Focus Features has acquired the majority of key international territories to Andrea Arnold’s hotly tipped Cannes official competition entry “American Honey.”
“American Honey,” written and directed by Arnold, stars Shia LaBeouf, Sasha Lane and Riley Keough in the story of Star (Sasha Lane), an adolescent girl from a troubled home. Star runs away with a traveling sales crew who drive across the American Midwest selling subscriptions door to door. Finding her feet in this gang of teenagers, one of whom is Jake (LaBeouf), she soon gets into the group’s lifestyle of hard-partying nights, law-bending days and young love.
A Parts & Labor and Pulse Films production in association with Mandown Pictures, the film was produced by Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy, Pouya Shahbazian, Alice Weinberg, Thomas Benski and Lucas Ochoa. The film was financed by Maven Pictures, Film4 and BFI, and was developed with financing from Film4 and BFI.
Exec producers are Rose Garnett, David Kosse, Ben Roberts, Lizzie Francke, Celine Rattray, Trudie Styler, Charlotte Ubben, Hardy Justice, Marisa Clifford, Paul Grindey, Mike Goodridge and Melissa Hook Shahbazian.
The film will screen in official competition Sunday at 3.30 p.m. in Cannes.
Protagonist Pictures, who is repping international rights on the film, negotiated the deal with Focus. Focus will release the film via Universal Pictures Intl.
Other territories pre-sold by Protagonist before Cannes include France (Diaphana), Latin America (Sun Distribution) and Benelux (Cineart). A24 pre-bought U.S. rights to the film via CAA.
