AntEye inks deal with Seventh Art
USC student to helm first project under new pact
First co-financed production will be a comedy from student filmmaker Ethan Shaftel, who was recently awarded a feature production deal for his short film "Hulahoop" in AntEye's talent discovery awards program.
Through the program, AntEye awards winners pilot budgets of up to $100,000 and digital film budgets of up to $250,000, plus mentors from the film community. AntEye then attempts to sell the projects offline as traditional feature or television projects.
Shaftel is enrolled in the USC film program and will take a semester off to write and direct the feature.
"For me, it basically means more options, more ways to explore the story I want to tell," Shaftel said. "In this highly competitive world, distribution is a natural outgrowth of the creative process, especially if you want people to see your work."
Seventh Art becomes AntEye's first major offline avenue for the Netcaster to distribute and sell its film projects.
"Partnering with Seventh Art Releasing will enable our filmmakers to have traditional brick and mortar distribution," AntEye CEO Matti Leshem said. "This deal validates that emerging talent can be found through non-traditional means, which does indeed include the Internet."
Deal also expands Seventh Art into developing original productions. Until now, Seventh Art is best known for distributing films budgeted at less than $5 million, including Oscar-winning docu "The Long Way Home" and, more recently, the Hughes brothers' "American Pimp."
"We are a full-service, filmmaker-friendly, one-stop shopping destination. Therefore, this offline/online collaboration makes perfect sense," Seventh Art Releasing prexy Udy Epstein said. "We also chose to work with AntEye because they have unearthed amazing talent."
