Fox Searchlight’s JACKIE, directed by Pablo Larraín, will screen as a Centerpiece Gala at AFI FEST 2016 presented by Audi. Starring Academy Award® winner Natalie Portman, the film will screen on Monday, November 14, at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
JACKIE is a searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of the iconic First Lady, then Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy portrayed by Natalie Portman. JACKIE places us in her world during the days immediately following her husband’s assassination. Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a psychological portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband’s legacy and the world of “Camelot” that they created and loved so well. JACKIE is directed by Larraín and written by Noah Oppenheim. In addition to Portman, the film stars Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and Academy Award® nominee John Hurt. JACKIE is produced by Juan De Dios Larraín, Academy Award® nominee Darren Aronofsky (AFI Class of 1992), Mickey Liddell, Scott Franklin and Ari Handel.
Fox Searchlight has acquired U.S. rights to Jackie, which sees Natalie Portman star as former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
In an otherwise sleepy Toronto market, the deal marks the first significant sale of a finished film. Searchlight will release the historical drama on Dec. 9, giving it a prime awards-season birth.
Jackie, directed by Pablo Larraín, takes place in the days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, focusing on Theodore H. White’s Life magazine interview with the widow at Hyannis Port.
Noah Oppenheim wrote the original script, which won best screenplay at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
“Pablo Larraín’s Jackieis a daring, one-of-a-kind cinematic portrayal of a beloved icon,” said Searchlight presidents Stephen Gilula and Nancy Utley. “Led by an indelible performance from Natalie Portman and supported by a richly talented ensemble of actors and artists, the film is one we are thrilled to bring to audiences later this year.”.
Larraín will now have two potential awards-season contenders this year, as The Orchard will be pushing his Neruda, which is also playing at the Toronto Film Festival, in the foreign-language category.
Added Larraín: “[Searchlight’s] movies have been an important influence on me as a filmmaker, and it is a personal achievement for me to have them bring this very special story of a beautiful, sophisticated and mysterious woman to the world. Jackie was the most unknown of the known women of the 20th century.”
Darren Aronofsky produced Jackie along with Juan de Dios Larraín, Mickey Liddell, Scott Franklin and Ari Handel. Pete Shilaimon, Jennifer Monroe, Jayne Hong, Wei Han, Lin Qi, Josh Stern executive produced.
The film made its North American premiere in the Platform section of the festival.
Searchlight had first and last rights to negotiate on the film, which was repped by CAA.
See what Natalie, Noah Oppenhiem and Pablo Larrain have to say about Jackie:
A nearly four-hour long movie about a woman’s thirst for revenge and her feelings of forgiveness after 30 years in jail for a crime she did not commit won the Venice Film Festival’s top prize on Saturday.
Director Lav Diaz has described “Ang Babaeng Humayo” (“The Woman Who Left”) as a testimony to the struggles of the Philippines after centuries of colonial rule.
“This is for my country, for the Filipino people, for our struggle, for the struggle of humanity,” the 57-year-old said as he accepted the Golden Lion award for his black-and-white movie.
Diaz, who at the Berlin Film Festival in February had premiered a film that ran over eight hours, said he hoped the latest recognition would create more appreciation for longer movies.
“Cinema is still very young, you can still push it,” he said.
Director Lav Diaz, center, poses with actress Charo Santos-Concio, left, and actor John lLoyd Cruz, right, as they attend the photo call for the movie Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left) at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, September 9, 2016. (Photo credit: REUTERS/Alesandro Bianchi)
Twenty U.S. and international movies featuring top Hollywood talent and auteur directors were in competition at the world’s oldest film festival, in its 73rd outing this year. The event is seen as a launching pad for the industry’s award season.
All the movies that won awards were examples of directors’ “lack of compromise, (their) imagination, original vision, daring, and a kind of pure identity,” said Sam Mendes, known for directing James Bond movies “Skyfall” and “Spectre”, who headed the jury. “It’s taken me out of my comfort zone.”
Mendes said he hoped the awards would help the films get distributed.
The runner-up Grand Jury prize went to Tom Ford’s thriller “Nocturnal Animals”, the second feature by the celebrated fashion designer.
The Best Director award was shared by Russia’s Andrei Konchalovsky for the Holocaust drama “Rai” (“Paradise”) and Mexico’s Amat Escalante for “La Region Salvaje” (“The Untamed”).
Commenting on Escalante’s drama, which opens with a naked woman being pleasured by a tentacled creature, jury member and Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas said the movie affected all the judges emotionally.
“We liked the lack of sentimentalism. We felt he really took risks making the film. It’s a film that pushes the medium forward,” he said.
American Emma Stone took the Best Actress prize for her role in the musical “La La Land” and Argentine actor Oscar Martinez was named Best Actor for his performance in the comedy-drama “El Ciudadano Ilustre” (“The Distinguished Citizen”).
German actress Paula Beer received the Marcello Mastroianni Award acknowledging an emerging performer, for her role in post-war drama “Frantz”.
Noah Oppenheim took the best screenplay award for his work on Pablo Larrain’s “Jackie”, about first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the aftermath of the assassination of her husband U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
The special jury prize went to Ana Lily Amirpour’s cannibal-survivor fairytale “The Bad Batch”. While the film earned mixed reviews, the jury appreciated its spirit.
“Someone has made a very individual, very personal vision, whatever you think of it; that alone, the act of making that film is astonishing,” Mendes said.
(Additional reporting by Sarah Mills and Hanna Rantala, Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Richard Chang)
Director Lav Diaz receives Golden Lion for Best Film for Ang Babaeng Humayo. (Photo courtesy of ASAC Images/Biennale Cinema)
VENEZIA 73
The Venezia 73 Jury, chaired by Sam Mendes and comprised of Laurie Anderson, Gemma Arterton, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Nina Hoss, Chiara Mastroianni, Joshua Oppenheimer, Lorenzo Vigas and Zhao Wei having viewed all 20 films in competition, has decided as follows:
GOLDEN LION for Best Film to:
ANG BABAENG HUMAYO (THE WOMAN WHO LEFT)
by Lav Diaz (Philippines) with a run time of 226m.
SILVER LION – GRAND JURY PRIZE to:
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS
by Tom Ford (USA)
SILVER LION – AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR ex-aequo to:
Andrei Konchalovsky
for the film PARADISE (Russian Federation, Germany)
Amat Escalante
for the film LA REGIÓN SALVAJE (THE UNTAMED)
(Mexico, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland)
COPPA VOLPI
for Best Actress:
Emma Stone
in the film LA LA LAND by Damien Chazelle (USA)
COPPA VOLPI
for Best Actor:
Oscar Martínez
in the film EL CIUDADANO ILUSTRE by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat
(Argentina, Spain)
AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to:
Noah Oppenheim
for the film JACKIE by Pablo Larraín (UK)
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to:
THE BAD BATCH by Ana Lily Amirpour (USA)
MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD
for Best Young Actress to:
Paula Beer
in the film FRANTZ by François Ozon (France, Germany)
LION OF THE FUTURE
“LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM
Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film Jury at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, chaired by Kim Rossi Stuart and comprised of Rosa Bosch, Brady Corbet, Pilar López de Ayala and Serge Toubiana, has decided to award:
LION OF THE FUTURE
“LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM to:
Akher Wahed Fina (The Last of Us) by Ala Eddine Slim
(Tunisia, Qatar, U.A.E., Lebanon)
VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM CRITICS WEEK
as well as a prize of 100,000 USD, donated by Filmauro ofAurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis to be divided equally between director and producer.
ORIZZONTI AWARDS
The Orizzonti Jury of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, chaired by Robert Guédiguian and composed of Jim Hoberman, Nelly Karim, Valentina Lodovini, Moon So-ri, José María (Chema) Prado and Chaitanya Tamhane after screening the 32 films in competition has decided to award:
the ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST FILM to:
LIBERAMI by Federica Di Giacomo (Italy, France)
the ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR to:
Fien Troch
for HOME (Belgium)
the SPECIAL ORIZZONTI JURY PRIZE to:
KOCA DÜNYA (BIG BIG WORLD)
by Reha Erdem (Turkey)
the ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS to:
Ruth Díazin the filmTARDE PARA LA IRA by Raúl Arévalo (Spain)
the ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST ACTOR to:
Nuno Lopes in the filmSÃO JORGE by Marco Martins (Portugal, France)
the ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to:
KU QIAN (BITTER MONEY) by Wang Bing (France, Hong Kong)
the ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM to:
LA VOZ PERDIDA by Marcelo Martinessi (Paraguay, Venezuela, Cuba)
the VENICE SHORT FILM NOMINATION FOR THE
EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016 to:
AMALIMBO by Juan Pablo Libossart (Sweden, Estonia)
VENICE CLASSICS AWARDS
The Venice Classics Jury, chaired by Roberto Andò composed of 25 students of Cinema History, chosen in particular from the professors of 12 Italian Dams university programmes and from the Venice University of Ca’ Foscari, has decided to award:
the VENICE CLASSICS AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY ON CINEMA to:
LE CONCOURS by Claire Simon (France)
the VENICE CLASSICS AWARD FOR BEST RESTORED FILM to:
BREAK UP – L’UOMO DEI CINQUE PALLONI by Marco Ferreri
(1963 and 1967, Italy, France)
GOLDEN LION FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 2016 to:
JEAN-PAUL BELMONDO
JERZY SKOLIMOWSKI
JAEGER-LECOULTRE GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER AWARD 2016 to:
