SONY PICTURES CLASSICS TO RELEASE DAN GELLER AND DAYNA GOLDFINE’S ‘HALLELUJAH: LEONARD COHEN, A JOURNEY, A SONG’ IN THEATERS ON JULY 1, 2022

NEW YORK (April 28, 2022) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they will release HALLELUJAH: LEONARD COHEN, A JOURNEY, A SONG in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on July 1, 2022 before expanding to additional markets. The feature documentary earned critical praise out of the 2021 Venice and Telluride Film Festivals and will have its New York premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in June.

Inspired by the book The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of Hallelujah by Alan Light, the documentary was produced and directed by Emmy^® Award-winners Geller and Goldfine (THE GALAPAGOS AFFAIR, BALLETS RUSSES), and executive produced by longtime Geller/Goldfine collaborator Jonathan Dana, Academy Award^®-winner Morgan Neville, and Robert Kory, along with Michael Drews and Robin Sagon. The late Hal Willner served as music producer, with John Lissauer providing an original score.

HALLELUJAH: LEONARD COHEN, A JOURNEY, A SONG explores the legendary poet and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen through the lens of arguably his most famous and certainly most covered work, the hymn “Hallelujah.”

Approved for production by Leonard Cohen just before his 80^th birthday in 2014, the film is a deep exploration of Cohen’s transcendental “Hallelujah,” from its origins, to its poor initial reception, to its resurrection, and to its influence on other artists, finally becoming one of the most recognised and lionized songs of all time. The result is a fresh perspective on one of the 20^th century’s greatest artists.

The documentary features interviews with Rufus Wainwright, Brandi Carlile, Judy Collins, Regina Spektor, Amanda Palmer, and Eric Church, amongst others, who have all recorded and performed their own versions of “Hallelujah.” Other interviewees include Leonard’s long-time artistic collaborator Sharon Robinson; John Lissauer, producer and arranger of the original version of “Hallelujah”; record industry legend Clive Davis; and Larry “Ratso” Sloman, author, ex-Rolling Stone reporter, and long-time interviewer of Leonard Cohen, who shares never-before-heard, unedited tapes of interviews he recorded with Cohen between 1974 and 2005. 

HALLELUJAH: LEONARD COHEN, A JOURNEY, A SONG showcases previously unseen personal notebooks, journals and photographs, performance footage, and extremely rare audio recordings and interviews, all made uniquely available to the filmmakers by the Leonard Cohen Family Trust. The film is the story of a song and a man, one intertwined with the other.

For additional information and assets, visit: https://www.sonyclassics.com/film/hallelujah/

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 183 Academy Award® nominations (157 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.

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