Cinema Guild Acquires Deborah Stratman’s Sundance And Berlin Competition Title ‘Last Things’

EXCLUSIVE: Cinema Guild has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Deborah Stratman’s well-received latest Last Things, which premiered in the New Frontiers section at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The film will open theatrically in New York at Anthology Film Archives on January 12 on a 35mm print before expanding across the country. The film’s broad synopsis reads: Last Things looks at evolution and extinction from the perspective of the rocks and minerals that came before humanity and will outlast us. With scientists and thinkers like Lynn Margulis and Marcia Bjørnerud as guides and quoting from the proto-Sci-fi texts of J.H. Rosny, Deborah Stratman offers a stunning array of images, from microscopic forms to vast landscapes, and seeks a picture of evolution without humans at the center.

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After Sundance, Last Things went on to play Berlin and NYFF and picked up prizes at Dokufest Kosovo and Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival. This deal was negotiated by Tom Sveen and Peter Kelly of Cinema Guild with the film’s producers.

“We’ve long been fans of Deborah Stratman’s rich and rigorous body of work,” said Sveen. “And Last Things finds her at her most ingenious, looking to the oldest matter on the planet and finding new images and new possibilities.”

Stratman added: “It’s a dream to be releasing Last Things in the company of killer new works by Laura Citarella, Claire Simon, Bas Devos, and Angela Schanelec, who’ve made hands down some of the best, most challenging cinema I’ve seen this year. Thank you to Cinema Guild for supporting these visionary films and for endeavoring to get more eyes on them.”

Cinema Guild’s other upcoming releases include Hong Sangsoo’s In Water, Bas Devos’ Here, and Angela Schanelec’s Music. Recent releases include Laura Citarella’s Trenque Lauquen and Claire Simon’s Our Body. 

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