Autumn Productions is pleased to announce that their feature film comedy The Sabbatical will screen at Le Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival in France May 15. The film is part of Telefilm’s Perspective Canada presentation at the film buyers market that takes place in conjunction with with the Cannes Film Festival every year. Autumn Productions will be looking to sell the film internationally at the festival.
“We’re excited to have our small film from Saskatchewan as one of only eleven Canadian films in Telefilm’s Perspective Canada selection at the Cannes market this year,” said Sabbatical director and U of R film professor Brian Stockton. “We’re having a great festival run worldwide and now it’s time to sell it so it can be seen by a wider audience.”
The improvised dialogue comedy shot in Regina over 18 months starting in 2013 has screened at film festivals in Whistler, B.C., Fargo , ND, Palm Beach, Florida, Toronto, Ontario, Beijing, China and is set to open the Yorkton Film Festival on May 26. It also plays at the Oakville Film Festival this June in Ontario.
Executive producers David Hansen and Johnny Mac will be in Cannes representing the film and negotiating sales deals at the film market. Their company Autumn Productions is based out of Regina but has been involved in major films around the world, including the Kevin Spacey-starring bioflick Elvis and Nixon currently playing in U.S. theaters.
The Sabbatical follows a fictional University of Regina fine arts professor (James Whittingham) on his yearlong sabbatical where he has a mid-life crisis while trying to produce a new photography book. He is saved by an unlikely friendship with a young woman (Laura Abramsen.)
