Mubi made its first big purchase this year at the Cannes Film Festival, swooping in to acquire Lukas Dhont’s film coward Before the awards ceremony on Saturday night.
Arthouse Streaming has acquired all North American rights to the film, a World War I drama about queer love in the midst of the horrors of war. Mubi has already acquired the rights to coward It crossed most of its international footprint before Cannes. Rights have been taken from across the UK/Ireland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Latin America and Australia/New Zealand.
The company released Donut’s previous film, Closeswhich premiered at Cannes in 2022 and went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature in several international territories.
This acquisition marks Mubi’s first local purchase for this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Two years ago, Moby hit the big time when she snatched up Demi Moore’s hit film. material, In Cannes. Coralie Fargeat’s horror satire grossed $17 million at the US box office. Mobi’s big buy at Cannes last year, Lynne Ramsay My love diesThe film, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, was less successful, earning only $5.5 million in the United States.
coward It follows Pierre (newcomer Emmanuel Macchia), a soldier newly arrived at the front and eager to prove himself, who meets Francis (Valentin Campagne), a flamboyant character trying to raise the morale of his comrades by putting on a theatrical show. As violence erupts around them, a romance grows between the two men as they try to find ways to escape the brutality of war.
The film brings together a donut with its counterpart Girl and Closes Co-writer Angelo Tijssens and his brother/producer Michel Dhont. The film is produced by Reunion, Lumen, Topkapi Films & Versus (Opus) in co-production with France 2 Cinéma, VTM, RTBF, Proximus, BeTV and Orange.
The film is distributed in Benelux by Lumière and in France by Diaphana Distribution. Match Factory handles international sales.
