Studiocanal has acquired Aretha Franklin concert documentary Amazing Grace for the UK, Australia and New Zealand ahead of its European premiere out of competition at the Berlinale on Friday (15).
Worldwide sales representative Endeavor Content has also licensed Japan to Gaga and Israel to United King. NEON previously picked up North American rights to the concert film, which took nearly five decades to make.
Amazing Grace depicts the 1972 concert when Franklin performed with James Cleveland and The Southern California Community Choir at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles.
Warner Bros Records hired the late Sydney Pollack to film the show over two nights as a companion piece to the recording of a live album of the same name, which went on to become the biggest-selling album of Franklin’s career.
The film remained unseen for decades, because Pollack forgot to use clapperboards, which made it almost impossible to sync sound to image. After Pollack died in 2008, Alan Elliot took over the film and produced with Joe Boyd, Rob Johnson, Sabrina Owens, Tirrell D. Whittley, Jerry Wexler, and Joseph Woolf.
Amazing Grace received its world premiere at DOC NYC and screened at AFI Fest.
Endeavor Content’s film sales slate includes out of competition Berlinale selection The Operative starring Diane Kruger and Martin Freeman; Bad Education starring Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney; Mosul produced by the Russo brothers; and Dev Patel’s directorial debut Monkey Man.
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