Universal Language, the original and quietly funny Oscar-shortlisted Cannes and TIFF premiering feature by Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin debuts on one screen each in New York and LA. Chinese animated juggernaut Ne Zha 2 opens Stateside and Oscar Nominated Shorts are back for a 20th season. Sony Picture Classics’ Becoming Led Zeppelin expands to 1,039 locations from 369 Imax screens and IFC Films jumps Armand to 230 theaters from two. Oscar contenders continue to populate screens.
Oscilloscope’s Universal Language quite likes this window with the Academy Awards a few weeks away. In a crowded market, “this date is great. Once the ceremony comes and goes, there is a rotation of films out of theaters,” says theatrical distribution chief Andrew Carlin.
He calls Rankin a great actor and filmmaker with a particular sense of style and Universal Language a film with “a strangeness to it that defies classification” — a plus for Oscilloscope.
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Rankin returned the compliment. Oscilloscope (which just acquired North American rights to Albert Birney’s surreal black-and-white fantasy Obex out of Sundance) has a loyal audience, he says. “They really get the film and they really know how to position it and fight for it.” The company also came on as Executive Producer.
Winner of the inaugural Audience Award of Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, Universal Language, is set in a mysterious, surreal inter-zone between Tehran and Winnipeg as the lives of multiple characters interweave. Gradeschoolers Negin and Nazgol find money frozen in the winter ice; Massoud leads a group of befuddled tourists through historic sites of Winnipeg; Matthew quits his meaningless job in a Québecois government office and sets out upon an enigmatic journey to visit his mother. The characters speak Farsi. The film, which sits at 97% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, is a whimsical blending of cultures.
“I think that’s what people are responding to,” say Rankin. “There’s a certain catharsis to just seeing the … gentleness existing where, you know, rigidity and contempt and solitude … has been massively encouraged in our politics.”
Oscilloscope distributed Rankin’s previous film, The Twentieth Century, which won the Berlinale Fipresci Award in 2020 and was named Best Canadian debut at TIFF Midnight Madness in 2019. It opened in Canada before crashing into Covid. “The American release took place during the lockdown. Maybe a few people watched it on the internet, but that was about it,” Rankin says.
Universal Language starts a slow rollout at the Angelika and AMC Burbank, adding Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago next week before expanding to top 30 markets and then nationally to 100+ cities.
Rankin is optimistic at what feels like an ongoing theatrical recovery.
“It’s a beautiful thing to watch a movie with a group of people that you don’t know and have a common experience with them. I think the age of just watching stuff alone on your phone is beginning to lose its charm. I even started trying not to look things up on Google … Any kind of analog encounter we can have of the world at this point, I think is a huge relief. And I feel like I’m not alone with that.”
Written by Rankin, Pirouz Nemati, who also star, and Ila Firouzabadi. Produced by Sylvain Corbeil’s Metafilms.
Juggernaut fantasy thriller Ne Zha 2, which is pushing $1.4 billion in China, opens in 700+ theaters. It’s the third highest grossing animated film globally and, as per Deadline, is ultimately expected to top Inside Out 2 as No. 1, from China box office alone. Directed by Yang Yu (aka Jiaozi), it was released in China on January 29 for the Lunar New Year holiday. NZ2 is already China’s highest-grossing film of all time, as well as the only film ever to cross $1 billion in a single market. The North American screen count is a record for a Chinese film distributed by a Chinese studio in the region in the past 20 years, according to reports.
Based on a classic Chinese myth and 16th-century novel, Investiture of the Gods, and following the 2019 original, Ne Zha 2 follows a young deity (Ne Zha) who defies destiny, wielding supernatural powers to defend his home from the Dragon King of the Four Seas.
Oscar Nominated Shorts are back in 700+ theaters, this year distributed by theatrical releasing brand Shorts, part of the Shorts International family that includes linear and OTT channel ShortsTV. It’s the 20th year. As always, Shorts offers three film blocks of the nominated Best Live Action, Best Animated and Best Documentary shorts. There is an option to break up the Documentary shorts into two parts. Below is a recap of the nominees.
Animated Short Film
“Beautiful Men” (Miyu Distribution) Nicolas Keppens and Brecht Van Elslande
“In the Shadow of the Cypress” Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi
“Magic Candies” (Toei Animation) Daisuke Nishio and Takashi Washio
“Wander to Wonder” (Miyu Distribution) Nina Gantz and Stienette Bosklopper
“Yuck!” (Miyu Distribution) Loïc Espuche and Juliette Marquet
Documentary Short Film
“Death by Numbers” Kim A. Snyder and Janique L. Robillard
“I Am Ready, Warden” (MTV Documentary Films) Smriti Mundhra and Maya Gnyp
“Incident” (The New Yorker) Bill Morrison and Jamie Kalven
“Instruments of a Beating Heart” (The New York Times OpDocs/Cineric Creative)
Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Eric Nyari
“The Only Girl in the Orchestra” (Netflix) Molly O’Brien and Lisa Remington.
Watch official trailer on Shorts TV site here.