Bavo Defurne’s North Sea Texas is set for a Dutch premiere in Amsterdam’s Pathé De Munt cinema on 7 March as part of the 15th Amsterdam Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (Pink Film Days, 15-25 March), which kicks off a week later. Meanwhile Peccadillo Pictures has signed on to handle the film's distribution in the UK and Ireland.
The Dutch premiere, which will be attended by cast and crew, is just the start of a tour in The Netherlands. North Sea Texas will screen in a number of cities, including Nijmegen and Den Haag. In March, the film will also feature in the line-up of the BUFF (13-17 March), the International Children and Young People’s Film Festival in Malmö, Sweden. North Sea Texas recently made its US debut at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and was picked up for US distribution by Strand Releasing.
Peccadillo, the UK’s foremost LBGT distributor, picked up the film from UK-based international sales agency Wavelength Pictures. It will release the film theatrically in the UK on 6 April, with VOD and DVD scheduled for August. 'Peccadillo Pictures’ success with films such as Tomboy and Weekend gives me every confidence that they are the ideal distributor for the film,' said Wavelength’s managing director, John Flahive.
In North Sea Texas, a lonely kid, Pim, brightens up his grim life in a down-at-heel coastal village towards the end of the Sixties with dreams of princesses and beauty queens. As a teenager his dreams turn to Gino, the rugged boy next door, his motorcycling hero. But Gino isn't that much of a dreamer. Or is he?
In 2011, North Sea Texas won both the Silver Zenith Award for best feature debut at the Montreal World Film Festival and the Marc’Aurelio Alice Nella Città 13+ Award at the Rome International Film Festival. North Sea Texas is Defurne’s debut feature, following shorts such as Camp-Fire and Sailor. The film was produced by Yves Verbraeken for Indeed Films. The film was made with the support of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund.