©Photo by Nobuhiro Hosoki
All of a Sudden, the anticipated new feature from acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, has sold its international rights. Cinéfrance International has closed a group of international deals on the French-language drama, Variety is reporting.
The sale comes before the project has its world premiere on May 15 at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie will screen in the festival’s main competition lineup and compete for the Palme d’Or..
All of a Sudden stars Virginie Efira (Benedatta) and Tao Okamoto (The Wolverine). Japanese distributor Bitters End is handling Asian sales on the drama.
All of a Sudden has been picked up by Curzon for the U.K., Teodora Film and Tucker Film for Italy; Leopardo Filmes for Portugal; Caramel Films for Spain; Videorama – Weirdwave for Greece; TriArt Film for Sweden; Camera Film for Denmark; Arthaus for Norway; Future Film for Finland; and Bíó Paradís for Iceland. The deals follow deals with Neon for North America, Diaphana Distribution for France, Plaion Pictures for Germany/Austria and September Film in Benelux.
Other sales were closed with Cinelibri for Bulgaria; Independenta Film for Romania; Aurora Films for Poland; Aerofilms for the Czech Republic and Slovakia; MCF Megacom for Ex-Yugoslavia; Kino Pavasaris for the Baltics; Edko for Hong Kong; PT Falcon for Indonesia; Green Narae for South Korea; Andrews’ Film for Taiwan; New Cinema for Israel; Gulf Film for the Middle East and North Africa; and Mars Productions for Turkey. Cinefrance International in negotiations for Switzerland, Latin America and Australia/New Zealand.
Hamaguchi, who won an Oscar for his 2022 Japanese drama, Drive My Car, filmed his new feature on location in Paris. All of a Sudden follows Marie-Lou Fontaine (Efira), a director of a nursing home in the Paris suburbs. She defies convention by adopting the Humanitude method, despite her team’s resistance.
Marie-Lou transforms her life when she encounters Mari Morisaki (Okamoto), a terminally ill Japanese playwright. Together, they turn the facility into a symbol of resistance and humanity against the system’s limits.
In a previous interview with Variety, Hamaguchi said Humanitude stands for a “French method that was imported in Japan (…) and puts the human dimension at the heart of the treatment care, for the integrity of each human being.”
The movie took inspiration from a collection of real-life exchanged letters published in the book When Life Suddenly Takes a Turn: Twenty Letters Between a Philosopher with Terminal Cancer and a Medical Anthropologist by Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono.
Cinefrance Studios is producing All of a Sudden with Office Shirous & Bitters End in Japan, Heimatfilm in Germany and Tarantula in Belgium. Diaphana will distribute in France and Bitters End in Japan.
Hamaguchi broke through the international scene in 2022.
That year, the Academy nominated him for four Oscars, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, for Drive My Car. Japan received its first ever nomination for Best Picture. The drama won for Best International Feature.
Since then, the filmmaker directed the 2023 drama, Evil Does Not Exist. The project premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion. He also released the 2023 experimental silent film, Gift.
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