SONY PICTURES CLASSICS TO RELEASE BETSY WEST AND JULIE COHEN’S JULIA CHILD DOCUMENTARY ‘JULIA’ IN THEATERS ON NOVEMBER 5

NEW YORK (August 24, 2021) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they will release the documentary JULIA in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on November 5, expanding throughout the month.   

From Academy Award^®-nominated and Emmy^® Award-winning filmmakers Julie Cohen and Betsy West (RBG), JULIA tells the story of Julia Child, the legendary cookbook author and television superstar who changed the way Americans think about food, television, and women’s roles in American life. Using never-before-seen archival footage, personal photos, first-person narratives, and cutting-edge, mouth-watering food cinematography, the film traces Julia Child’s surprising and empowering path, from her struggles to create and publish the revolutionary Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which has sold more than 2.5 million copies to date, to her emergence as an unlikely television sensation in her fifties. The film illuminates Julia Child’s casual upheaval of the male-dominated culinary and television worlds, as she almost single-handedly crashed the ‘boys’ party’ at the highest levels of creative gastronomy, shattering established notions that the only women Americans wanted to see on TV were young, submissive, and conventionally beautiful.  

JULIA is produced by Imagine Documentaries, CNN Films, and Storyville Films. West, Cohen, Holly Siegel and Imagine Documentaries’ Justin Wilkes and Sara Bernstein serve as producers. The film is executive produced by Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Michael Rosenberg; Amy Entelis and Courtney Sexton of CNN Films; Oren Jacoby of Storyville Films; Alex Prud’homme; and Bob Spitz; with the full cooperation of Julia Child’s friends, family, and The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. CNN Films, which also executive produced RBG with Storyville Films, has North American broadcast rights to the feature. Sony Pictures Classics holds all other rights worldwide. 

Cohen and West are represented by Amanda Lebow at CAA.

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 41 Academy Awards® (37 of those at Sony Pictures Classics) and have garnered 181 Academy Award® nominations (155 at Sony Pictures Classics) including Best Picture nominations for THE FATHER, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, WHIPLASH, AMOUR, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, AN EDUCATION, CAPOTE, HOWARDS END, AND CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.   

ABOUT IMAGINE DOCUMENTARIES 

Imagine Documentaries was formed in 2018 by Imagine Entertainment Chairmen Brian Grazer and Ron Howard with a focus on developing and producing premium feature documentaries and non-scripted television. Based out of New York, Imagine Docs is run by Academy Award-nominated and Emmy, Peabody and Producer’s Guild Award-winning producers Justin Wilkes and Sara Bernstein. The division expands on Imagine’s rich history in the documentary space which includes the hit documentary series Mars and Breakthrough (National Geographic) as well as the Ron Howard-directed filmsJay- Z’s Made in America, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years (2017 Grammy winner for Best Music Film), Pavarotti, and the Sundance 2020 documentary feature Rebuilding Paradise (National Geographic Films).  Recent releases include Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band (Magnolia Pictures), D Wade: Life Unexpected (ESPN Films), Dads (Apple+), The Day Sports Stood Still (HBO); On Pointe (Disney+), We Are The Brooklyn Saints (Netflix); Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (Netflix);  Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine (Showtime); Who Are You Charlie Brown?, a celebration of the life and work of Charles Schulz (AppleTV+); and Gossip, a limited series chronicling Cindy  Adams' four-decade career at the New York Post as the “reigning queen of gossip” (Showtime). Upcoming projects include, Paper & Glue, directed by legendary French artist JR; Julia, the definitive documentary on Julia Child, directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West (Sony Pictures Classic); The Supermodels, a docuseries featuring the iconic careers of Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington (AppleTV+); the Martin Scorsese-directed documentary on New York’s 1970’s music scene and the New York Dolls; Black and Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong (AppleTV+); Amy Poehler’s documentary feature directing debut, Lucy & Desi, on the personal and professional partnership between Lucille Ball and husband Desi Arnaz; Ron Howard’s next documentary feature film on chef Jose Andres and the World Central Kitchen organization (National Geographic Films); and a Rory Kennedy directed feature documentary investigating Boeing’s 737-Max airplane crashes (Netflix).

ABOUT CNN FILMS 

CNN Films produces and acquires documentary feature and short films for theatrical and festival exhibition and distribution across CNN’s multiple platforms. Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent and content development, oversees the strategy for CNN Films; Courtney Sexton, senior vice president for CNN Films, works day-to-day with filmmakers to oversee projects.  For more information about CNN Films, please visit www.CNN.com/CNNFilms, follow @CNNFilms via Twitter, and join Keep Watching, an exclusive, members-only community for CNN Films & CNN Original Series https://cnn.it/3qTScB4.  Acclaimed CNN Films include the Academy Award^®-nominated, Emmy^® Award-winning RBG, directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen; the Emmy^® Award-winning APOLLO 11, the giant screen film APOLLO 11: First Steps Edition, directed by Todd Douglas Miller; JIMMY CARTER: Rock & Roll President, directed by Mary Wharton; the Emmy^® Award-nominated, BAFTA-nominated Three Identical Strangers, directed by Tim Wardle; DREAMLAND: The Burning of Black Wall Street, directed by Salima Koroma; and LADY BOSS: The Jackie Collins Story, directed by Laura Fairrie.

ABOUT STORYVILLE FILMS 

Storyville Films was formed in 1994 by Academy Award^®-nominee Oren Jacoby to produce documentaries and series driven by strong personal narratives of conscience, courage, and innovation. Betsy West joined the company in 2005 and Julie Cohen in 2016. West and Cohen directed the Primetime Emmy^® Award-winning and Oscar^®-nominated documentary RBG (CNN Films, Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media, 2018). Most recently, Jacoby directed ON BROADWAY (Kino Lorber) which opened in theaters this month.  

ABOUT SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT       

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition, and distribution; television production, acquisition, and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies. SPE’s Motion Picture Group production organizations include Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, 3000 Pictures, Stage 6 Films, AFFIRM Films, and Sony Pictures Classics. For additional information, visit  http://www.sonypictures.com/corp/divisions.html.