierre Laffargue, the director.

 
The Q&A session after the first screening. A video of it will be posted soon on YouTube.

 
The presentation of the second screening.

Great reviews got posted on blogs following the screenings. You can read them right here:
A first Ain’t It Cool Review
A second Ain’t It Cool Review
A review on Cinematical
A review on HitFix
A review on RowThree
And finally an interview with Pierre Laffargue on eFilmCritic

BLACK will be released in France in July and in Canada in August. There is no American distributor yet for the film but we wouldn’t be surprised that one is signed on soon following all this great buzz!

Posted in In the Press, Special Screenings

THE KILLER (LE TUEUR) on DVD from March 10th!

We are very pleased to announce the release of the very first DVD of the Evokative Collection: THE KILLER (LE TUEUR), a film written and directed by Cédric Anger. This French mix of thriller and psychological drama stars Gilbert Melki (ANGEL-A, INTIMATE STRANGER, MONSIEUR IBRAHIM), Grégoire Colin (IN THE ARMS OF MY ENEMY, THE INTRUDER, SEX IS COMEDY), and Mélanie Laurent (PARIS, DON’T WORRY, I’M FINE, THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED).

Christmas Eve in Paris. Leo Zimmerman is a businessman who lives for his beloved little daughter’s smile. Outwardly, his life is exemplary. However, when Dimitri Kopas walks into his office, pretending to be a normal client, Leo understands that a contract is out on his head and that the young man has come to town to kill him. Overcome with anxiety and paranoia, no longer able to sleep, Leo decides to meet the killer face to face and to broker a strange deal.

Released in Montreal and Toronto in November 2008, THE KILLER had its North-American Premiere last July at the Fantasia International Film Festival, where the actor Grégoire Colin was present to introduce the film. THE KILLER was also part of, amongst others, the programming of this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it was selected as one of the 10 Variety’s Critic’s Choice. Last November THE KILLER was nominated for the Louis-Delluc Prize of the Best First Film.

THE KILLER (LE TUEUR) will be available in all good DVD retail and rental locations from March 10th. In accordance with the innovative vocation of Evokative, the DVD packaging is an environmentally-friendly and elegant digipack made of 100% recycled materials and wrapped in a 100% biodegradable cellophane. The packaging includes a booklet with an exclusive Director’s note and a preface by Simon Laperrière, programmer at the Fantasia Festival. The DVD offers special features such as English subtitles, a Director’s commentary (in French only), as well as NOVELA, the first short-feature by Cédric Anger also starring Grégoire Colin (in French only).

Posted in DVD Releases

HANSEL & GRETEL wins two awards at Fantasporto!

We’ve just learned that the South-Korean dark fantasy HANSEL & GRETEL won two awards at the 29th edition of the Oporto International Film Festival (Fantasporto) which ended today. The film directed by YIM Phil-sung won the Special Prize of the Fantasy Competition and the Best Film Award of the Orient Express section.

The other Jury Awards were given to IDIOTS AND ANGELS, the excellent animation by Bill Plympton, which won the Best Film Award of the Fantasy Competition, as well as to MOSCOW, BELGIUM, by Christophe Van Rompaey, which was chosen as Best Film of the 19th Director’s Week. Most commonly called Fantasporto, the Portuguese festival is considered amongst the 25 leading festivals of the world, according to Variety International Film Guide.

HANSEL & GRETEL already got attention on the International film festival circuit after being part of the official selections of the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (Pifan), where it won a Special Mention, the Sitges International Film Festival and the London Film Festival in 2008, followed by the Gerardmer Fantastic Film Festival and lately the Oporto International Film Festival (Fantasporto) this year. In Canada, HANSEL & GRETEL had the honour of being chosen as the Closing Film of the Dragons and Tigers section at the Vancouver International Film Festival, to follow with the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival.

The film will be screening from March 6th, for a two-weeks run, at the AMC Forum theatre in Montreal, with a Korean with English subtitles copy. HANSEL & GRETEL will then go on to play in Toronto from March 27th and Vancouver from April 17th. On Friday March 6th, the Evokative Films team will be present at the AMC Forum theatre to raffle various prizes among those attending the 7:10 pm screening.
To see the event on Facebook: HANSEL & GRETEL @ AMC

Posted in In the Press, Theatrical Releases