Sundance Channel has acquired the pay television rights to the recent Oscar-winning short film, RYAN, directed by Chris Landreth and will broadcast it in fall 2005.
RYAN, looks at the life and career of Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, an Oscar nominee who made some of the most influential animated films of his time when he worked for the National Film Board. But today, 30 years later, Ryan is living every artists nightmare; he now panhandles on the streets of Montreal to make ends meet. By combining hand-animated images with the latest in technology, Landreth pushed the boundaries of photorealism and the animation and documentary genres as he explores Larkins evolution from artistic genius to poverty.
In RYAN, the voices of Ryan Larkin and the people who have known him speak through strange, twisted, broken and disembodied 3D generated characters, whose appearances are bizarre, humorous or oftentimes disturbing. Although incredibly realistic and detailed, RYAN was created and animated from an original, personal, hand animated three-dimensional world, which Landreth calls, psychological realism.
RYAN has picked up some 25 prizes in the past year at film festivals around the world, ranging from Cannes to Hiroshima. Ryan is produced by Steven Hoban and Mark Smith (Copper Heart Entertainment) and Marcy Page (National Film Board of Canada), in association with Seneca College Animation Arts Centre, with the participation of the Canada Council for the Arts. RYAN will screen at the upcoming New Directors/New Films film festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in April, 2005.
The deal was negotiated by Christian Vesper, vp, acquisitions, Sundance Channel and Christina Rogers of the National Film Board of Canada on behalf of the film.
Copper Heart Ent. is one of Canadas most diverse independent production companies, devoted to making independent, commercially accessible features and large format (i.e. Imax) films, as well as television productions. Copper Heart also continues to produce highly innovative and leading-edge animation projects.
Now in its 65th year, the NFB (www.nfb.ca) has produced more than 10,000 films and other audiovisual works, and won more than 4,500 awards, including 11 Oscars. As Canada's public film producer, the NFB produces and distributes distinctive, culturally diverse, challenging and relevant audiovisual works that provide Canada and the world with a unique Canadian perspective.
Under the creative direction of Redford, the Sundance Channel brings television viewers daring and engaging feature films, shorts, documentaries, world cinema and animation, shown uncut and with no commercials. Launched in 1996, Sundance Channel (www.sundancechannel.com) is a venture between NBC Universal, Redford and Showtime Networks Inc. Sundance Channel operates independently of the non-profit Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, but shares the overall Sundance mission of supporting independent artists and providing them with wider opportunities to present their work to audiences.
