Freeway to donate its profits from Woody Allen releases to support the Hungarian National Digital Archive and Film Institute
BUDAPEST – November 23, 2015. European distributor Pannonia Entertainment is partnering global rights management company Freeway Entertainment in theatrically releasing a special collection of Woody Allen films which have not been seen on cinema screens in Hungary for more than 10 years to coincide with the filmmaker’s 80th birthday on 1 December.
The films which will be released in the Urania National Theatre and art-house cinemas across Hungary from 1 December 2015 through to the end of February 2016, will be shown on 35mm, a decision which will be welcomed by Allen who is a strong advocate for showing films on the media in which they were conceived and made.
The collection comprises a number of the filmmaker’s classics including Annie Hall (1977); Manhattan (1979); Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001); Hollywood Ending (2002); and Small Time Crooks (2000).
A special screening on 1 December of Annie Hall in the Urania National Theatre will officially launch the Woody Allen season.
The collection represents a significant theatrical opportunity for both Hungary’s exhibitors and audiences as these classics have not been seen in cinemas for over a decade or on television. In addition, Freeway is making a pioneering move to support to the country’s national film institution, the Hungarian National Digital Archive and Film Institute (MaNDA) by donating its share of the profits from the release of the films to support the archive. MaNDA collects, restores, preserves and manages Hungarian and international films and materials, including documentaries, newsreels, experimental and animation films and related products.
Cecile Huberts, Freeway Entertainment Partner said: “Woody Allen’s films are international classics which are as much loved by audiences today as they were when they were first released, but many have not been screened in Hungary for some years. We are proud to be bringing his films to his long-established film fans as well as introducing new audiences to this extraordinarily prolific filmmaker and his work. For Freeway we also feel a great synergy in releasing film classics and at the same time supporting the Hungarian National Digital Archive and Film Institute, where film culture is preserved and made accessible to audiences.”
Klaudia Elsässer, Founder and Managing Director of Pannonia Entertainment, said: “We are incredibly excited to be mounting this hommage to Woody Allen with Freeway, offering audiences in Hungary the chance to rediscover, or discover for the first time, his films in the way he intended them to be seen – on 35mm in a cinema. His wit and take on the human condition is unique and as the famous Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin would say, ‘a healing humour’.”
