Tao Okamoto (left) and Virginie Efira in 'All of a Sudden.' Cannes Film Festival Oscar-winning Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s epic drama All of a Sudden, one of the most rapturously received titles at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has locked down its awards-season release date: Neon will open the film exclusively in North American theaters on Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving.
The film world premiered in competition at Cannes in May, where its two leads, Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, shared the best actress prize — with Okamoto becoming the first Japanese performer ever to win the award. All of a Sudden also ranked at the top of many critics’ Cannes best-of lists this year. The Hollywood Reporter‘s chief film critic David Rooney summed the film up at the festival as “a work of deeply affecting humanism.”
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Unfolding across France and Japan over an expansive three hours and 16 minutes, the Japanese- and French-language feature is a deeply earnest but powerfully artful exploration of life, death and the failures of capitalism. Efira stars as Marie-Lou, the director of an elderly care facility who is fighting to institute a philosophy of care built on listening and respect for her residents’ dignity, over the resistance of her own staff. But her worldview is subtly transformed by an encounter with Mari (Okamoto), a Japanese theater director battling cancer, and by the profound friendship that grows between the two women. The cast also includes Kyozo Nagatsuka and Kodai Kurosaki.
Hamaguchi co-wrote the screenplay with Léa Le Dimna, loosely adapting When Life Suddenly Takes a Turn, the celebrated Japanese collection of real-life letters exchanged between a philosopher with terminal cancer, Makiko Miyano, and a medical anthropologist, Maho Isono. The film is a four-country co-production between France’s Cinefrance Studios, Japan’s Office Shirous and Bitters End, Germany’s Heimatfilm and Belgium’s Tarantula. It opened in Japanese cinemas in June.
Neon’s Nov. 25 date tees All of a Sudden up for an ambitious awards campaign. Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car opened in U.S. theaters in the exact same Thanksgiving-eve slot in 2021 and went on to win the best international feature Oscar. It was also nominated for best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay. Many of the acclaimed director’s other works have been festival favorites, with Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy taking the Berlinale’s Silver Bear in 2021 and Evil Does Not Exist claiming the Silver Lion in Venice in 2023.
Neon has lined up yet another packed slate of awards-season contenders. The distributor extended its streak of Palme d’Or pick-ups by nabbing Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord. Its fall lineup also includes Na Hong-jin’s Cannes monster epic Hope, hitting theaters Sept. 9, and James Gray’s Paper Tiger in November, among others.
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