Sony Pictures Classics has made its first purchase of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, acquiring North American and Latin American rights to Israeli director Joseph Cedar's "Footnote," which is screening as part of the festival's main competition.
"Footnote" (or "Hearat Shulayim") is the story of a rivalry between a father and son who are both Talmud professors at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the father a purist and the son ambitious and anxious for recognition. Lior Ashkenazi and Shlomo Bar-Aba star.
This is the first Cannes acquisition for SPC's Tom Bernard and Michael Barker, who came into the festival representing four films but are usually active Cannes buyers as well.
Among films in the main Cannes competition, Sony Classics will also release Pedro Almodovar's "The Skin I Live In." In addition, the company has the Un Certain Regard entry "Restless," the festival opener "Midnight in Paris" and the Sundance Favorite "Take Shelter."
SPC made the deal with WestEnd Films, the British company from which it also bought the 2010 films "Tamara Drewe" and "Mother and Child."
