Ava DuVernay's ARRAY Releasing Acquires MARS ONE

Ava DuVernay's ARRAY Releasing TODAY announced the acquisition of writer/director Gabriel Martins' MARS ONE. As Brazil's official selection for the 95th Academy Awards International Feature Film, MARS ONE will debut on select screens and on Netflix beginning January 5, 2023 from ARRAY Releasing.

An official Sundance Film Festival 2022 selection, ARRAY Releasing has acquired distribution rights in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The announcement was made by Tilane Jones, President of ARRAY.

In MARS ONE, the Martins family are optimistic dreamers, quietly leading their lives in the margins of a major Brazilian city following the disappointing inauguration of a far-right extremist president. A lower-middle-class Black family, they feel THE STRAIN of their new reality as the political dust settles. Tércia, the mother, reinterprets her world after an unexpected encounter leaves her wondering if she's cursed.

Her husband, Wellington, puts all of his hopes into the soccer career of their son, Deivinho, who reluctantly follows his father's ambitions despite secretly aspiring to study astrophysics and colonize Mars. Meanwhile, their older daughter, Eunice, falls in love with a free-spirited young woman and ponders whether it's time to leave home.

"Gabriel Martins has created an emotionally-layered drama in his first solo feature directorial debut," said Jones. "ARRAY is proud to distribute MARS ONE, which marks the first time Brazil has chosen a film from a Black Brazilian director to represent the country at the Oscars for Best International Feature."

In addition to debuting at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, MARS ONE was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding International Narrative Feature at Outfest Los Angeles, the Jury Award for Best Feature Narrative at BlackStar Film Festival and was an official selection at New York's LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest.

MARS ONE is produced by Thiago Macêdo Correia of Filmes de Plástico. The acquisition was negotiated by Gordon Bobb of Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka, Finkelstein, and Lezcano on behalf of ARRAY, Lorna Lee Torres and Austin Kennedy of Magnolia Pictures International on behalf of MARS ONE. Gabriel Martins is represented by CAA.