SONY PICTURES CLASSICS TO RELEASE CHRISTY HALL’S “DADDIO” STARRING DAKOTA JOHNSON AND SEAN PENN ON JUNE 28, 2024

NEW YORK (March 19, 2024) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they will release DADDIO, starring BAFTA Award^® nominee Dakota Johnson and Academy Award^® winner Sean Penn, nationwide on June 28, 2024. The highly anticipated film, written and directed by Christy Hall in her feature directorial debut, received an enthusiastic response and critical praise following its premieres at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival.

The film is produced by Dakota Johnson and Ro Donnelly via their TeaTime Pictures production company, along with Hercules Film Fund, First Love Films, Raindrop Valley, Projected Picture Works and Rhea Films. Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Christy Hall, Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis and Terry Dougas also serve as producers. Executive producers are Jean-Luc De Fanti, Max Work, Kostas Tsoukalas and Christopher Donnelly. The film was financed by the Hercules Film Fund.

DADDIO celebrates the power found in those rare moments of pure human connection, even with the most unlikely person. This highly contained, yet kinetic character-study – encapsulated in one single cab ride – explores the complexities inherent to the secrets we keep, particularly the ones locked away on our phones. It’s about truth and illusion, how we so effortlessly substitute one for the other out of survival. It’s about the hurtful memories of childhood, how past trauma can manifest itself in profound ways. It’s about the dance between the pain and poetry that is the human experience.

Sony Pictures Classics previously worked with Penn on the animated drama PERSEPOLIS (2007) and SWEET AND LOWDOWN (1999), for which he received an Oscar^® nomination for Best Actor.

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 187 Academy Award^® nominations (161 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 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. http://www.sonypictures.com/corp/divisions.html.

ABOUT TEATIME PICTURES

Founded by Dakota Johnson and Ro Donnelly, TeaTime Pictures is a production company that embraces the eternal romance of art as escapism. TeaTime's first two features, CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH and AM I OK?, premiered at Sundance 2022. CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH went on to win the Sundance Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic category and was bought by AppleTV+. In April 2023, TeaTime released Season 1 of SLIP, a comedy series for Roku, created and written by Zoe Lister-Jones. The show was recently nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Johnson and Donnelly also executive produced the documentary THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERE HITE, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nicole Newham. The documentary premiered at Sundance 2023 and was picked up by IFC Films and released in November 2023. TeaTime's latest feature DADDIO, starring Johnson and Sean Penn and directed by Christy Hall, premiered at both Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals 2023. The film was bought by Sony Classics and will be released this year.

ABOUT THE HERCULES FILM FUND AND RHEA FILMS

In 2015, The Hercules Film Fund, founded by Paris Kasidokostas-Latsis, partnered with Terry Dougas and Jean-Luc De Fanti’s Rhea Films as its production and advisory entity. Together, Hercules and Rhea have financed and produced several motion pictures, including AMERICAN MADE (directed by Doug Liman, starring Tom Cruise, released worldwide by Universal), GOOD TIME (directed by the Safdie Brothers, starring Robert Pattinson, released by A24), A SIMPLE FAVOR (directed by Paul Feig, starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, released worldwide by Lionsgate), UNICORN STORE (starring Academy Award winner Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson and directed by Brie herself, released by Netflix), I AM MOTHER (directed by Grant Sputore, starring Hilary Swank and Rose Byrne, released by Netflix), JOE BELL (directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, starring Mark Wahlberg, distributed by Roadside Attractions), and BRUISED (directed by and starring Halle Berry, released by Netflix). Rhea Films and the Hercules Film Fund also have the upcoming films MADAME LUNA (directed by Daniel Espinosa), and AMERICANA (directed by Tony Tost, starring Halsey and Sydney Sweeney).