MPI Pictures

Over the last decade, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) has grown from a controversial no-holds-barred gladiatorial sideshow into a billion dollar phenomenon. MMA has eclipsed boxing as the dominant combat sport in the world, and is so popular that MMA fights regularly appear on U.S. network television – even as a longstanding ban remains in force in New York State. But far from Las Vegas, in sweat-soaked gyms and low-rent arenas across America, the big lights are but a dream. Here, men fight to test their mettle, fortified with the mythic promise that an ordinary man can transform into a champion.

Directed by the accomplished filmmaking duo of Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker (GUNNER PALACE), FIGHTVILLE takes us to Southern Louisiana, where a group of young athletes, including future MMA powerhouse Dustin Poirier, strive towards personal and professional greatness. The reward? A triumph that could ultimately yield an opportunity to compete professionally in the sport’s upper echelons. FIGHTVILLE is a microcosm of life, a physical manifestation of the American Dream and the relentless dedication required of all who hope to attain it. Here, men are not born, but are instead built through self-determination, hard work and faith. In FIGHTVILLE, that’s what champions are made of.

A BAG OF HAMMERS revolves around the friendship of two charming grifters, Ben and Alan, played by Jason Ritter and Jake Sandvig. Ben and Alan have built a successful - though larcenous - business, posing as car valets, only to steal the vehicles instead of parking them. Because of their less-than-ideal childhoods and a “job” that allows them to remain likeable boyish rogues well into their 20’s, their penchant for crime is almost forgivable. However, everything changes when they meet a twelve-year-old boy named Kelsey. Neglected by his mother, Kelsey is drawn to Ben and Alan - and they to him - and eventually, Kelsey becomes part mascot, part protégé. His presence ultimately forces Alan and Ben to choose between a life of crime and fun (almost an extended childhood), and the opportunity to grow up and face the emotional consequences of being true adults.

Writer/director/co-star Mathieu Demy’s feature directorial debut AMERICANO functions both as an homage to his famous parents, filmmakers Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy, and as a work that stands entirely on its own. The death of his mother draws a young Frenchman (Demy) back to his childhood home in Los Angeles as he prepares to wrap up his mother’s estate. Things become complicated when he discovers that she was very fond of a woman named Lola, who appears in her will. Martin combs Los Angeles for his mother’s mysterious friend and companion, finding no trace of her. Traumatized at the sight ofhis mother’s body in the morgue, he drives to Tijuana in search of Lola, thinking she should inherit his mother’s apartment. But is Lola, his childhood playmate, truly the woman who brightened his mother’s life in Los Angeles — or is she a darker femme fatale, echoing the titular screen character from one of Jacques Demy’s key works?

AMERICANO is a deeply moving drama about inheritance and legacy that deftly mines the past of a true-life filmmaking family, while at the same time weaving a mesmerizing fictional narrative about coming to terms with unattended grief and uncomfortable pasts. The film features a stellar cast that, perhaps not incidentally, includes the children of famous film personalities -- Geraldine Chaplin, Chiara Mastroianni and Demy himself – in addition to Salma Hayek.

LITTLE WHITE LIES is an entertaining and acutely observed drama of manners. Director Guillaume Canet (TELL NO ONE) has assembled an outstanding cast of some of France’s finest actors – including AcademyAward® winners Marion Cotillard and Jean Dejardin – to chronicle the annual sojourn by a group of friends to a beautiful beach house where they kick-off their summer vacation. Fine wine and seafood mix with sun and sand as they leave their city stresses and inhibitions behind. But this year, a friend’s accident will sorely test their friendship, and they will be forced to own up to the little white lies they have been telling each other.

Paul Exben (Romain Duris) is a success story - partner in one of Paris's most exclusive law firms, big salary, beautiful house, glamorous wife and two sons. But when he finds out that Sarah (Marina Foïs), his wife, is cheating on him with Greg Kremer (Niels Arestrup) , a local photographer, a rush of blood provokes Paul into a fatal error. Standing over the corpse of his wife's lover, Paul knows that his perfect life has gone for good. But by assuming the dead man's identity and fleeing for an isolated part of former Yugoslavia on the beautiful Adriatic coast, Paul gets another shot at being himself and, at last, seeing the big picture.

YELLING TO THE SKY is the debut feature film for writer, director and producer, Victoria Mahoney. The film was selected for the Directors, Screenwriters and Producers Sundance Institute Labs.

17-year-old Sweetness O'Hara (Zoe Kravitz) has arrived at the first of several life changing forks in the road. Being the daughter of mixed race parents in a less than tolerant community, she lives with an alcoholic and intermittently abusive father, and a mother suffering from a mental illness, the exact nature of which Sweetness is unsure. Her protective older sister, Ola, is pregnant, with no support from the child's father. Yet, with all this chaos enveloping her, Sweetness takes her life into her own hands in a neighborhood where to become an adult, you first must survive as a teenager.

YELLING TO THE SKY had its world premiere in competition at the Berlin Int’l Film Festival. In the 61 years of the Berlinale, Mahoney was the first ever African-American woman to have her debut film selected for the Competition. The film had its North American Premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival, and also screened in Competiton at the Deauville American Film Festival.

International screen star Rutger Hauer (Dracula 3D, Blade Runner, Batman Begins, Soldier of Orange) stars as Alfred Heineken, who in 1983 was one of the world’s most successful brewers and perhaps the most influential man in the Netherlands – and thus a target for kidnappers. He is snatched by a team of inexperienced, hotheaded young criminals and is held for 21 grueling days in a cold, cramped cell. Rendered powerless for the first time in his life, Heineken finds himself at the mercy of the gang’s youngest member, who takes special pleasure in humiliating and frightening the business magnate. When the huge ransom is finally paid, Heineken is set free – and begins to plot his elaborate revenge.

MPI Media Group is a leading producer, distributor and licensor of films, home entertainment, historical footage and more. Founded in 1976, Chicago-based MPI Media Group remains one of the largest independent entertainment companies producing and distributing a compelling slate of the world’s most respected cinema, documentaries, performances and television programs through their wholly owned subsidiaries, which include: MPI Pictures (releases include Fightville, Americano, Little White Lies, Yelling To The Sky, Bag Of Hammers); MPI Home Entertainment (distributor of several high profile DVD labels including IFC Films, Cinetic FilmBuff, Severin Films); Dark Sky Films, (MPI’s production and genre division, which is behind critically acclaimed films such as Ti West’s The Innkeepers, Jim Mickle’s Stake Land, and the upcoming international productions, Stitches, Here Comes The Devi, Frankenstein’s Army); and the WPA Film Library.

MPI Media Group