Music Box Films’ Ed Arentz Forms New Distribution Label, Greenwich Entertainment

Veteran art house distributor Ed Arentz has formed a new NYC-based distribution label, Greenwich Entertainment, in partnership with an investment fund run by Edmondo Schwartz. Arentz was the co-founder and managing director of Music Box Films where he acquired and released many of the most significant foreign language hits of the last decade including The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and A Man Called Ove. Schwartz was co-founder with Arentz of Empire Pictures in 2000 and co-founded Cohen Media Group in 2010.

Two films are only on the company’s distribution slate. Greenwich will eventually handle six to eight theatrical releases and a similar number of smaller scale releases yearly.

First up for Greenwich is Jan Zebeil’s Three Parks which stars Bérénice Bejo who garnered an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Artist as well as Alexander Fehling (Homeland). Three Parks is a dramatic thriller about a recently divorced French woman, her 8 year-old son and her new German boyfriend whose summer holiday in the Italian Dolomites that ends up harrowing.

The film had its world premiere at Locarno where it won the Variety Piazza Grande Award and it is now having its North American premiere in TIFF. The deal for US and Canada was concluded in Locarno with The Match Factory’s Head of Sales, Thania Dimitrakopoulou.

In addition for a 2018 theatrical release is Claus Räfle’s documentary thriller The Invisibles the untold story of four German Jews who manage to survive the Third Reich living in Berlin by sheer resourcefulness, luck and the decency of fellow Germans. Beta Cinema CEO Dirk Schuerhoff negotiated the terms with Arentz for US and Canada. The film will have its North American premiere next month at the Mill Valley Film Festival.