EXCLUSIVE: Fireplace & Ice Media has acquired worldwide gross sales rights in all territories for Bilyarista, directed by Italian-American filmmaker Phil Giordano and starring Loisa Andalio and Venice Greatest Actor winner John Arcilla.
Andalio performs Aya, a younger lady from the margins of Manila who goals to change into a world pool champion – solely to be drawn right into a harmful playing circuit by her con artist uncle, performed by John Arcilla.
Arcilla grew to become the primary Filipino and Southeast Asian actor to win the Volpi Cup for Greatest Actor on the Venice Movie Competition for his position in Erik Matti’s movie. At work: the 8 lacking (2021), an award that strengthened its worldwide profile.
Fireplace & Ice Media stated it was positioning itself Billiard participant as a commercially readable sports activities drama with sturdy crossover potential, describing it as “an underdog lady’s story set within the wealthy snooker tradition of the Philippines, a world that has produced a few of the sport’s most well-known international champions, with the emotional structure of a survival thriller.”
The corporate, which develops and represents Filipino and Asian content material for worldwide consumers, targets distributors and platform programmers searching for Asian titles with a particular native id and accessible style enchantment.
“Billiard participant has the mix that consumers are searching for: a rising star, a world-class supporting actor and a setting that’s fully particular however instantly understood,” stated Liza Diño, CEO of Fireplace & Ice Media.
“The Philippines has a real heritage of snooker on the worldwide stage. This movie lives in that world and makes use of it to inform a narrative about expertise, exploitation and what it prices to be found by the improper individuals. It travels.”
Rising actress Andalio beforehand starred in Mikhail Crimson’s e-sports drama Pleasant treee, which premiered on the Hawaii Worldwide Movie Competition. Billiard participant marks a big escalation for the actress, transferring from a digital sports activities setting to a bodily and psychologically demanding lead position constructed round an actual sporting self-discipline.
For Giordano, the movie deepens a artistic partnership with Arcilla that started with the quick bagwhich received an award from the Hollywood Overseas Press Affiliation, premiered on the Busan Worldwide Movie Competition and was subsequently screened at a number of Academy Award qualifying festivals.
A graduate of NYU’s Tisch Faculty of the Arts and recipient of the Wasserman Award, Giordano developed Billiard participant by way of in-depth analysis into the world {of professional} billiards within the Philippines. “Itoy represents all of the programs that forestall extraordinary expertise from reaching the highest. It is a story with out borders,” Giordano stated.
Fireplace & Ice Media’s Cannes catalog additionally contains Nigel Santos’ romantic drama Open finishs, about 4 homosexual ladies who’re exes turned greatest pals, and up to date catalog titles Crossing level And The viewers.