Steve Arroyave’s Toronto-based Arrow Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights ahead of EFM to The Athlete.

Davey Frankel, Rasselas Lakew wrote and directed the true story of Olympic marathon champion Abebe Bikila, the barefoot Ethiopian who stunned the 1960 Rome Olympics by becoming the first African to win marathon gold. Four years later in Tokyo he won it again.

The film screened in Rotterdam where it won the € 2,000 Lions Award to an entry from the Bright Future section dedicated to film-makers of the future. T

Frankel and Lakew produced with the AV Patchbay, Cinema Aethiopica and Instinctive Film project with Darryn Welch. Lakew, Dag Malmberg and Ruta Gedmintas star.

“Ras and I are excited to be working with Steve and Arrow, a good group of people who have been as moved, impressed, and inspired by the film as the audiences we have shown it to around the world,” Frankel said.

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