Cinema Guild Acquires Hong Sansoo’s Silver Bear-Winning ‘A Traveler’s Needs’ Starring Isabelle Huppert

Hannah Abraham
·1 min read
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Hong Sansoo’s A Traveler’s Needs, starring Isabelle Huppert, has sold North American distribution rights to New York’s Cinema Guild.

The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, winning the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize.

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A Traveler’s Needs will premiere in North America later in 2024, after which Cinema Guild will release in theaters. The pic is a comedy with a strong Korean connection, with Huppert playing Iris, a woman struggling in Seoul who turns to teaching French to make ends meet. Regular collaborators Lee Hyeyoung and Kwon Haehyo also feature as Huppert’s student and flirty husband respectively.

Sangsoo and Huppert have collaborated twice before, on 2012 comedy-drama In Another Country and 2017’s Claire’s Camera.

“A Traveler’s Needs hits like a meteorite from another galaxy,” said Cinema Guild President Peter Kelly. “Huppert delivers a beguiling and hilarious performance. Her Iris is a character that only Hong and Huppert, with their singular talents, could combine to create.”

Huppert is lining up the releases this year. She also starred in another Berlin pic, André Téchiné’s My New Friends, and is slated for Patricia Mazuy’s Visiting Hours later this year. Upcoming Cinema Guild releases, meanwhile, include Sangsoo’s In Our Day, Angela Schanelec’s Music and the 4K restoration of Shinji Somai’s Moving.

The deal was negotiated by Peter Kelly of Cinema Guild with Youngjoo Suh of Finecut.

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