Fresh off Hamnet’s Golden Globe win for Best Motion Picture – Drama (and Jessie Buckley’s nod for Best Female Actor – Drama), Focus Features boosts the Chloé Zhao film to 688 locations from 232 across the U.S. this weekend. It’s expecting to further expand after Oscar nominations, where are almost upon us. Voting concludes today at 5 p.m. PT for the 98th Academy Award, with noms coming January 22.
Notable new openings this frame are led by Sony Pictures Classics’ A Private Life starring Jodie Foster, Mubi’s Oscar-shortlisted Sound of Falling by Mascha Schilinski and, from Cineverse, Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize winner A Useful Ghost, all in limited release. Abramorama debuts SXSW documentary winner Shuffle and AI critique Deepfaking Sam Altman.
A Private Life (Vie Privée) by Rebecca Zlotowski starts in New York (Lincoln Square, Angelika) and Los Angeles (Laemmle Royal, AMC Grove, AMC Burbank) ahead of an expansion January 30. Renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner (Foster, performing in excellent French) is deeply troubled by the sudden death of one of her patients. Convinced that it was murder, she decides to investigate. Premiered at Cannes and screened at Telluride and TIFF, where Foster was honored with a Tribute Award. Was the Spotlight selection at the New York Film Festival and opened the American French Film Festival in Los Angeles. See Deadline’s Cannes review. Virginie Efira, Daniel Auteuil, Matthieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste and Luana Bajrami also star.
Sound of Falling premiered at Cannes, winning the Jury Prize, and is Germany’s official Oscar submission. It’s playing exclusively at the IFC Center in New York, expanding to L.A., Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto next week and additional markets through February. The film tracks the lives of four adolescent girls (Alma, Erika, Angelika, Lenka) across the last century in one farmhouse. Certified Fresh at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, Deadline’s review calls it “a masterclass in unnerving, ethereal brilliance.” Stars Lena Urzendowsky, Hanna Heckt, Susanne Wuest and Luise Heyer. Screenplay by Schilinski and Louise Peter.
A Useful Ghost, the comedic fantastical feature debut of Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, is at the IFC Center in New York. He is the first Thai director to win the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize when the film premiered at the Semaine de la Critique. Actress, model and influencer Davika Hoorne stars as a woman who dies of dust pollution and then returns as a ghost in the form of a vacuum cleaner, determined to save her family from a similar fate. See Deadline’s Cannes Studio interview with director and star. This is an unusual foray into foreign-language content for the outfit behind Terrifier.
Moderate releases: Gkids debuts All You Need Is Kill, the Japanese action sci-fi anime, on around 760 screens. The directorial debut of Kenichiro Akimoto, written by Yuichiro Kido, it’s based on the eponymous bestselling novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka that also inspired Doug Liman’s 2014 live-action adaptation Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
From IFC’s RLJE and Shudder, Night Patrol by Ryan Prows launches in 800 theaters. An LAPD officer must put aside his differences with the area’s street gangs when he discovers a local police task force is harboring a horrific secret that endangers the residents of the housing projects where he grew up. Stars Justin Long, Dermot Mulroney, RJ Cyler, Jermaine Fowler. Premiered at Fantastic Fest.
Combat veteran drama Sheepdog, written, directed by and starring Steven Grayhm, opens at 415 locations from Allen Media Group Motion Pictures. The story of Calvin Cole (Grayhm), a decorated combat veteran who is court-ordered into trauma therapy. As Calvin struggles to confront his past, he finds himself in a forced reunion with his estranged father-in-law (Vondie Curtis-Hall), a Vietnam vet newly released from prison. Guiding Calvin on his path to healing is Dr. Elecia Knox (Virginia Madsen), a VA therapist-in-training.
Abramorama’s Shuffle launches at the DCTV Firehouse in NYC. Looks at the wake of the opioid epidemic as insurance companies were required to cover addiction and mental health treatment at the same reimbursement rate as other medical conditions, but without any of the regulations, a move that effectively monetized the 40 million Americans struggling with these issues. Shot over the course of three years, the documentary follows three individuals trapped by the insurance-fueled cycle of treatment fraud spreading across the country whose futures depend not on getting into treatment, but on getting out alive. SXSW called it “a quietly searing exposé of exploitation and fraud in the addiction treatment industry.”
The distributor also has the lighter Deepfaking Sam Altman, billed as “a comedic documentary exploring AI, identity, and humanity through the creation of “Sam Bot,”’ at the Quad Cinema in NYC including a Q&A with director Adam Bhala Lough. Adds the Laemmle Noho in LA Jan. 30. Premiered at SXSW. When Los Angeles filmmaker Lough fails to land an interview with the elusive Sam Altman, he travels to India to deepfake the tech CEO, only to create a glitchy LLM “Sam Bot” that moves into his home, befriends his son and begins co-directing the movie. As Sam Bot grows more lifelike, Adam is forced to decide whether to delete the AI he accidentally brought to life, and the film becomes a sharp, surprisingly moving exploration of how humans navigate the chaotic new world of artificial intelligence.
