The PR Contact is a public relations company which specializes in working
in the entertainment industry.
The company’s director Phil Symes has operated independently since
August 1982 working with leading names in the international film, music
and television industries.
Symes’ first project as an independent saw the launch of Palace
Pictures, with his company continuing to handle the various film making
and distribution activities throughout Palace’s life span, being
responsible for the publicity on distributed films and productions such
as Company of Wolves, Absolute Beginners, Mona Lisa, and the company’s
final production, The Crying Game. Working with other distributors and
producers, Symes’ company has represented films that include Howards
End, Reservoir Dogs, Wayne’s World, Clueless, Ken Loach’s
Ladybird, Ladybird and Land and Freedom, Fever Pitch, The Land Girls,
Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen, High Art, and, as an indication of the
company’s diversity, The Rugrats Movie. Recent films handled in
distribution include Catherine Breillat’s highly controversial Romance,
Universal’s music-gangster film Love, Honour & Obey, Julien
Temple’s The Filth and The Fury and his subsequent feature Pandaemonium,
Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo’s follow up feature Lucky Break,
acclaimed Indian director Santosh Sivan’s epic feature Asoka, Werner
Herzog’s Invincible, Merchant Ivory’s The Mystic Masseur,
and Michael Radford’s (Il Postino) latest production Dancing At
The Blue Iguana.
Symes’ company has also become identified for its work in the independent
sector, with among its regular clients past and present, FilmFour, Scala
Productions, producer Norma Heyman, blueLight, Parallax Pictures and Fugitive
Films. It has a close relationship with Paris-based international distributor
Wild Bunch for whom it handles all of the company’s films at the
major festivals including Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and Toronto.
The international division comes under the management
of director Ronaldo Mourao.
Until recently, The PR Contact was also associate producer of the film
Brando and Brando which was to be the last feature for the late Marlon
Brando.