SONY PICTURES CLASSICS ACQUIRES ANDREY ZVYAGINTSEV’S LOVELESS

NEW YORK (May 17, 2017) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all rights in North America and Latin America to Andrey Zvyagintsev’s LOVELESS.  The Russian language film will premiere In Competition at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, May 18. 

Sony Pictures Classics and Zvyagintsev previously worked together on LEVIATHAN, winner of Best Screenplay at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Best Foreign Language Film at the 2015 Golden Globes and was Oscar nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.  LOVELESSS also marks the third partnership between Zvyagintsev and producer Alexander Rodnyansky. 

In LOVELESS, Zhenya and Boris are going through a vicious divorce marked by resentment, frustration and recriminations. Already embarking on new lives, each with a new partner, they are impatient to start again, to turn the page – even if it means threatening to abandon their 12-year-old son Alyosha. Until, after witnessing one of their fights, Alyosha disappears. 

Co-written by Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin, the film is produced by Non-Stop Production (Russia), Fetisoff Illusion (Russia), Why Not Production (France), Les Films du Fleuve (Belgium) Senator Film Production (Germany) with support from Eurimages, Arte, Canal+, WDR and Cine+. 

"I am very pleased to be working with the excellent team at Sony Pictures Classics again; they were sensitive and inspired in their tremendous efforts on LEVIATHAN, and I look forward to our new collaboration," stated Andrey Zvyagintsev. 

Said Alexander Rodnyansky "Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and the outstanding team at SPC, are the gold standard of American distribution for our films. We are thrilled to be working with them once again." 

“There is no more timely film than LOVELESS. Andrey is one of the world's finest directors in peak form here. It is just great to be in business again with him and Alexander following our success together with LEVIATHAN a few years ago,” said Sony Pictures Classics. 

The deal was negotiated between Wild Bunch and SPC.  

ABOUT SONY PICTURES CLASSICS 

Michael Barker and Tom Bernard serve as co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics—an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment they founded with Marcie Bloom in January 1992, which distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from around the world.  Barker and Bernard have released prestigious films that have won 37 Academy Awards® (33 of those at Sony Pictures Classics) and have garnered 163 Academy Award® nominations (137 at Sony Pictures Classics) including Best Picture nominations for WHIPLASH, AMOUR, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, AN EDUCATION, CAPOTE, HOWARDS END, AND CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. 

ABOUT SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT 

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; a global channel network; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of entertainment in more than 142 countries. For additional information, go to http://www.sonypictures.com/.