Jumpman

#IrishFilm: Irish co-pro Jumpman screens tonight at the IFI ahead of nationwide tour

Film and Music Entertainment (IRE) the production house run by veteran producers Mike Downey and Samantha Taylor announced this week the release of Jumpman, the Ireland/Russia/Lithuania/France production directed by Ivan I. Tverdovskiy, in Irish cinemas. The initial screenings will be at the Irish Film Institute starting on April 4th before rolling out to the rest of the country via the access>CINEMA network which stretches across cinemas and film clubs across the country.

Jumpman recently picked up the Best Director gong and a cheque for €7,500 at the 28th Festival of East  European Cinema in Cottbus.  The main jury, composed of Leonid Demchenko, programme director of the Baltic Debuts Film Festival and the Russian representative of Eurimages, Polish director Anna Jadowska, Ukrainian producer Anna Palenchuk, Georgian director Gio Mgeladze, and Uwe Kockisch, an actor from Cottbus. The win follows previous prizes at Sochi, Karlovy Vary and Chicago. The competition jury at the 19th Arras Film Festival, chaired by French filmmaker Emmanuel Finkiel, also bestowed the Golden l’Atlas – Grand Jury Prize upon Jumpman.

The third feature by the director of Corrections Class and Zoology , which was unveiled in competition at Karlovy Vary, portrays the misadventures of Dennis, a teenager suffering from a rare disease that makes him impervious to pain and who grew up in an orphanage where he was abandoned shortly after he was born. However, his mother reappears in his life and takes him to Moscow, where she is a member of a gang of corrupt public officials who extort money from rich people. Dennis partakes in their schemes by flinging himself in front of cars in order to blackmail their drivers.

Produced by Russia, together with Lithuania (Tremora), Ireland (Film and Music Entertainement) and France (Arizona), the feature is being sold overseas by Poland’s New Europe Film Sales.

Meanwhile last week post-production completed on  Fame Ireland’s latest production How to Fake a War at Windmill Lane.  Pre-sales have now been completed to Lemontree in China, Front Row in the Middle East, and Praesens in Switzerland.

The production stars Jay Pharaoh, Katherine Parkinson and face of Chanel Lily Newmark.

London 2018 – In a few days time, a  global charity concert is due to take place led by the vain and arrogant rock star, Harry Hope and his over-confident PR consultant, Kate. When notorious war monger, Boris the Butcher, decides to call a cease-fire four days before the big event, Kate knows that she absolutely has to make this event happen or her career will be over. She embarks on a mission to Georgia to create a fake news story letting the world know that the war is back on. Assisted by her naïve new intern, Peggy, the two quickly discover that they have taken on more than they can handle and as events spiral out of their control, all hell quickly breaks loose.

How to Fake a War was developed by Creative England, Film and Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd, Finnish financing house IPR.VC and is being produced by Samantha Taylor and Mike Downey via their Dublin-based Film and Music Entertainment (IRE) and Kinomedia in Poland with key financing from the UK’s Quickfire and Helsinki-based IPR.VC.