American Vantage's Wellspring Receives Two Gotham Award Nominations

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 2004--Wellspring

-- Specialty distributor gets two nominations for Best Documentary for Jonathan Caouette's "Tarnation" and Jessica Yu's "In the Realms of the Unreal"

“Remarkable ... an exhilarating personal piece of cinema.”

Wellspring, a division of American Vantage Media Corp., announced today that it has received two IFP Gotham Award nominations for Best Documentary Film. The first is Jonathan Caouette's groundbreaking film "Tarnation," an epic portrait of an American family torn apart by dysfunction and reunited through the power of love. The second is Academy Award-winner Jessica Yu's innovative "In the Realms of the Unreal," an exploration into the parallel lives of legendary outsider artist Henry Darger, reclusive janitor by day, visionary artist by night. The Gotham Awards are scheduled for Dec. 1 and will air live on IFC from Manhattan's Chelsea Piers.

"Tarnation" premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival where it became a cinematic sensation, and is currently in theatrical release across the nation. It recently was named Best First Feature at the London Film Festival and won Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival. It is one of the best received films of the year. Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times called "Tarnation," "A triumph! A film of remarkable power."

"In the Realms of the Unreal" also premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and most recently screened at the London Film Festival. In addition, it won Best Documentary at the Vancouver Film Festival. It is currently scheduled for a December theatrical release at New York City's Filmforum, the leading theater in the country for nonfiction films with a video/DVD release to follow in 2005. John Anderson of Newsday stated, "Remarkable ... an exhilarating personal piece of cinema."

Marie Therese Guirgis, Wellspring's head of acquisitions, said, "We are so proud of Jessica and Jonathan and we are excited to participate in the inaugural Gotham Awards documentary competition."

Ryan Werner, Wellspring's head of theatrical, added, "In a banner year for documentaries, these two films are landmarks for the medium. We are thrilled that the IFP recognized their unique contributions."

Current and upcoming Wellspring theatrical releases include Cedric Kahn's thriller "Red Lights," starring Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Carole Bouquet; Vincent Gallo's notorious "The Brown Bunny"; Jean-Francois Pouliot's Sundance Audience Award-winner "Seducing Doctor Lewis"; Jafar Panahi's Cannes prize-winner "Crimson Gold"; Bruno Dumont's controversial "Twentynine Palms"; Andre Techine's World War II drama "Strayed," starring Emmanuelle Beart; Alexander Sokurov's Cannes prize-winner "Father and Son"; Marco Bellocchio's Venice prize-winner "Good Morning, Night"; and Anne Fontaine's erotic love story "Nathalie," starring Gerard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant and Emmanuelle Beart.

Past releases include some of the most acclaimed and successful arthouse releases of recent years such as "Russian Ark," hailed by Ebert as "one of the most astonishing films ever made," Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece "Ran," "The Circle" by Jafar Panahi, "Yi Yi" by Edward Yang, "Under the Sand" by Francois Ozon and Lorene Machado's "Notorious C.H.O." Wellspring has fostered the careers of some of the most important directors in world cinema today including Bruno Dumont ("Life of Jesus," "Humanite," "Twentynine Palms"), Alexander Sokurov ("Russian Ark," "Father and Son"), Jafar Panahi ("The Circle," "Crimson Gold"), Leos Carax ("Mauvais Sang," "Pola X"), Tsai Ming-liang ("What Time is It There?" "Goodbye Dragon Inn"), Olivier Assayas ("Les Destinees"), Claire Denis ("Friday Night"), Bahman Ghobadi ("Marooned in Iraq"), Liz Garbus ("Girlhood"), Marina de Van ("In My Skin") and Karim Ainouz ("Madame Sata"). Wellspring has also been committed to the theatrical re-release of classic films including the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Demy and Francois Truffaut.

Together, the Wellspring Home Video and Worldwide Sales libraries boast more than 1,000 titles including major works by Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Luchino Visconti, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, the Taviani Brothers, Peter Greenaway, Jacques Demy, Akira Kurosawa, Pedro Almodovar, Michelangelo Antonioni and Lina Wertmuller, among others.

Wellspring's Direct Response unit sells arthouse and specialty video/DVD titles via The Video Collection and the artfilm collection direct mail consumer catalogs and Web sites, www.videocollection.com and www.artfilmcollection.com.

Wellspring Media Inc. is a division of American Vantage Media Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of American Vantage Cos. (NASDAQ: AVCS).