Music Box Takes U.S. Rights To Edinburgh Film Festival Winner ‘The Road Dance’ Starring Hermione Corfield

Andreas Wiseman
·2 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Music Box Films has picked up U.S. rights to director Richie Adams’ well-reviewed drama The Road Dance, starring Hermione Corfield.

The Road Dance centers on Kirsty MacLeod (Corfield) who dreams of a better life away from the isolation that suffocates her in a small village on an island in the Outer Scottish Hebrides. Suppressing these aspirations, she sees her lover Murdo (Will Fletcher) conscripted for service in the First World War, soon to set off and fight alongside the other young men from the village. A road dance is held in their honor the evening before they depart, but it’s on that night that Kirsty’s life takes a dramatic and tragic turn.

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The Scottish adaptation of John McKay’s 2002 novel premiered at the 2021 Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Film, followed by the Jury Prize for Best Feature at the Manchester International Film Festival. It has since played the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, and other U.S. festivals, including the Sedona International Film Festival, where it earned the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Drama.

Music Box Films plans to release the film later this year. The sale was negotiated by Brian Andreotti of Music Box Films and Andrew Brown of Parkland Pictures on behalf of the filmmakers.

“The Road Dance is the kind of sweeping romance that isn’t made much these days: an intimate, classical, character-driven film where the biggest special effects are the spectacular landscapes of Scotland, captured by Petra Korner’s exquisite cinematography,” said Brian Andreotti of Music Box Films. “Richie Adams’s delicate direction and his enormously talented cast are sure to affect audiences in the US.”

Director Adams added: “I’ve always been a fan of period films and stories of simpler times when a community rallied around itself just to survive, as in this story set against war-torn Scotland in 1916. And what intrigued me most about John McKay’s book was the power of the human spirit in the character of Kirsty Macleod who is confronted by the unthinkable, the part played brilliantly by Hermione Corfield.”

Producer Steven Shapiro commented: “We’re very proud of this film. It’s a tough story, handled deftly by Richie, and we were so fortunate to have Hermione’s captivating performance complimented by the work of veterans Mark Gatiss and Morven Christie, and newcomers Will Fletcher and Ali Fumiko Whitney. We are so excited for US audiences to see it via Music Box.”

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