MUBI, the global distributor, streaming service and production company, has acquired Charlotte Wells’ Critics’ Week feature debut Aftersun for the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Latin America, Italy, Spain, France, Turkey and India. Starring Paul Mescal (Normal People) and new talent Frankie Corio. Aftersun also featured in the BFI and British Council’s 2022 ‘Great8’ selection for Cannes, which highlights emerging UK filmmakers.
MUBI will release the film theatrically followed by an exclusive MUBI streaming release.
The film is produced by Adele Romanski, Barry Jenkins and Mark Ceryak for PASTEL and Amy Jackson for Unified Theory.
Aftersun was financed by BBC Film, BFI (awarding National Lottery funding) and Screen Scotland, in association with Tango. The film was developed with BBC Film. Executive Producers are Eva Yates for BBC Film, Lizzie Francke for BFI, Kieran Hannigan for Screen Scotland, Tim Headington and Lia Buman for Tango.
Writer/Director Charlotte Wells is a Scottish filmmaker based in New York. She wrote and directed three short films as a student in the MBA/MFA dual-degree program at NYU where she was supported by BAFTA New York and Los Angeles. Wells has been featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 Faces of Independent Film” and was a Fellow at the 2020 Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Directors Labs. Aftersun is her first feature.
Charades' executive Carole Baraton is handling international sales and negotiated the deal with MUBI.
Recent and upcoming MUBI Releases include Park Chan-wook’s competition favourite Decision To Leave, Léa Mysius’s Director’s Fortnight title The Five Devils, Thomas Hardiman’s Medusa Deluxe, Joachim Trier’s Oscar and BAFTA nominated The Worst Person in the World, which has passed well over £1 million at the UK box office, Céline Sciamma’s BAFTA nominated Petite Maman, Sebastian Meise’s Oscar shortlisted Great Freedom, Leos Carax’s Annette, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, First Cow from Kelly Reichardt and Ben Sharrock’s multi BAFTA winning Limbo. MUBI also recently released Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s award-winning Drive My Car and Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner Titane, in several territories including Latin America.
For press inquiries, please contact:
Ollie Charles, [email protected]
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Background
About MUBI
MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor. A place to discover and watch beautiful, interesting, incredible films. A new hand-picked film arrives on MUBI, every single day. Cinema from across the world. From iconic directors, to emerging auteurs. All carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators.
Notebook is MUBI’s daily film publication, exploring all sides of cinema culture. And with MUBI GO, members in select countries can get a hand-picked cinema ticket every single week, to see the best new films in real cinemas.
MUBI also produces and distributes ambitious new films, which members can watch exclusively on the platform. Some recent and upcoming MUBI Releases include Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman, Leos Carax’s Annette, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, Julia Ducournau’s Titane, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, First Cow from Kelly Reichardt, Ben Sharrock’s Limbo, Pablo Larraín’s Ema, and Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria; MUBI’s co-productions include Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning, Ekwa Msangi’s Sundance prize-winner Farewell Amor and Rachel Lang’s Our Men.
MUBI is the biggest community of film lovers, available across 190 countries, with more than 12 million members around the world. Subscription plans are $10.99 / £9.99 / €9.99 a month or $83.88 / £71.88 / €71.88 for 12 months, or $10.99 a month or $83.88 for 12 months and £14.99 a month or £131.88 for 12 months to include MUBI GO. MUBI is available on the web, Roku devices, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, LG and Samsung Smart TVs, as well as on mobile devices including iPad, iPhone and Android.
About The BFI Film Fund
The BFI Film Fund invests around £25 million of National Lottery funding a year into developing and supporting filmmakers with diverse, bold and distinctive projects, that have a cultural relevance or progressive ideas, and which reflect people from different backgrounds.
Film Fund titles selected to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival are Triangle of Sadness screening In Competition, from writer/director Ruben Östlund, staring Woody Harrelson and Harris Dickinson; Aftersun, the feature debut by Scottish writer/director Charlotte Wells in competition in Critics Week; and animation Scale from writer/director Joseph Pierce as a Short Special Screening in Critics Week.
Upcoming and recently released titles include Aleem Khan’s BAFTA-winning debut feature After Love, whose star Joanna Scanlan won the Best Actress Award; Brian and Charles directed by Jim Archer and written and starring David Earl and Chris Hayward, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; critically acclaimed ear for eye directed by debbie tucker green; striking VR animation Laika directed by Oscar®-winner Asif Kapadia; The Phantom of the Open directed by Craig Roberts, written by Simon Farnaby and starring Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins; True Things directed by Harry Wootliff and starring Ruth Wilson, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival; interactive VR experience Goliath: Playing With Reality directed by Barry Gene Murphy and May Abdalla and narrated by Tilda Swinton, which won the VR Expanded Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival; Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava, which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and was selected for TIFF; Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir: Part II, which world premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2021; Terence Davies’ Benediction, which had its world premiere at TIFF and was selected for San Sebastian; and The Real Charlie Chaplin directed by Peter Middleton and James Spinney, which had its world premiere at Telluride.
