Focus Features has announced that they have successfully acquired the worldwide distribution rights to Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh’s newest directorial feature titled Belfast. The studio is planning to release the coming-of-age drama sometime next year.
“Belfast is my most personal film. It’s about coming home – a dramatic journey of excitement, emotion and humour,” Branagh said in a statement. “To be embraced by filmmakers and distributors of such proven imagination and talent as Focus is fantastic. We are honoured to partner with Peter Kujawski and his amazing team. With the incredible support of Northern Ireland Screen also in the mix, we are very excited for the future of BELFAST in cinemas around the world in 2021.”
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Described as a semi-autobiographical film, Belfast is the humorous, tender, and intensely personal story of one boy’s childhood during the tumult of the late 1960s. The film is written and directed by Branagh.
The film stars Oscar winner Dame Judi Dench, BAFTA nominee Jamie Dornan, Golden Globe nominee Caitriona Balfe, Game of Thrones alum Ciaran Hinds and newcomer Jude Hill. Dornan and Balfe play a glamorous working-class couple caught up in the mayhem, with Dench and Hinds as the wry and spry grandparents.
This marks the latest collaboration between Dench and Branagh, who have worked together in numerous films such as: Henry V, All Is True, My Week with Marilyn, Murder on the Orient Express and Artemis Fowl.
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Belfast is produced by Branagh, Laura Berwick, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas. Behind the camera sees many regular Branagh collaborators including production designer Jim Clay, director of photography Haris Zambarloukos, hair and make-up artist Wakana Yoshihara, editor Una Ni Dhonghaile, costume designer Charlotte Walker and casting directors Lucy Bevan and Emily Brockman.
Focus Features will distribute the film in the U.S. and Universal Pictures International will distribute internationally.
(Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage via Getty Images)
