Audiard's Un Prophete Acquired by Sony Pictures Classics

May 21, 2009
by Alex Billington

My favorite film of the fest has just been acquired. Sony Pictures Classics has nabbed the rights to Jacques Audiard's Un Prophete, which we debuted a teaser trailer for a few days ago. Not only did I give the film a glowing review, but critics in Cannes have been saying great things about it (see below). Apparently the price for the film was quite high, but SPC just decided to go for anyway. They can probably turn it into a big Oscar contender, at least in the Foreign Language Film category. Hopefully they set a release date for Audiard's Un Prophete sometime later this year, and not next year, as it has a lot of buzz at the moment.

Quote from indieWIRE's review: "Successfully balancing art-film portraiture with a gangster picture's plot, the film may be one of the more conventional movies in this year's Cannes competition, but judging from the sustained applause after its Cannes premiere on Saturday morning, it's also been one of the more satisfying." Quote from The Guardian's review: "For sheer muscle and sweat, nothing has so far beaten Jacques Audiard's terrific prison-gangster movie, A Prophet, which calls to mind old-fashioned French thrillers by Jean-Pierre Melville… The film shows Audiard to be the biggest beast in new French cinema."

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