On the eve of its North American premiere in the Cinemania section at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, IFC Midnight acquired the U.S. distribution rights from sales and production outfit XYZ Films for director Dick Maas’ evil Santa film SAINT. Maas wrote the screenplay for the picture and produced with Tom de Mol. Starring Huub Stapel, Egbert-Jan Weeber, Caro Lenssen, Bert Luppes and Escha Tanihatu, the Dutch film will premiere tonight at 9:00pm at the AMC Loews Village 7.
An original and delightfully gruesome slasher film, SAINT re-imagines jolly old Saint Nick as a murderous bishop fulfilling a grisly prophecy under the December full moon. Packed with creative yuletide horror, SAINT is a fun chiller that follows local teen Frank (Weeber) as he sets out on a bloody, high-energy battle to save Amsterdam from the wrathful “Sinterklaas” and his minions.
Additional Tribeca Film Festival screenings:
- Saturday, April 23, 11:59 p.m. – Clearview Chelsea Cinemas
- Sunday, April 24, 12:00 p.m. – AMC Loews Village 7
- Wednesday, April 27, 11:30 p.m. – AMC Loews Village 7
At Tribeca, XYZ Films is also representing North America rights on the narrative competition film THE LAST RITES OF JOE MAY starring Dennis Farina and written and directed by Joseph Maggio; BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW, the feature film debut of writer and director Panos Cosmatos and featuring a hypnotic analog synthesizer score by Jeremy Schmidt of Sinoia Caves and Black Mountain; RABIES from Israeli filmmakers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado; and U.S. rights on the feature documentary THE SWELL SEASON.
IFC Midnight is a sister division to Sundance Selects and IFC Films, and is owned and operated by Rainbow Media.