Everyone refuel your super yachts and break out the couture because The Sapphires is the latest Australian film to be thrust into the limelight at Cannes after it was announced that the film will not only be opening the Melbourne International Film Festival but will also screen as part of the official selection during the 65th Annual Cannes French Film festival, which is set to kick off today. On top of that awesome news, The Weinstein Company, also known as Harvey Weinstein – the man thanked alongside God during innumerable Oscar acceptance speeches – has acquired U.S. rights to the film’s distribution, announcing that:
“These girls light up the screen as much as their music lights up the stage. We’re thrilled to bring the stories and music from these sisters to audiences all over the world.”
Set in the late 1960s, the film stars AFI Award winner and subject of one of my favourite Archibald portraits Deborah Mailman, Idol alum Jessica Mauboy and the loveable dork/cop from Bridesmaids, Chris O’Dowd, as well as newcomers Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell, and follows four singers from a remote Aboriginal mission who are branded as Australia’s answer to The Supremes and sent to Vietnam to entertain the troops – Fonda style.
Adapted from the stage musical of the same name and inspired by writer Tony Briggs‘ mother and her true-to-life story, The Sapphires looks like Dreamgirls meets Bran Nu Dae and Samson & Delilah and has been directed by acclaimed theatre actor and director Wayne Blair. Warwick Thornton, who took out the 2009 Camera d’Or at Cannes for Samson & Delilah, also served as the film’s director of photography. The film and its killer 60s soundtrack will swing into cinemas on August 9th.
