Apple Original Films lands critically acclaimed feature “Fancy Dance,” starring Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone, and hailing from director and co-writer Erica Tremblay
Apple Original Films announced today that it has landed the global rights to “Fancy Dance,” the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival selection from Confluential Films that stars “Killers of the Flower Moon” award-winning and Academy Award-nominated lead actress Lily Gladstone, and marks the feature directorial debut for Erica Tremblay, who also co-wrote and produced the film.
Following its debut at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, “Fancy Dance” is set to make its debut in theaters and on Apple TV+ this year.
“Our film ‘Fancy Dance’ has found the perfect home with Apple, and I am thrilled to share this beautiful story of two Seneca-Cayuga women with a global audience,” Tremblay said. “As a Native American filmmaker, seeing my community included in the rich tapestry of cinema is a dream come true.”
Since her sister’s disappearance, Jax (Gladstone) has cared for her niece, Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson), by scraping by on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma. Every spare minute goes into finding her missing sister while also helping Roki prepare for an upcoming powwow. At the risk of losing custody to Jax’s father, Frank (Shea Whigham), the pair hit the road and scour the backcountry to track down Roki’s mother in time for the powwow. What begins as a search, gradually turns into a far deeper investigation into the complexities and contradictions of Indigenous women moving through a colonized world at the mercy of a failed justice system. Gladstone stars alongside Deroy-Olson, Ryan Begay, Whigham, Crystle Lightning and Audrey Wasilewski.
“Fancy Dance” introduces director Tremblay, who also serves as screenwriter alongside Miciana Alise. Tremblay’s film offers a nuanced account of the human costs of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic, and the possibilities of healing for those left behind.
“Fancy Dance,” a Confluential Films and Significant Productions/AUM Group production, is produced by Deidre Backs, Tremblay, Heather Rae, Nina Yang Bongiovi and Tommy Oliver. Gladstone, Bird Runningwater, Charlotte Koh and Forest Whitaker serve as executive producers.
“Fancy Dance” will join Apple’s widely acclaimed and award-winning feature, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which was recently nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and is now playing in theaters, as well as streaming globally on Apple TV+. Star Gladstone was recently honored as Best Actress by the New York Film Critics Circle, and the film has been hailed as a “masterpiece,” as well as one of the best films of the year. Since its global theatrical debut, “Killers of the Flower Moon” has been honored as the Best Film of the Year by the National Board of Review, has received 12 Critics Choice Award nominations and seven Golden Globe Award nominations, and has been named to the American Film Institute’s list of Motion Pictures of the Year. The film has also landed on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscars shortlists in the Best Makeup and Hair, Best Sound, Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories and selected as the No. 1 Best Film of 2023 by The New York Times and The New Yorker, in addition to its recognition by over 20 critics groups globally, including being awarded Best Film by the New York Film Critics Circle, and receiving the Vanguard Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Rep info:
- The deal was brokered by WME Independent on behalf of the filmmakers.
- Tremblay is represented by WME, Ragna Nervik Management and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.
- Gladstone is repped by Independent Artist Group, McKuin Frankel Whitehead, and Authentic Talent and Literary Management, the latter of which also reps Deroy-Olson, along with Red Management.
About Apple Original Films
Momentum around the Apple Original Films slate continues to grow since the debut of Apple TV+ four years ago. In addition to Apple making history as the first streaming service to land the Academy Award for Best Picture with “CODA,” Apple Original Film “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” also recently earned the Academy Award for Best Animated Short, and “Killers of the Flower Moon” recently landed 10 historic Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Apple Original Films recently released the star-studded spy thriller “Argylle,” with Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, John Cena, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose and Samuel L. Jackson, now in theaters; and, highly anticipated Apple Original Films include an upcoming Jon Watts thriller starring Academy Award winners George Clooney and Brad Pitt who will both produce under Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures and Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment; “Blitz,” from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen; an untitled Formula 1 feature film starring Brad Pitt from director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and more.
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