Blog entries

Update 2010

TonyFabian@me.com — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:13:27 +0100

SKIN is having a very successful release in its home country - South Africa. It has more than tripled the projected theatrical box office income and advanced rentals of the DVD are well above expectations. There was a mountain of media coverage - mostRead More...

Where are we now....?

TonyFabian@me.com — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:31:03 +0100

The last few weeks have flown past, which is why there has been no blog entry for a while. We opened in the US 30th October to generally positive reviews (still very fresh on the Rotten Tomatoes scale), most of which can be found on our Press page. I was especially pleased by Roger Ebert's four (out of foRead More...

Off to a good start

TonyFabian@me.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:50:45 +0100

I admit it. I've been neglecting the blog. But if you had been around me these past couple of weeks, you would understand why. No - I did not go down with swine flu.

Please take a look at the Press page, which has recently been updated. We've been busy! But here's some news that's not on the press page: We had a spectacular opening weekend in LA. SKIN was the nRead More...

The Starting Line

TonyFabian@me.com — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:01:23 +0100

It feels very strange, after over a year of promoting SKIN at film festivals, to be nearing not the finishing line but the starting line, as we head towards our US release 30th October. Not that our releases in the UK and Holland have been insignificant milestones - but I can't help feeling the US is really where the film could and should achieve lift-off, because the market is Read More...

Griffon rising

TonyFabian@me.com — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Just prior to my trip to Amsterdam to publicise the Dutch release of SKIN, a harried courier arrived at my front door carrying a heavy package: inside were the two awards from Giffoni - the Amnesty Prize, and The Aluminium Griffon. I must confess, I hadn't been terribly impressed by the sound of the latter but was pleasantlRead More...

Dutch courage

TonyFabian@me.com — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0100

....and suddenly, the Dutch release is upon us! I had heard rumours from our sales agent that the Dutch were planning a theatrical release, but the first real confirmation came when I discovered there was a request for trailers. Hurray, it's really happening! Next, an e-mail arrived from a Dutch film festival, Africa in the Picture, inviting Sandra Laing to Amsterdam... and whRead More...

never, never, never give up

TonyFabian@me.com — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:00:00 +0100

I discovered, rather late in the day, that this is a quote from Winston Churchill (not Abraham Laing... or even Georg Solti, from whom I stole it...)

All those who've kept the faith will be pleased to know we sold out at the Ritzy in Brixton tonight - it's been slowly building through the weekend and, as it's our last day there, has come as a very happy surprise.

Will this lead to further bookings from the kings (and queens) of art-house exhibition - Picturehouse? We certainlRead More...

Music to our ears

TonyFabian@me.com — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:35:59 +0100

Helene Muddiman has just been named Finalist at the Moondance International Film Festival for her score of SKIN. We think it's the only festival with a category for composers and are very proud of this achievement - richly deserved.

In a recent e-mail to her producers and colleagues, she wrote 'Huge thanks to everyone for giving mRead More...

And we soldier on....

TonyFabian@me.com — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:50:54 +0100

Thanks to the incredible efforts of Helene and her street team (see previous blog), SKIN is being held for a fourth week at the Odeon Panton Street off Leicester Square and Read More...

Guerilla marketing... so it has come to this!

TonyFabian@me.com — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:36:23 +0100

We've all read about 'plucky independent filmmakers going out there and finding new ways of marketing their movies...' Saturday morning, still basking in the glory of a sold-out first night at the ICA in London, I had a proverbial bucket of cold water thrown over my head: the numbers at the Panton StreetRead More...

The Giffoni Experience... I'd recommend it!

TonyFabian@me.com — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:16:36 +0100

Giffoni is a unique festival on the Amalfi coast in Italy, created for and judged by children from around the world.&nbRead More...

UK Premiere, Odeon West End, Leicester Square, London - 2nd July 2009

TonyFabian@me.com — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:51:16 +0100

When I started planning the UK premiere with the team from our chosen charity, FilmAid (www.filmaid.org), I confessed to one of the organisers that I had two major fears: the first was that no one would turn up. The second was that we would be overrun and many would be denied entry. By what seemed like a miracle on that sweltering July evening, the house wasRead More...

Felicitous Falls

TonyFabian@me.com — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:11:56 +0100

Catherine Wyler, daughter of legendary director William Wyler, attended the world premiere of SKIN in Toronto last year. She told me then about a film festival she runs in Rochester (across Lake Ontario), suggesting we might show the film there. I had no idea where we would be with regard to distribution by then - but Catherine kept tabs on the film and, as it was making the roundsRead More...

Laden with Laurels

TonyFabian@me.com — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:00:00 +0100

This is a getting to be a very luxurious problem. Where to put the next accolades on the poster? :-)

SKIN just won the Jury Award for Best Film at the Palm Beach Film Festival (admittedly shared with another film, Machan, directed by Uberto Pasolini).

Commented Feature Film Jurors Shohreh Aghdashloo and Debbie Frank, “This is aRead More...

A view from DC

TonyFabian@me.com — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Here is a report from Sibongile Makhaya, a bi-racial South African woman who worked with me on the SKIN script development workshops we conducted with fifteen actors in Johannesburg in 2004. She now lives in Washington DC and attended last week's packed screenings at Filmfest DC. I asked her to do the Q&A, as I was unable to attend. There seems to have been quite a large South AfricRead More...

Lucky Star

TonyFabian@me.com — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Been rather slow about updating the blog lately. Could all this international travel be getting to me? Just ten days after Hong Kong, I was on another long-haul flight - this time from London to Dallas (my carbon footprint is becoming elephantine this year - but I’d like to think it’s in a good cause... isn’t that what Al Gore said whRead More...

Mile High Blog

TonyFabian@me.com — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:00:00 +0100

A long-haul flight seems as good a place as any to update one’s blog. So here I am, thousands of feet in the air between Hong Kong and London, having just screened SKIN at the Agnes b. Cinema in the Arts Centre and given a series of talks to a wide range of students as part of the AFI 20/20 programme (httpRead More...

The Saga of the Statuette

TonyFabian@me.com — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0100

You’d think getting hold of this piece of wood and metal would be easy as pie. But no. It proved as complicated and long-winded as discovering the secret of Pi. In the two weeks post-Festival and Tributes, my composer, sales agent and I made several attempts to contact the Marie Celeste offices of the Santa BaRead More...

Double-Whammy

TonyFabian@me.com — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0100

As stated previously, expect nothing but the unexpected. At the PAFF’s opening night, I was told SKIN had been whipped out of competition when it was chosen as the Centerpiece Gala, because it would give the film an ‘unfair advantage over the other films‘. But we would still be eligible for the Audience Award. This seemed rather bizarre - why would the jury lose all objectivity, while the audienRead More...

The Pan African Experience

TonyFabian@me.com — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0100

It seems nothing ever happens quite as you expect in this business - the lesson being, expect nothing and anything mightRead More...