Abramorama has acquired Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan, the documentary about the prima ballerina that bowed in the fall at the New York Film Festival. It will get a theatrical release beginning May 24 at Film Forum and the Elinor Bunin Theater at Lincoln Center in New York, with Los Angeles and other markets to follow. Directed and produced by Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger (Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Page One: Inside The New York Times), the pic centers on Whelan as she prepares to leave New York City Ballet after a record-setting three decades with the company.
Fantasia Film Festival
Good Deed Entertainment has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Some Freaks, the directorial debut of Ian MacAllister-McDonald starring Lily Mae Harrington and Thomas Mann. The pic, which bowed at last year’s Fantasia fest, will hit select theaters and on demand platforms August 4. Marin Ireland, Ely Henry and Lachlan Buchanan co-star in the film, which follows one-eyed high school senior Matt (Mann), who meets plus-size Jill (Harrington) and falls more in love than he ever thought possible. When Jill moves cross-country to go to college, she undergoes a major physical transformation. When she returns Matt struggles to accept Jill’s new look, and Jill begins to question whether Matt is really the man she thought she knew.
FilmRise has acquired North American distribution rights to Axolotl Overkill, which just bowed in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. The pic, directed by 24-year-old writer Helene Hegemann based on her novel Axolotl Roadkill, will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video later this year after FilmRise opted in to Amazon Video Direct’s Film Festival Stars program. Jasna Fritzi Bauer stars a deeply damaged 16-year-old living in Berlin who is stuck in a rebellious phase following the death of her mother.
