EXCLUSIVE: Juno Films has acquired all North American rights to Sophie Fiennes’ documentary and Edinburgh International Film Festival premiere Acting.
The feature offers an inside look at the acting process as Cheek by Jowl theatre company artistic directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod rehearse scenes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth with eight actors in a derelict mansion on the outskirts of London.
Fiennes shot and edited the entire feature, which premiered in Edinburgh in 2024 before screening at IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
The co-production between Cheek By Jowl, Amoeba Film, and Lone Star Productions will open at Quad Cinema in New York on April 10 and in Los Angeles on April 11 as part of the Culture Vulture series, followed by a limited theatrical release.
“I acted as another body within the ensemble,” Fiennes said. “The slippage between being and performance is central to the film. It is a film about the process of learning, with the play increasingly breaking through to deliver its shattering insights.”
“Sophie captures the process of bringing Shakespeare to the stage,” Juno Films CEO Vondah Elizabeth Sheldon said. “Watching Declan and Nick rehearse with the eight actors and to see the process behind the production is a rare opportunity.”
Sheldon brokered the deal with Shani Hinton on behalf of P Guide Limited. Fiennes said alongside Juno’s commitment to “independent films with a strong focus on creative practice”, the goal was to bring Acting to audiences in New York, Los Angeles and “every theatre that programmes performing arts and creative documentary in North America”.
Juno Films’ recent releases include That They May Face The Rising Sun, Housewife Of The Year, and Lasse Halstrom’s Hilma.
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