Taipei and Los Angeles-based Organic Media Group has picked up rights to U.S.-produced classical music documentary title “Crescendo” and will be launching it at the European Film Market, which accompanies the Berlin Film Festival.
The picture had its first commercial release in South Korea in December and became the highest grossing foreign documentary in the last three years.
The feature-length title illuminates 30 of the best classical pianists in the world who competed at the 16th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where the shy Korean prodigy Lim Yunchan won the gold medal. The silver medal was won by the pregnant and boisterous Russian Anna Geniushene and the bronze went to the cool and calm Ukrainian Dmytro Choni.
The film was directed and produced by Heather Wilk and executive produced by Red Sanders of Red Entertainment with Maggie Estes and Jacques Marquis of The Cliburn. The other cast (and competitors include Brooklyn’sClayton Stephenson, who became the first black finalist at the competition, super serious Latvian competitor, Georgijs Osokins, and the charming Italian player, Frederico Gad Crema.
Piano is one of, if not the, most popular instrument in the world with over 20 million children studying piano in China alone. An estimated 21 million people play the piano in the U.S.
OMG’s Steve Chicorel said: “We picked up this title not just because of piano’s global popularity, but because director Wilk reveals the musical intensity of the competition in such a fun and entertaining way.”
Kim Sinae of Korean theatrical distributor AUD, said, “Since Korean Lim Yunchan exploded on the scene, we knew the story would be popular. What we didn’t expect was how extreme praise of the film and word of mouth would spread to extend the theater run.
Lim’s Cliburn-winning performance has over 13 million views on YouTube and was called “the BTS of Classical Music” by the New York Times.
Universal Music’s Decca Records co-president Tom Lewis said, “Yunchan is, quite simply, the most exciting new classical artist on the planet.”
At the EFM, OMG is also launching sales on horror comedy feature, “Zombie” based on the award winning Australian short feature from stunt coordinator and action director, John Walton (“Poker Face,” “Deadloch,” “Elvis”).
Watch the trailer for “Crescendo” here:
