EXCLUSIVE: Mubi has acquired Lukas Dhont’s Cannes Competion entry Close for the UK, Ireland, Latin America, Turkey and India.
Starring Lea Drucker (Custody), Émilie Dequenne (Our Children), Kevin Janssens (Revenge) and newcomers Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele, the film will get its world premiere on the Riviera this week.
In Close, the intense friendship between two thirteen-year old boys Leo and Remi suddenly gets disrupted. Struggling to understand what has happened, Léo approaches Sophie, Rémi’s mother.
The film will be released theatrically followed by an exclusive Mubi streaming release. The Match Factory is handling international sales and negotiated the deal with Mubi, its parent company.
Pic is produced by Dirk Impens and Michiel Dhont for Menuet (BE) and co-produced by Diaphana (FR), Topkapi Films (NL) and Versus Productions (BE).
Dhont said: “I am incredibly honored to share this film and start this collaboration with Mubi.”
Girl, Dhont’s debut feature film, won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2018. The film also won the festivals’ Queer Palm, Fipresci Prize and Un Certain Regard Best Performance award for Victor Polster. The film scored a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and won prizes at San Sebastian, Zurich and Best First Feature Film at the BFI London Film Festival.
Recent and upcoming Mubi releases include Park Chan-wook’s competition favourite Decision To Leave, Léa Mysius’s Director’s Fortnight title The Five Devils, Thomas Hardiman’s Medusa Deluxe, and Joachim Trier’s Oscar and BAFTA nominated The Worst Person in the World. Mubi’s co-production One Fine Morning from Mia Hansen-Løve has also premiered during Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.