Every week, I get several press releases, screening invitations and other notifications from a handful of studio contacts. While I won’t be sharing any information regarding my screening invites, some of the press releases might be of interest to my readers, so I thought I’d start sharing them in toto with all of you. These could include new image galleries for various films or important updates to upcoming releases from various smaller studios and art house production companies.

• Image Gallery: Out of the Furnace
• Press Release: Release Date Set for “Ernest & Celestine”

Image Gallery: Out of the Furnace

Four additional images added at this link

Press Release: Release Date Set for “Ernest & Celestine”

GKIDS SETS RELEASE DATE FOR “ERNEST & CELESTINE” OPENS MARCH 14 IN NYC AND LA FOLLOWED BY NATIONAL EXPANSION TO ALL MAJOR US MARKETS

AWARD-WINNING FILM FEATURES THE VOICES OF FOREST WHITAKER, MACKENZIE FOY, LAUREN BACALL, PAUL GIAMATTI, WILLIAM H. MACY, MEGAN MULLALLY, NICK OFFERMAN, JEFFREY WRIGHT

“E&C” IS COMPETING FOR OSCARS, ANNIES AND GOLDEN GLOBES IN ORIGINAL FRENCH VERSION

New York, New York – November 25, 2013 – GKIDS, a distributor of award-winning animation for both adult and family audiences, has announced that it will release the English language ERNEST & CELESTINE, on March 14. The film will open in New York and Los Angeles, followed by national expansion to all major US markets.

ERNEST & CELESTINE is the charming and beautifully hand-drawn new feature from the creators of the Academy Award® nominated Triplets of Belleville and The Secret of Kells. The previously announced voice cast includes Forest Whitaker (Lee Daniels’ The Butler), Mackenzie Foy (Twilight: Breaking Dawn), Lauren Bacall (The Big Sleep), Paul Giamatti (John Adams), William H. Macy (Fargo), Megan Mullally (Will and Grace), Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), and Jeffrey Wright (Boardwalk Empire).

ERNEST & CELESTINE premiered at Cannes, has played Toronto, London, Los Angeles, and other prestigious film festivals, is the winner of France’s Cesar Award for Best Animated Feature, and currently has a 100% rating on RottenTomatoes.com. GKIDS is qualifying the film for the 2014 Academy Awards® in the Best Animated Feature category, where the company has had past success with The Secret of Kells, A Cat in Paris, and Chico & Rita. The film is qualifying for awards consideration in the original French language version.

ABOUT ERNEST & CELESTINE
From the creators of the Academy Award®-nominated Triplets of Belleville and The Secret of Kells comes a visually stunning, enormously entertaining new film with generation-spanning appeal. Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets, tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer – and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for ursine troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn’t long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities.
Fresh from standing ovations at Cannes and Toronto, ERNEST & CELESTINE joyfully leaps across genres and influences to capture the kinetic, limitless possibilities of animated storytelling. Like a watercolor painting brought to life, a constantly shifting pastel color palette bursts and drips across the screen, while wonderful storytelling and brilliant comic timing draw up influences as varied as Buster Keaton, Bugs Bunny and the outlaw romanticism of Bonnie and Clyde. Based on the Belgian book series by Gabrielle Vincent, ERNEST & CELESTINE is winner of the Cesar Award for Best Animated Feature and numerous festival prizes.

ABOUT GKIDS
GKIDS is a distributor of award-winning filmed entertainment specializing in animation for both adult and family audiences. The company has scored three Best Animated Feature Oscar® nominations, with The Secret of Kells in 2010 and both A Cat in Paris and Chico & Rita in 2012 – marking the first time an independent distributor has had two simultaneous nominations in the category. Upcoming releases include Ignacio Ferreras’ Wrinkles, featuring Martin Sheen, Matthew Modine and George Coe, as well as the animated Oscar®-contenders Ernest & Celestine, from producers Les Armateurs, and A Letter to Momo, from Japan’s Production I.G. GKIDS also handles North American theatrical distribution for Oscar®-winner Hayao Miyazaki’s famed Studio Ghibli library of films, one of the world’s most coveted animation collections with titles Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and others. GKIDS is producer of the New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival, an Oscar®-qualifying event and North America’s largest festival of film for children and teens.