Sony Pictures Classics has left the 2016 Sundance Film Festival with four diverse films to round out their already eclectic slate. They have acquired worldwide rights (excluding France and Germany) to Thorsten Schütte’s documentary Eat That Question – Frank Zappa in His Own Words; worldwide rights to Meera Menon’s Equity, all rights in the US and Asia to John Krasinski’s The Hollars and North America, Latin America, Germany, Australia/New Zealand, Scandinavia and Asian rights to Otto Bell’s The Eagle Huntress.
Eat That Question, directed by Thorsten Schütte, is an energetic celebration of Frank Zappa told entirely through archival footage culled from the performer’s 30-year career in entertainment. Weaving together rare TV interviews and performances from around the world, the film by the German director explores Zappa’s unconventional and irreverent handling of the media, his irrepressible quest for enlightenment and his witty self-dramatization.
Equity, directed by Meera Menon, follows senior investment banker Naomi Bishop’s (Anna Gunn) world of high-power big money as brutal and fierce, and one she thrives in. When a controversial IPO threatens the fragile balance of power and confidentiality, Naomi finds herself entangled in a web of politics and deception. With an aggressive prosecutor (Alysia Reiner) from her past on her heels, and a strained relationship with her junior, Erin (Sarah Megan Thomas), Naomi is forced to reexamine her own ambitions and the cutthroat world she loves—one where women have yet to break the glass ceiling. Broad Street Pictures’ Alysia Reiner and Sarah Megan Thomas serve as producers.
John Krasinski’s The Hollars follows John Hollar (Krasinski), a struggling NYC artist, who is forced to navigate the small Middle-American town he left behind when news of his mother’s illness brings him home. Back in the house he grew up in, John is immediately swept up in the problems of his dysfunctional family, high school rival, and an over-eager ex-girlfriend as he faces impending fatherhood with his girlfriend in New York. The film is made up of an all-star cast which includes Krasinski, Emmy Award winner Margo Martindale, Academy Award® nominee Richard Jenkins, Sharlto Copley, Academy Award nominee Anna Kendrick, Charlie Day, Josh Groban, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Randall Park.
The Eagle Huntress is the spellbinding true story of Aisholpan, a 13-year old Mongolian girl who is striving to become the first female Eagle Hunter in the 2,000 years of male dominated history. Aisholpan is a real life role model on an epic journey to win victory in a faraway land. Under the tutelage and support of her father and her grandfather, she learns all aspects of this ancient tradition, including taming her very own eaglet and training for the annual Golden Eagle Festival, which involves competing against 70 male Eagle Hunters. She even dreams of hunting in the frozen winters to prove that a girl can do anything a boy can, so long as she’s determined. The film is directed by Otto Bell, and Executive Produced by Academy Award-nominated director/producer Morgan Spurlock and actress Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens).
