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Schirman’s latest documentary was an award winner at the recent Sundance Film Festival.
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(L-R) Filmmaker Nadav Schirman, documentary subject Gonen Ben Itzhak, and screenwriter Mosab Hassan Yousef at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival / Getty
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Nadav Schirman has sold the US screening rights for his recently released political documentary, The Green Prince, to Music Box Films.
The Green Prince, which describes a special relationship between a young Palestinian and his handler from the Israel Security Agency, Shin Bet, was an award winner at the recent Sundance Film Festival, in the Audience Award for World Cinema: Documentary category.
The U.S. distribution deal was negotiated on Schirman’s behalf by Submarine Entertainment founders Josh Braun and David Koh while of Music Box Films’ interests were taken care of by Ed Arentz and William Schopf.
Music Box Films, who are one of the largest distributors of foreign and independent film in the United States, have announced that they will be releasing the “Green Prince”, later in the year, in enough time that it will be eligible to qualify for consideration in the 2015 Academy Awards.
The “Green Prince”, which is based on a true story, is based around Mosab Hassan Yousef, a 17 year old Palestinian from the West Bank city of Ramallah, who is drawn into the ongoing conflict fight Israel. Arrested for gun smuggling guns, Mosab Hassan Yousef is interrogated by a member of Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, and after being imprisoned, agrees to become an informant.
Commenting on the distribution arrangement with Music Box Films, Nadav Schirman expressed his excitement to be working with such seasoned distribution partners to bring the film to American cinema goers.
In response Arentz and Schopf described the “Green Prince as an edge-of-your-seat espionage thriller, intertwined with a tale of an unlikely friendship that unfolds between adversaries and an incredible story of a young man’s courageous personal, political and spiritual transformation.
In the meantime, negotiations are ongoing for other international distribution deals, with UK distribution rights already having been taken up by Curzon Films in the UK, with and Madman Entertainment handling Australia and New Zealand. Both of these distribution deals were already signed and sealed during this year’s Sundance Festival in January of this year.
Schirman, whose other documentary credits include In the Darkroom and The Champagne Spy, not only directed the The Green Prince, but was also its co-producer, along with John Battsek and Simon Chinn.
Nadav Schirman was born in Jerusalem. As the son of a diplomat, Nadav spent much of his childhood in different countries of the World, before returning to Israel to serve in the IDF, as a Liaison Officer to the United Nations forces, spending his time on the Syrian and Lebanese borders.
In recent years Schirman has been based in Frankfurt, Germany.
