Focus World, the multiplatform distribution initiative owned and operated by Focus Features, has acquired from Wild Bunch most worldwide territories on writer/director Julia Ducournau’s psychological horror thriller Raw. Focus World has firmed global rights to the movie for Focus Features release internationally, excluding France, Israel, Czech and Slovak Republics, Benelux, former Yugoslavia, Latin America, Greece, Australia and New Zealand. In the U.S., Focus World will debut the movie in theatrical release in the spring of 2017.
The Petit Film/Rouge International/FraKas Productions film world-premiered at the 2016 Cannes International Film Festival in the International Critics’ Week section, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. Produced by Petit Film’s Jean des Forêts, the French-language Raw stars Garance Marillier and is the debut feature from Ducournau.
Marillier portrays the teenaged Justine, who commences her studies at veterinary school to follow in her family members’ footsteps. Raised as a vegetarian, Justine is pressured at school to try meat for the first time. Once she does, she plumbs both the depths of her own soul and tests the limits of her darkest cravings.
The deal was negotiated by Robert Walak, President of Focus Features, and Anjay Nagpal, SVP of Focus World, with Beth Lemberger, Focus Features’ EVP of Business Affairs.
Nagpal said, “While favorably recalling some of cinema’s greatest tales of terror, ‘Raw’ is its own animal, a completely distinctive and fresh piece of work. We are thrilled to serve Julia’s galvanizing first feature to audiences around the world.”
Focus World curates exciting works from first-time and rising filmmakers for the digital age while also preserving the theatrical release component, allowing audiences to choose how they will watch a new movie. Its slate encompasses both narrative and nonfiction features, and both English-language and foreign-language films. In addition to Raw, upcoming Focus World releases include Academy Award winner Natalie Portman’s feature directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness, based on the acclaimed and award-winning memoir of the same name by Amos Oz, one of Israel’s most celebrated writers; Justin Tipping’s Oakland-set teen adventure Kicks, a hit at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival; and Ti West’s In a Valley of Violence, the revenge Western starring Ethan Hawke and John Travolta.
