Entertainment One picks up Summer Coda

Entertainment One has added another Australian film to its slate with writer/director Richard Gray’s Summer Coda. The company has all distribution rights outside Australia and New Zealand.

“Australian movies are awfully good these days — there’s a lot of variety,” said Charlotte Mickie, international sales and acquisitions executive at Entertainment One.

“We’re representing Summer Coda, South Solitary, Animal Kingdom and Mad Bastards currently, with more to announce. All very different films from one another. All imaginative and full of creative spirit.”

Summer Coda is a love story starring Rachael Taylor (Transformers) and Alex Dimitriades (Head On) and the supporting cast includes Australian favourites Jacki Weaver and Susie Porter.

The film starts and finishes in the US, which is where Gray’s father grew up, but is principally set in the orange groves of regional Australia during harvest time.

“I can’t emphasize enough that the specificity of Summer Coda’s location is one of its great pleasures,” said Mickie.

The film is produced by Gray, John Finemore and Marc Goldenfein under the Revival Film Company banner. Production was principally financed by private investors although state government agency Film Victoria provided assistance under a fund aimed at encouraging filmmakers to work in regional areas. Film Victoria also put money into post-production and Screen Australia tipped in funds for prints and advertising.

Released last week in Australia on 24 screens, the film took A$64,307 over the four-day weekend putting it in the lead position in the box office chart of films on 50 screens or less.

“The Australian accent makes these movies a bit of a challenge in English-speaking territories where you can’t really sub-title comfortably, so there is no bias there,” she said, when asked if there were particular markets where Australian films do well. “If a movie is good it will do well everywhere. We sold Animal Kingdom all over the world and are anticipating a very strong response in Italy and France.”