TORONTO, Dec. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ - 37 Star Media Fund Corp. (37 Star) today announces it has licensed its international distribution rights for Frankie & Alice to UPHE Content Group, a division of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Following the film's recent domestic theatrical release in April this year, UPHE Content Group is set to roll out Frankie & Alice in international markets immediately.
"Frankie & Alice is a riveting film with an award-winning performance by Halle Berry," says David Strapko, CEO and Managing Director of 37 Star. "Following a limited release to qualify for Berry's 2011 Golden Globes® nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, the film was stuck in legal limbo for years. It's the mandate and passion of 37 Star to bring this film and others like it to international audiences."
Inspired by a true story, Frankie & Alice is a dramatic film about a young, female go-go dancer (Berry) struggling with dissociative identity disorder (DID) — Genius, a seven-year-old black child, and Alice, a southern white racist woman. Stellan Skarsgård (Thor: The Dark World, The Avengers), Emmy® nominee Phylicia Rashad (For Colored Girls), and Emmy® nominee Chandra Wilson also star in the film, which was produced by Berry and Vincent Cirrincione (Lackawanna Blues, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge).
"Psychiatric illness is an important topic that is frequently silenced," says Berry, who has always embraced taking on challenging roles throughout her career. "We hope the broader distribution of this film acts as a catalyst to ignite discussions about mental wellbeing for those who need to be heard and understood."
Frankie & Alice has received six awards including: 2014 Voice Award; Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture (Berry), and Outstanding Independent Motion Picture by the NAACP Image Awards (2011); Prism Awards' Best Performance in a Feature Film (Berry; 2011); and Best Actress (Berry), and Top 10 Films by the African-American Film Critics Association (2010). It was nominated for five additional awards including: Golden Globes' Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama (Berry; 2011); Best Actress by the BET Awards (Berry; 2011); Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture – Theatrical or Television (Mary King, Jonathan Watters, Cheryl Edwards, Joe Shrapnel, Marko King, Anna Waterhouse), and Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture – Theatrical or Television by the NAACP Image Awards (Geoffrey Sax; 2011); and the Prism Awards' Feature Film- Mental Health (2011).
37 Star distributed Frankie & Alice in Canada, and in the US earlier this year in partnership with Codeblack Films, a Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) company.
About 37 Star Media Fund Corp.
37 Star Media is the brainchild of David Strapko and 37 Star Chairman Robert Watts — whose production credits include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Papillon, Alive: The Miracle of the Andes, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit among others — 37 Star Media is a media and entertainment, private equity, asset management company. It maintains deep domain and operational expertise with divisions targeting media investments across the development, production and next-gen distribution, with a focus on the production of top-tier international content.
SOURCE 37 Star Media Fund Corp.