Inside Element Pictures: How the Irish Production Company Became a European Powerhouse, Yorgos Lanthimos Whisperer and Cannes Triple Threat
variety.comAlex Ritman Getting a feature into Cannes’ official selection is among the pinnacles of filmmaking achievements for most production companies.
Ireland’s Element Pictures clearly isn’t most production companies — this year, it has three. According to co-founder Ed Guiney, who set up Element with Andrew Lowe in 2001, while his company’s triple-headed festival visit may be “wonderful” (and, quite possibly, a U.K./Irish record), it’s simply down to good fortune and timing. “You know, some years you have nothing for Cannes,” he says, speaking from Element’s breezy, white-walled Dublin headquarters, located above an outdoor clothing shop and a jeweler on the Irish capital’s busy O’Connell Street, where it also runs its distribution arm Volta Pictures and the programming for the popular arthouse Light House Cinema, which it has operated since 2012.
But for anyone who has been keeping an eye on Element over the last decade, this edition of Cannes is merely another unprecedented milestone in a trajectory littered in both glory — from Oscars, to BAFTAs, Golden Lions, Palme d’Ors, Emmys and more — and a growing assortment of international filmmaking icons eager to collaborate (including new addition, the Venice-winning Audrey Diwan, now attached to direct “The Marriage Portrait” for them).
This edition of Cannes also offers a symbolic snapshot of Element’s filmmaking output. “Kinds of Kindness,” competing for the Palme d’Or, marks the company’s fifth feature with the director who has given them perhaps the greatest taste of international acclaim, Yorgos Lanthimos.
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