Cannes Palme d’Or Winner ‘Winter Sleep’ Acquired By Adopt Films
Adopt Films has acquired all U.S. rights to this year’s Cannes Film FestivalPalme d’Or winner, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’sWinter Sleep. The Turkish drama took the top prize despite its daunting 3-hour, 16-minute run time that even had jury president Jane Campion wondering if she’d need a bathroom break in the middle of the Palais premiere. “But it had such a beautiful rhythm and it just took me in,” Campion said at the post-awards press conference. “Actually I could have sat there for another two hours. It was all very Chekhovian. I could see myself in all of the characters.” Adopt plans a year-end 2014 U.S. release.
The film centers on Aydin, a retired actor who runs the Othello Hotel in central Anatolia. The snow begins to fall, and one could say that a cabin fever ensues for Aydin who tends to a stormy relationship with his wife and arguments about rich vs. poor with his recently divorced sister. Ceylan and his longtime writing partner and real-life wife Ebru Ceylan wrote the screenplay and Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sözen, Demet Akbağ, Ayberk Pekcan, Serhat Mustafa Kiliç, and Nejat İşler star.
Adopt Films president Tim Grady and EVP Marketing & Distribution Jeff Lipsky negotiated the deal with Memento Films International’s Tanja Meissner.