The UK’s Curzon is to relaunch its specialist UK/Ireland distribution label Artificial Eye, as a theatrical and home entertainment brand.
The first release under the banner will be Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Berlinale Competition title My Favourite Cake.
Led by Curzon managing director Louisa Dent, the acquisitions team will curate additions to the Artificial Eye catalogue, focusing on director-led world cinema and discoveries from emerging filmmakers.
Artificial Eye was founded in 1976 by Andi Engel and Pam Engel. The label released leading independent, foreign-language and arthouse titles, including films by Bela Tarr, the Dardenne brothers and Tran Anh Hung.
The first release under the banner will be Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Berlinale Competition title My Favourite Cake.
Led by Curzon managing director Louisa Dent, the acquisitions team will curate additions to the Artificial Eye catalogue, focusing on director-led world cinema and discoveries from emerging filmmakers.
Artificial Eye was founded in 1976 by Andi Engel and Pam Engel. The label released leading independent, foreign-language and arthouse titles, including films by Bela Tarr, the Dardenne brothers and Tran Anh Hung.
- 4/30/2024
- ScreenDaily
Film distributor who through Artificial Eye brought the riches of world cinema to UK audiences
Pamela Engel, who has died aged 82, is owed a huge debt by film-makers from all over the world and by those of us who enjoy their work. As co-owner of the film distributors Artificial Eye, with her first husband, Andi Engel, and latterly New Wave Films, in which she was partnered by her second husband, Robert Beeson, she brought to London arthouse riches few others would have dared to contemplate. Some made money, some did not. But for Pam that was a minor detail.
For several decades Pam influenced critics and customers alike. Her taste was fiercely strict but, when she admired a film, famously enthusiastic. As critic for the Guardian during much of her halcyon days, I seldom disagreed with her. Which was just as well, since I got severely ticked off when I did.
Pamela Engel, who has died aged 82, is owed a huge debt by film-makers from all over the world and by those of us who enjoy their work. As co-owner of the film distributors Artificial Eye, with her first husband, Andi Engel, and latterly New Wave Films, in which she was partnered by her second husband, Robert Beeson, she brought to London arthouse riches few others would have dared to contemplate. Some made money, some did not. But for Pam that was a minor detail.
For several decades Pam influenced critics and customers alike. Her taste was fiercely strict but, when she admired a film, famously enthusiastic. As critic for the Guardian during much of her halcyon days, I seldom disagreed with her. Which was just as well, since I got severely ticked off when I did.
- 7/31/2017
- by Derek Malcolm
- The Guardian - Film News
Engel also co-founded UK distributor New Wave Films.
Art-house “trailblazer” Pamela Engel, known for co-founding distributor Artificial Eye and programming London cinemas including the Lumiere, Chelsea Cinema, Camden Plaza and the Renoir, has died aged 82.
A huge figure in the UK’s independent film business, Engel’s death has sparked messages of praise across the distribution and exhibition sectors.
Born Pamela Balfry in 1934, the UK executive started out in the late 1950s as a secretary for then Sight and Sound editor Penelope Houston.
She would go on to work as an assistant to Richard Roud at the London and New York Film Festivals before joining Derek Hill’s art-house venue Essential Cinema in the late 1960s.
Odyssey
Balfry and first husband Andi Engel established distributor Artificial Eye in 1976, thus “beginning an odyssey of distribution and exhibition unlikely ever to be surpassed,” in the words of former London Film Festival director Sheila Whitaker.
Despite separating...
Art-house “trailblazer” Pamela Engel, known for co-founding distributor Artificial Eye and programming London cinemas including the Lumiere, Chelsea Cinema, Camden Plaza and the Renoir, has died aged 82.
A huge figure in the UK’s independent film business, Engel’s death has sparked messages of praise across the distribution and exhibition sectors.
Born Pamela Balfry in 1934, the UK executive started out in the late 1950s as a secretary for then Sight and Sound editor Penelope Houston.
She would go on to work as an assistant to Richard Roud at the London and New York Film Festivals before joining Derek Hill’s art-house venue Essential Cinema in the late 1960s.