The BFI is a cultural charity, a National Lottery distributor, and the UK's lead organisation for film and the moving image.
Our mission is:
- To support creativity and actively seek out the next generation of UK storytellers
- To grow and care for the BFI National Archive, the world's largest film and television archive
- To offer the widest range of UK and international moving image culture through our programmes and festivals - delivered online and in venue
- To use our knowledge to educate and deepen public appreciation and understanding
- To work with Government and industry to ensure the continued growth of the UK's screen industries
Founded in 1933, the BFI is a registered charity governed by Royal Charter.
The BFI Board of Governors is chaired by Tim Richards.
About BBC Film
BBC Film supports invigorating and imaginative filmmaking. Firmly established at the forefront of UK film, BBC Film has an ambitious slate featuring many of the most exciting filmmakers working today. Every film is linked by a sense of urgency – these are stories for now.
BBC Film has backed three titles selected for the 2022 Cannes Film Festival: TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, the English language debut of Ruben Östlund starring, Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean Kriek and Woody Harrelson, which will premiere in Competition in the Official Selection; GOD’S CREATURES starring Emily Watson and Paul Mescal and directed by Saela Davis & Anna Rose Holmer, which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight; and AFTERSUN from Charlotte Wells, starring Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio and Celia Rowlson-Hall, premiering in Competition in Critics’ Week.
Recent films supported by BBC Film include Jane Campion’s Oscar winner for Directing and BAFTA winner for Best Film and Director THE POWER OF THE DOG starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Jessie Plemons and Kirsten Dunst; the four-time BAFTA-nominated and six-time BIFA-winning AFTER LOVE, Aleem Khan’s debut film starring Joanna Scanlan, BAFTA winner for Leading Actress; Clio Barnard’s twice BAFTA-nominated ALI & AVA starring Adeel Akhtar and Claire Rushbrook; Andrea Arnold’s BAFTA-nominated documentary COW; Joanna Hogg’s THE SOUVENIR PART II starring Honor Swinton Byrne; Terence Davies’ BENEDICTION starring Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi; SWEETHEART, the debut feature of Marley Morrison; Craig Roberts’ THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN, starring Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins; Harry Wootliff’s second film TRUE THINGS starring Ruth Wilson and Tom Burke; PIRATES, the directorial debut of Reggie Yates; HERE BEFORE, the debut of acclaimed playwright Stacey Gregg starring Andrea Riseborough; and EAR FOR EYE, the second feature from debbie tucker green featuring an ensemble cast including Lashana Lynch, Tosin Cole, Carmen Munroe, Danny Sapani, Nadine Marshall and Arinzé Kene.
Upcoming BBC Film titles include Frank Berry’s AISHA, starring Letitia Wright and Josh O’Connor, which will premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, Joanna Hogg’s THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER starring Tilda Swinton, and debut features MEDUSA DELUXE from Thomas Hardiman, PRETTY RED DRESS from Dionne Edwards, TUESDAY from Daina O’Pusic starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lola Petticrew and Arinzé Kene, and SWEET SUE from Leo Leigh.
About Tango
Tango was formed in 2017 by Lia Buman and Tim Headington with the mission to be a nimble and story-driven producer and financier. Since then, Tango has produced and financed a wide variety of films including Nia DaCosta’s Little Woods (Neon), Blow the Man Down from Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy (Amazon) and Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus). In 2022, Tango’s premiered Resurrection, written and directed by Andrew Semans and starring Rebecca Hall in Sundance and Aftersun, written and directed by Charlotte Wells in Cannes Crtics’ Week. As producers, Tango is in post on Spaceman, directed by Johan Renck and starring Adam Sandler for Netflix and WEIRD: the Weird Al Yankovic Story directed by Eric Appel and starring Daniel Radcliffe for Roku.
About Pastel
PASTEL was founded as a home for artists to create work in film, television, and beyond. In addition to developing in-house for Jenkins, the company is incubating an eclectic slate of projects with unique new voices that furthers the mandate set forth by Moonlight. Past projects include If Beale Street Could Talk directed by Jenkins, Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always, and the award-winning limited series The Underground Railroad based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and directed by Jenkins for Amazon Prime Video.
Additional upcoming projects include Charlotte Wells' feature length directorial debut Aftersun, premiering in the Cannes 2022 lineup, Raven Jackson’s debut feature All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt for A24, a biopic of Alvin Ailey for Searchlight Pictures, and Jenkins’ first foray into virtual production with Walt Disney Studio’s The Lion King Prequel. PASTEL has a television first-look deal with HBO, HBO Max & A24.
The company presented Alberto Mielgo’s animated short film The Windshield Wiper which premiered at Cannes and just won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Header image: Still from Aftersun featuring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio, courtesy of MUBI.