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Roadside Attractions & Liddell Ent Acquire Iñárritu's Biutiful

by Alex Billington
August 25, 2010

Good news for those of you waiting patiently to see Alejandro González Iñárritu's incredible film Biutiful. We'd heard that this deal was coming, but it's now official. Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainment have partnered to acquire distribution rights for Biutiful and are planning a release in December of this year. Biutiful will have its official North American premiere at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival next month. I'm not sure who Liddell Entertainment is (I've never heard of them) but I know who Roadside is and they don't really have a great track record. Why didn't Sony Pictures Classics pick this up?

There's been a bit of a debate amongst those who saw it in Cannes (including me) about how depressing and dark the film is, almost to the point where some think it won't play well at all here in the US because it's too bleak. I loved the film, it was one of my favorites from Cannes this year, and I hope that everyone who wants to to see it is able to, because it's a very moving, emotional, and powerful film and I think lead actor Javier Bardem (seen above) deserves at least an Oscar nomination for his phenomenal performance in the film. I'm not sure what Roadside/Liddell's Oscar plans are, but they better push for Bardem and Iñárritu at least.

"Biutiful joins the growing pantheon of tremendous, groundbreaking work by Alejandro González Iñárritu," said Roadside's Howard Cohen. "It's a deeply felt film, guaranteed to rock audiences to their core, and that's due to the amazing reciprocity between filmmaker and actor. Alejandro and Javier are two halves of the same whole." You can watch an official trailer we posted a few months ago or stay tuned for release details and another trailer that I'm sure Roadside will eventually be releasing. Who wants to see Biutiful already?

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