Los Angeles, California, May 7, 2022 — MVD Entertainment Group has picked up North American streaming and physical distribution rights for Ola Pankratova’s documentary film Solo.
Solo is a film that makes people think about the meaning of life and happiness. It follows six dancers who – over the course of three years. They share their true-to-life stories of obsession and dreams told through dance. The Solo heroes are incredibly sincere, daring, talented, and ambitious performers. The movie explores six different dance styles (classical ballet, pole dance, contemporary, krump, hip-hop & vogue). Dancers living with a single dream – to conquer the stage. Solo is about overcoming oneself, circumstances, awareness of one’s capabilities amid fierce competition. The acceptance by the jury and the public, euphoria from victories and support of like-minded people is the goal.
The pic is the second directorial film of Ola Pankratova (Yes, Chef!) and stars Alena Bonchinche, Alex Torgunakov, Lady Whiphead, Mikhail Kryuchkov, Dmitry Politov, and Kristy. “Solo is completely original and an incredible achievement for Ola Pankratova in her documentary feature career,” said Stephen Mao, President of Studio Mao. “The film meets the criteria for audiences clamoring for original high-impact content”, and sold out its world premiere on February 14, 2022.
The film was produced by Ola Pankratova and Evgeniy Subochev, with executive producer Anastasiya Alekseeva, co-producers Natalia Domoratskaya (A Mouthful of Air), Stephen Mao (Skin), and associate producer Christopher S. Burke (The Kindergarten Teacher). MVD Entertainment Group Director of Acquisitions Eric D. Wilkinson negotiated the deal with Studio Mao President Stephen Mao who packaged Solo on behalf of the filmmakers. Russian World Vision (RWV) released the film theatrically in Russia. RWV holds worldwide rights to the film, except North America.
About MVD Entertainment
MVD Entertainment Group is a full service music and movie distribution firm, exclusively representing thousands of audio and visual products for DVD, Blu-ray, CD, vinyl, and digital rights, worldwide. MVD also exclusively distributes a growing line of merchandise, including limited edition collectibles, tee shirts, and more.
“Serving Artists and Audiences” is MVD’s purpose statement; it represents a commitment to the interests of the musicians, filmmakers, record labels, producers, managers, and every link in the supply chain. The customers are the Audience, from wholesalers, sub-distributors, major retail chains, online retailers, specialists, and independent mom and pop stores, all the way to the consumer.
MVD Entertainment Group was founded in 1986 by Tom Seaman, an industry veteran with prior experience with The Record Hunter, Sam Goody, CBS Retail, and JEM Distribution. Tom, along with his family, Elinor, Eve and Ed, initially focused on music videotapes.
At the turn of the century, with the advent of DVD, MVD built a large catalog of exclusively distributed audiovisual content on DVDs, with special strength in music concert films, horror movies, documentaries, comedy, cult classics, and much more. In 2006, at the request of many of MVD’s label partners, MVD entered the audio distribution business. Soon thereafter, MVD merged with Big Daddy Music Distribution, and picked up a large catalog of CDs, vinyl and digital audio rights.
MVD continues to look for new and exciting content and sees a bright future in the entertainment business. Serving artists and audiences, the driving principle at MVD, allows us to consider a wide spectrum of opportunities and change with this ever-evolving industry.
About Studio Mao
Studio Mao is a premiere global content management company founded in 2006. It was built with a strong focus on motion picture production, development and distribution. The company produced Guy Nattiv’s Oscar winning 2019 film SKIN (Best Live Action Short). Other films include the critically-acclaimed award-winning film Filth by the author of Trainspotting Irvine Welsh. James McAvoy won Best Actor awards at the Scottish BAFTA’s, British Independent Film Awards, Empire Awards and London Critics Circle Film Awards. The film’s director Jon S. Baird also won the London Critics Circle Breakthrough British Filmmaker award. Filth was nominated on multiple occasions for Best Feature Film. It became the highest grossing independent film in England in 2013. Filth was produced with Maven Pictures and Steel Mill Pictures.
Studio Mao collaborated with Maven Pictures on the Netflix acquired The Kindergarten Teacher (Maggie Gyllenhaal) that won Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival, Wilding (Bel Powley, Liv Tyler), American Honey (Shia La Beouf, Riley Keoug, Sasha Lane), Freak Show (Alex Lawther, AnnaSophia Robb, Abigail Breslin, Laverne Cox, Bette Midler), Girl Most Likely (Kristen Wiig, Darren Criss), Ten Thousand Saints (Ethan Hawke, Hailee Steinfeld, Asa Butterfield). The docudrama The Man Who Saved the World (Stanislav Petrov, Kevin Costner, Sergey Shnyryov, Nataliya Vdovina) was distributed in Russia/CIS on theatrical and digital platforms by Studio Mao.
Studio Mao movies have premiered at major festivals. These include the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Berlinale in Berlin, and the Sundance Film festival. Films have been sold at festival to major distributors for worldwide theatrical release.
The Studio Mao brand is synonymous with high quality, original and bold content that is distributed to markets around the world. The company is developing “STP™” a proprietary HD content management and video streaming platform . “STP™” will securely deliver content worldwide and on multiple platforms. Subscribers will be able to view Studio Mao movie releases and content utilizing STP™ technology. Integration of “STP™” will enhance user interactive experience with dynamic and live HD feeds.
The company’s open-source mantra is “Leave no creative stone unturned”.
For more information about Studio Mao, please visit www.studiomao.com
Contact:
Steve Kent
asst@studiomao.com
studiomao.com
+1 (212) 961-6882
Audrey Faine
MVD Entertainment Marketing Director
audrey@mvd.cc or 510-207-2002