Odyssey
Balfry and first husband Andi Engel established distributor Artificial Eye in 1976, thus “beginning an odyssey of distribution and exhibition unlikely ever to be surpassed,” in the words of former London Film Festival director Sheila Whitaker.
Despite separating...
- 7/17/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Krzysztof Kieslowski's sudden death aged 54 threw the film world into shock, as reflected in this obituary and tributes originally published on 14 March 1996
The untimely death of the outstanding Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, aged 54, has dealt a huge blow to European cinema. Although he had only come into worldwide prominence in the last few years with the brilliant ten-part Dekalog, The Double Life Of Veronique and the trilogy, Three Colours Red, White and Blue, Kieslowski had been working in cinema for almost 30 years, first as a highly original and imaginative documentarist and then as a feature film director.
His late discovery by the world at large as one of the few European directors capable of measuring up to the giants of the past was both a huge chance and considerable burden for him. He took his sudden fame and good fortune with the same stoicism as the difficulties of working under Poland's communist regime.
The untimely death of the outstanding Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, aged 54, has dealt a huge blow to European cinema. Although he had only come into worldwide prominence in the last few years with the brilliant ten-part Dekalog, The Double Life Of Veronique and the trilogy, Three Colours Red, White and Blue, Kieslowski had been working in cinema for almost 30 years, first as a highly original and imaginative documentarist and then as a feature film director.
His late discovery by the world at large as one of the few European directors capable of measuring up to the giants of the past was both a huge chance and considerable burden for him. He took his sudden fame and good fortune with the same stoicism as the difficulties of working under Poland's communist regime.
- 11/9/2011
- by Derek Malcolm
- The Guardian - Film News
LONDON -- Startup indie distribution company New Wave Films, established by former Artificial Eye chiefs Robert Beeson and Pam Engel, has secured U.K. rights to a trio of movies.
New Wave snapped up Joanna Hogg's "Unrelated", Andrzej Jakimowski's Venice prizewinner "Tricks" (Sztuczki) and the Italian boxoffice hit "Quiet Chaos" (Caos Calmo) starring Nanni Moretti and directed by Antonello Grimaldi.
The company's first two acquisitions since launch, the Dardenne brothers' "The Silence of Lorna" and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Three Monkeys", have slots In Competition at this year's Festival de Cannes.
Pam Engel said that she and Robert established New Wave Films to feed an audience that wants "to see the best of world cinema."
"Our philosophy remains the same as when Andi Engel and I established Artificial Eye over 30 years ago, with Robert joining us soon after: to acquire quality Art House films from around the world and present them to the audience that we know extremely well, plus attracting the next generation of cinema-goers to these movies," she said.
New Wave snapped up Joanna Hogg's "Unrelated", Andrzej Jakimowski's Venice prizewinner "Tricks" (Sztuczki) and the Italian boxoffice hit "Quiet Chaos" (Caos Calmo) starring Nanni Moretti and directed by Antonello Grimaldi.
The company's first two acquisitions since launch, the Dardenne brothers' "The Silence of Lorna" and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Three Monkeys", have slots In Competition at this year's Festival de Cannes.
Pam Engel said that she and Robert established New Wave Films to feed an audience that wants "to see the best of world cinema."
"Our philosophy remains the same as when Andi Engel and I established Artificial Eye over 30 years ago, with Robert joining us soon after: to acquire quality Art House films from around the world and present them to the audience that we know extremely well, plus attracting the next generation of cinema-goers to these movies," she said.
- 4/23/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- Andi Engel, the German-born founder of U.K. indie distribution and exhibition company Artificial Eye, died in Germany on Dec. 26.
Born in Berlin in 1942, Engel and his wife Pam established Artificial Eye in 1976 to distribute and program foreign-language films. The company -- which comprises a library of more than 200 films as well as two first-run cinemas in London, the Chelsea Cinema and the Renoir -- was sold last May to Act Entertainment Group and Knatchbull Communications Group.
Born in Berlin in 1942, Engel and his wife Pam established Artificial Eye in 1976 to distribute and program foreign-language films. The company -- which comprises a library of more than 200 films as well as two first-run cinemas in London, the Chelsea Cinema and the Renoir -- was sold last May to Act Entertainment Group and Knatchbull Communications Group.
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