Samuel Goldwyn Films Acquires North American rights to ‘The Food Club’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy
·2 min read

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to the uplifting Danish drama “The Food Club” from Scandinavian sales and aggregation banner LevelK.

Although it has yet to have an international premiere, “The Food Club” has been acquired for more than 30 territories. Besides selling to Samuel Goldwyn Films for North America, the movie was picked up by SquareOne for all rights in Germany, as well as German-language remake rights; The Reset Collective for Australia and New Zealand; ADS Service for Hungary; Big Tree Entertainment for India; Yes DBS for Israel; T&L for South Korea; and Mirror Audiovisual for Spain.

“We loved this best-ager gem from the very first moment. You just cannot go wrong with great food, great friends, red wine and big laughs in Puglia,” said Al Munteanu at SquareOne.

Set in the lush countryside, “The Food Club” is headlined by three well-known Scandinavian actresses: Kirsten Olesen (“The Bridge”), Stina Ekblad (“Wallander”) and Kirsten Lehfeldt (“Men & Chicken”).

The film revolves around three longtime girlfriends from elementary school who are coming into their prime and finding a new lease on life after participating in a cooking course in Italy. Marie (Olesen) is abandoned by her husband on Christmas Eve, leading her identity as part of a happy family to crumble; while Berling (Ekblad) is the eternal bachelorette who lives the sweet life but has a complicated relationship with her daughter; and Vanja (Lehfeldt) lives with the memories of her late husband and has difficulty moving on.

Michele Venitucci (“Tulipani: Love, Honor and a Bicycle”), Troels Lyby (“The Idiots”), Rasmus Botoft (“The Legacy”) and Mia Lyhne (“Klown”) complete the cast. “The Food Club” was written by Anne-Marie Olesen Thinghuus (“Black Widows,” “Lotto”) and is produced by Nina Lyng and Eva Juel Hammerich (“The Shamer’s Daughter – Simon and Malou”) for Nepenthe Film.

“The Food Club” marks Topsøe-Rothenborg’s fourth film. A popular Nordic filmmaker, Topsøe-Rothenborg previously directed several critically acclaimed comedies, such as the short-form satirical series “Sjit Happens.”

“The Food Club” was co-produced by Adriano Bassi and Lara Calligaro at Lume Film in Italy. It was financed with support from Lume Film, The Danish Film Institute, SF Studios, LevelK, Apulia Film Fund and the Italian Tax Credit, among others.

SF Studios will release the movie across the Nordics and is preparing a wide Danish release on Oct. 22.

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