F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b

Aha, this is what you call a break out film. First, premiere at Cannes Film Festival in International Critics Week. Followed up by rave reviews. Then the Grand Rail d’Or Award. And now, the big news – Sony Classic Pictures picks up the US rights of the film.

According to this report in Variety,Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all U.S. rights to Ritesh Batra’s feature debut “The Lunchbox”,  a Cannes Critics’ Week standout.

Copy-pasting excerpts from the report…..

Repped by Germany’s The Match Factory, the Mumbai-set crowd-pleaser got a standing ovation following its Cannes unspooling.

At Cannes, SPC also acquired all U.S. rights to Iranian helmer Asghar Farhadi’s Paris-set drama “The Past,” starring Berenice Bejo and Tahar Rahim, which is vying for a Palme d’Or.

SPC has a strong track record when it comes to acquiring foreign arthouse films with strong Oscar potential. Last year, it nabbed Michael Haneke’s “Amour,” which was nominated for five Oscar nods and won best foreign-language film.

Gaul’s Happiness Distribution also picked up ”Lunchbox.” It is one of four Indian entries that bowed at Cannes, which is celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema.

No wonder many critics already termed it as a film with crossover appeal. Click here to read the reviews here.

Also, the film recently bagged the Grand Rail d’Or Award at Cannes.  According to DearCinema, since 1995, a group of rail worker film enthusiasts presents the Golden Rail awards to two films in Cannes Critics’ Week: Petit Rail d’Or for best short film and Grand Rail d’Or  for best feature. So it’s kind of viewers choice award.

Written and directed by Ritesh Batra, the film stars Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Denzil Smith and Bharati Achrekar. To read its official synopsis and full cast/crew details, click here.