Lebanon wins Golden Lion in Venice

Congratulations to GRINGO's Sonja Ewers, whose co-production Lebanon has won the Golden Lion for the best film at the Venice Film Festival 2009. Written and directed by Samuel Maoz, Lebanon is a harrowing portrait of the chaos and panic of war, all told from within the claustrophobic confines of a tank on the first day of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. After Venice, Lebanon is moving on to the film festivals in Toronto, London, New York, Telluride and Pusan. International sales are being managed by Celluloid Dreams. Lebanon is an Israeli-German-French co-production, the German side of which was handled by our sister company, Ariel Films, of which Sonja is also a managing director.

Pre-production support for Zen in the Art of Archery

GRINGO films has been awarded €48,000 towards the financing and pre-production of Zen in the Art of Archery by the Filmstiftung North Rhine-Westphalia. Gringo's Steve Hudson on the award: "We'd like to thank the Filmstiftung NRW for their continuing generous support and for reacting so positively to this film. As a German-Japanese co-production, Zen in the Art of Archery is an intensely ambitious project that requires careful planning and preparation. The award allows us to push ahead with financing at a critical time."

GRINGO films opens for business with double screenplay development funding and start-up support.

GRINGO films GmbH has opened its doors for business in Cologne, Germany with no less than three successes in its first weeks:
GRINGO is run by director Steve Hudson and producer Sonja Ewers, who last worked together on the German-UK-Irish co-production True North. Thanks to a support package for start-up companies from the AV-Gründerzentrum NRW, GRINGO can now concentrate fully on developing and producing further international feature films.

GRINGO’s first two projects have already been awarded screenplay development funding:
The adaptation of Zen in the Art of Archery, based on the international bestseller by Eugen Herrigel, is being supported by the German Film Board (FFA).
The script to Take the Blame, the story of the rise, fall and wild excesses of the 80s London nightclub scene, with the pioneering MTV host Steve Blame as co-writer, is being supported by the Filmstiftung NRW.

Steve Hudson on GRINGO: “We’re delighted that our business concept and our first two projects have found such a resoundingly positive reaction. The start-up support and development funding have given us a decisive boost in the initial phase. We very much look forward to presenting our projects to the market this year at Berlin and Cannes.”