A few hours ago I was forced to choose between the 11 am press conference for Pawel Pawlikowski‘s Cold War or catch a Salle Bazin screening of Joe Penna‘s Arctic at the same hour. I chose the press conference. It was announced soon after that Bleecker Street has acquired U.S. and select international rights for Arctic.

From Owen Gleiberman’s Variety review: “Five years ago, All Is Lost premiered at Cannes to deserved acclaim. But when it opened later that fall, the film was a noteworthy commercial disappointment (it made just $6 million domestic), and the awards magic never happened for Robert Redford.

“I think I understood why. All Is Lost was ingeniously made, and a true experience, yet the stark fact is that it was slow. Arctic, as effective as it is, may face a similar challenge (at least in the U.S.), precisely because of the rough-hewn, trudging-through-the-tundra, one-step-at-a-time honesty with which Joe Penna works. The movie, in its indie way, is the anti-Cast Away. Yet that’s what’s good and, finally, moving about it. It lets survival look like the raw experience it is.”