The Missing Picture To Get Australian Release

Sharmill Films is proud to announce The Missing Picture, winner of the prestigious Un Certain Regard top prize among its four acquisitions from the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

The acclaimed autobiographical documentary by French-Cambodian director Rithy Panh uses clay animated figures to tell Panh’s recollection of the tragic events which lead to the deaths of his family, with first person narration by the filmmaker. Geoff Andrew in Sight & Sound praised the film as being “moving and remarkably resonant.”

Cannes Jury Prize winner Thomas Vinterberg presided over the announcement of the Un Certain Regard top prize, commenting:

“One of the finest achievements in filmmaking is to create unforgettable moments – moments that stay with us – as a collective memory – as a collective mirror of our existence…This selection was political, highly original, sometimes disturbing, diverse and first of all, very often – unforgettable.”

Vinterberg presented Rithy Panh with his prize, while Panh gave gratitude to the jury and all involved with the festival, as well as to cinemaphiles for supporting film. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The sole female director with a film nominated for the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi draws inspiration from Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” for her third and semi-autobiographical feature,

A Castle in Italy. Bruni Tedeschi stars as Louise, an actress in her early forties who has retired from the screen, but when her aging mother (played by Marisa Borini, Valeria’s Bruni Tedeschi’s mother in real life) can no longer afford to keep their Piermonte estate, the family is faced with the end of an era and an uncertain future. Working with her frequent collaborators on the screenplay, Tedeschi’s writing and direction has been praised as “inspired” as she “holds all of the film’s myriad tangents in a delicate balance” (Variety)

Also entered for the Un Certain Regard prize in Cannes was My Sweet Pepper Land by Hiner Saleem, one of the top filmmakers in Kurdish cinema, who successfully combines humour and hope for the future of his people in his new film set on the Iraqi/Turkish border. Featuring “a luminous performance” by Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani (The Hollywood Reporter), My Sweet Pepper Land is a quirky ‘Wild West’ inspired drama in which war hero Baran (Korkmaz Arslan) finds himself at odds with his job as police chief in the capital city in peacetime.

In Cannes Sharmill Films acquired another alternate content title, the new documentary Reaching for the Stars about the English/Irish pop phenomenon One Direction.

Sharmill Films Director Natalie Miller AO said that it was “a very successful Cannes this year, not only for our company but we will have many good films to look forward to in the art house market.”