Film Movement Acquires North American Rights To Victor Erice's CLOSE YOUR EYES

Though his career started with 1973's The Spirit of the Beehive, the elusive and wildly talented Spanish filmmaker Victor Erice would only go on to make three more feature length films. The latest and most eagerly anticipated, CLOSE YOUR EYES, which has its World Premiere at Cannes, follows his last, 1992's Cannes Award-winner Dream of Light, and earned numerous awards and accolades in equal measure.

Film Movement announced they had acquired Erice's fourth feature-length film for North America. It will have its theatrical premiere this August at New York's Film Forum and in Los Angeles before going wide. A release to all leading digital outlets and the home entertainment marketplace will follow.

The deal was made by Michael Rosenberg, President, Film Movement and Vicente Canales, Managing Director of Film Factory, on behalf of the filmmakers.

A compelling reflection about identity, memory and filmmaking, CLOSE YOUR EYES opens onto the mysterious disappearance of famous Spanish actor, Julio Arenas, while shooting a film. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he's been the victim of an accident on a cliff by the sea. Many years later, the mystery surrounding his disappearance is brought back to the spotlight by a TV program outlining his life, and death, and showing exclusive images of the last scenes he filmed, shot by his dear friend, the director Miguel Garay. Starring Manolo Solo (The Fury of a Patient Man) and Jose Coronado (No Rest for the Wicked), CLOSE YOUR EYES also reunites Erice with Ana Torrent 50 years after The Spirit of the Beehive. Considered by many as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Erice is back to mesmerize audiences with his fourth film, deemed to become a new classic of contemporary cinema.

One of the most celebrated films of 2023, CLOSE YOUR EYES, an Official Selection at Cannes and the Toronto, San Sebastian, New York and BFI London Film Festivals, was nominated for 10 prestigious Goya Awards, and captured the Best Supporting Actor Goya. (Jose Coronado). The National Society of Film Critics awarded the film with a “Special Citation For A Film Awaiting U.S. Distribution” at the beginning of this year. The film appeared on Sight & Sound's Best Films of 2023 list at #11 despite not having been released in the US or UK yet. It also appeared on the lists for Best Undistributed Films of 2023 from Film Comment, IndieWire and The Film Stage.

Michael Rosenberg, President, Film Movement said, “Much has been written by the critics since Cannes praising Victor Erice's CLOSE YOUR EYES, and it is indeed one of the cinematic events of the year for cinephiles. This deeply moving mystery about the nature of memory, identity and cinema, itself, further cements Erice as one of our most profound masters of the medium. We could not be more proud to release the film.”

In addition to the acquisition of CLOSE YOUR EYES, Film Movement has also recently acquired SISI & I, starring Oscar winner Sandra Huller, EUREKA from Argentinian director Lisandro Alonso, Bertrand Bonello's drama COMA; IN THE REARVIEW, Maciek Hamela's Ukrainian war doc recently shortlisted by the International Documentary Association for Best Feature Documentary; Jessica Hausner's dark comedy, CLUB ZERO, currently in theaters; and 20,000 SPECIES OF BEES, a 2022 Silver Bear winner from Spain and winner of three Goya Awards.