A specialty market dotted by holdovers as Oscar nods approach and gripped by Sundance fever debuts a compelling handful of new openers from Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s Introduction to Bhutan’s first ever entrant on the Academy Awards International feature shortlist, to a Ukrainian coming of age story and a Queen Latifa-starrring family film Tiger RisingBased on Kate DiCamillo’s best-selling book.
They come in a frame that also contains two new wide-releases: Faith-based romance and a Faith-based romanceRedeem your love presented by Universal on 1,903 screens, and Sean McNamara’s family adventure The King’s Daughter Gravitas presented the offer at 2,170 locations. (See below for details on both.
The Avenue presents The Tiger Rising on 800+ screens, the weekend’s widest specialty release. Ray Giarratana directs the film from a screenplay that he wrote and adapted from the DiCamillo book. Christian Convery and Dennis Quaid. Lonely 12-year-old Rob Horton (Convery) discovers a caged tiger in the woods near his home, his imagination runs wild and life begins to change with the help of a wise and mysterious woman Willie May (Latifah – also an executive producer) and the stubborn new girl in school (Mills).
International openers include Cinema Guild’s Introduction Hong Sangsoo is a Korean film director. Black and white movie about a young man who travels to Berlin from South Korea to surprise his girlfriend won the Silver Bear Award for Best Screenplay at Berlin International Film Festival last summer. Here’s a Deadline review.
IntroductionFilm at Lincoln Center opens, then adds LA, Chicago, and other markets the next weekend, and continues to expand.
“We’ve had success in January before,” said Tom Sveen, Cinema Guild’s head of theatrical sales. “It may be a little bit of a different January, with Covid. But we can release a film by a named director like him that has had some excitement around it and roll it out across the country into the spring.” It doesn’t hurt that the director just had another pic. The Novelist’s FilmBerlin 2022, selected by. Cinema Guild distributes films from Sang-soo ever since 2017.
Sveen claimed that Oscar hopeful holdovers are filling theaters. “Other countries’ submissions for international film are out there. It’s just a nice place for someone like Hong to land. Where people can watch a Joachim Trier film and see the trailer and say, ‘That looks good too.” (Neon is releasing Trier’s The Worst Person in the WorldFebruary 4, 2009
Omicron: “I think in early January it got bad, but hopefully we are seeing the [infection] numbers drop now and the box office numbers start to come up a little more.”Recent CDC data has shown that cases have begun to decline in the hardest hit areas.
Introduction stars Kim Young-ho, Park Mi-so, Shin Seok-ho.
Samuel Goldwyn Films presents Lunana: A Yak In the Classroom Pawo Choyning Dorji directed, produced and wrote this comedy-drama about Bhutan. The film made the Oscar’s International Feature shortlist, a first for the South Asian nation. (It was submitted for consideration last year but rejected because Bhutan’s paperwork — it hadn’t submitted a film since 1999 — was out of date.) Ugyen (Sherab Dorji) is a government-contracted teacher and aspiring singer punished for slacking off with a transfer from a large city to a remote village called Lunana, a six day walk from the nearest bus stop. Winner of the Audience Award Award Award for Best Narrative Feature, 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Opening at the IFC Center, NYC.
Stop-ZemliaAltered Innocence. Kateryna Gornostai directed and wrote this coming-of-age story from Ukraine. With Arsenii Markov, Maria Fedorchenko, Yana Isaienko. Three best friends deal with the emotional turmoil of waiting for love to start and waiting for it to happen. An official selection last year at MoMa’s New Directors/New Films and Berlin International Film Festival. Playing at the LA’s Laemmle Glendale and on demand.
Salt in my SoulGiant Pictures. Will Battersby’s documentary based on Mallory Smith’s posthumously published memoir. This is a look into the mind of a young girl who struggles to live while she dies. Smith, who was diagnosed at 3 years old with cystic Fibrosis, died at 25. However, she kept a secret diary in order to capture her thoughts. The result was sad but it received high marks from critics. It opens in New York’s Cinema Village and Los Angeles’ Laemmle Royal. Available on VOD January 25,
Vertical Entertainment presents a racial justice thriller A Shot Through The Wall in 14 locations including NY and LA Written and directed by Aimee Long, film explores how a Chinese-American police officer’s life unravels after he accidentally shoots an innocent Black man in Brooklyn, leading to protests and further violence. Tzi Ma and Lynn Chen are among the predominantly Asian-American cast. Ciara Renee is also included, along with Dan Lauria, Kelly AuCoin, and Clifton Davis.
Zhen Pictures UnsilencedLeon Lee. Sam Trammell and He Tao. A jaded American journalist and a group of innocent students risk their lives to expose the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal crackdown on 100 million Chinese citizens.
Gravitas Ventures – Historical romance The LaureateWilliam Nunez directed/written the script. This story takes place in the middle of the 20th century. Robert Graves (Tom Hughes), a well-known writer, returns to civilian life after being wounded and is creatively struggling. Young poet Laura Riding (Dianna Agoron) is what it takes to rekindle his passion.
Strand Releasing, French romance Simple PassionDanielle Arbid, Lou-Teymour Thion and Sergei Polunin. A mother is drawn into an unhealthy relationship with a Russian diplomat, which she finds very vulnerable. Based on Annie Ernaux’s book, Arbid wrote this story. At the Quad Cinema in NYC.
Thriller WarhuntSaban Films, Mauro Borrelli. Jackson Rathbone, Mickey Rourke and Robert Knepper. Written by Reggie Keyohara III,Scott Svatos,Borrelli. A U.S. military cargo aircraft crashes violently behind enemy lines, in the middle the German black forest. This happened during WWII. Major Johnson (Rourke), sends a group of his most brave soldiers on a rescue mission for the top-secret material that the aircraft was carrying before being destroyed by the Nazis.
Lin Manuel Miranda’s Andrew Garfield-starrer Tick, tick… BOOM!from Netflix returns to 15+ theaters, including Alamo Drafthouse locations in NYC, LA and additional cities. The streamer is also expanding Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dogto 45+ theaters.
Much decorated doc Faya Dayi is back with screenings/ &As with director Jessica Bashir in NYC. This Oscar-nominated documentary features is a hypnotic immersion into rural Ethiopia where one commodity, khat (a euphoria-inducing herb once prized because of its supposedly mystical qualities), holds the power over all the rhythms and rituals of daily life. Original release: September. (Streaming on Criterion.
To the broad releases: The Redeeming of LoveThe story centers around Angel (Abigail Cowen), a child who was sold into prostitution in California during the California Gold Rush. She is overcome with hatred and self-loathing when she meets Tom Lewis (Michael Hosea) and learns about the healing power that love can do. D.J. Caruso, written by Francine Rivers and Caruso based on Rivers’ hugely popular novel of the same name. Famke Janssen and Nina Dobrev star as well as Logan Marshall Green and Eric Dane. (A 13% score with critics, 98% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In The King’s Daughter, powerful monarch Louis XIV (Pierce Brosnan) is obsessed with his own mortality and the future of France, leading him to capture and steal a mermaid’s life force. When his daughter, who is not his biological child, returns home and finds the creature, things get complicated. With a rare solar eclipse approaching, Louis will discover where his daughter’s true loyalties lie as he races against time to extract the mermaid’s life-giving force. Kaya Scodelario (William Hurt), Benjamin Walker, Pablo Schreiber and Rachel Griffiths. Written by Ronald Bass, Barry Berman based on Vonda N. McIntyre’s 1997 novelThe Moon and the Sun. Photographed at the Palace of Versailles. Rotten Tomatoes: A 26% score with critics