New York, NY: NEON announced today it has acquired Worldwide rights to Beba, the debut film by New York Afro-Latina artist, Rebeca Huntt. The film received rave reviews at its World Premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), being praised for its originality, inventiveness, and the urgency of Huntt’s voice. NEON will release the film, which weaves together music, 16mm film, poetry, and interview footage, in 2022.
First-time feature filmmaker Rebeca “Beba” Huntt undertakes an unflinching exploration of her own identity in the remarkable coming-of-age documentary/cinematic memoir Beba. Reflecting on her childhood and adolescence in New York City as the daughter of a Dominican father and Venezuelan mother, Huntt investigates the historical, societal, and generational trauma she’s inherited and ponders how those ancient wounds have shaped her, while simultaneously considering the universal truths that connect us all as humans. Throughout Beba, Huntt searches for a way to forge her own creative path amid a landscape of intense racial and political unrest. Poetic, powerful and profound, Beba is a courageous, deeply human self-portrait of an Afro-Latina artist hungry for knowledge and yearning for connection.
Beba was written and directed by Huntt, who also produced with Sofia Geld. Academy Award-nominee Petra Costa, Alyse Ardell Spiegel, Alessandra Orofino, Joy Bryant and Inuka Bacote-Capiga serve as the film’s executive producers.
NEON’s Mason Speta negotiated the deal with the UTA Independent Film Group, who represented the sale of the film. UTA also represents Huntt.
NEON will release Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Ore winner Titane on October 1, with upcoming titles including: Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee, Pablo Larrain’s Spencer starring Kristen Stewart; and Celine Sciamma’s Petite Maman.
NEON background
In just four years, NEON has garnered 12 Academy Award® nominations, 5 wins, including Best Picture, and has grossed over $150M at the box office. The company continues to push boundaries and take creative risks on bold cinema such as Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which made history winning four Academy Awards®, becoming the first non-English-language film to claim Best Picture. The film, which also unanimously won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, has amassed over $53M at the domestic box office and broke multiple records including highest per screen average of the year and highest per screen average for a foreign language film of all time. NEON has amassed a library of over 70 films with noteworthy releases including: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov’s award-winning and record-breaking Honeyland, which is the first non-fiction feature to land Academy Award® nominations for Best Documentary and Best International Feature Film in the same year; Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11, 2019’s highest grossing documentary with a worldwide gross of $16M; Tim Wardle’s Three Identical Strangers, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Storytelling which surpassed $13M at the box office; and Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya, which garnered multiple Academy Award® nominations, one win for Allison Janney and amassed over $30M in domestic box office.
Over the last 12 months, Quinn and NEON have delved into the production space with 10 feature and documentary projects in various stages of development and production, including: Pablo Larraín’s Spencer starring Kristen Stewart; The Painter and the Thief narrative remake; Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool starring Alexander Skarsgård; and Cuckoo starring Hunter Schafer, Academy Award® Nominee John Malkovich, Gemma Chan and Sofia Boutella, written and to be directed by Tilman Singer. NEON continues to be an impressive force recently debuting three titles to critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival, and taking their second Palme d’Or winner in a row, just off the heels of Parasite, with Julia Ducournau’s Titane. The company also premiered Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoriastarring Tilda Swinton, which tied for the Jury Prize, and the anthology feature The Year of the Everlasting Storm. Out of the festival they also acquired: The Worst Person in The World from Norwegian writer-director Joachim Trier, which took the Best Actress Award for Renate Reinsve; Jonas Carpignano’s festival sensation A Chiara, which won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Directors’ Fortnight section. Additional recent acquisitions include: Zhang Yimou’s One Second and Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman which will both premiered at at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival; and Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee, executive produced by Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
NEON’s recent releases include: Jamila Wignot’s Ailey; Pig, starring Nicolas Cage; Venice’s Grand Jury Prize Winner Michel Franco’s New Order; Gunda directed by Victor Kossakovsky and executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix; Robert Machoian’s powerful thriller The Killing of Two Lovers; Ben Wheatley’s Horror Film In The Earth; R.J. Cutler’s Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry Night of the Kings, Philippe Lacôte’s Ivory Coast Oscar Submission; Andrei Konchalovsky’s Dear Comrades!, Russia’s Academy Award Submission; Francis Lee’s romantic drama Ammonite starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; Alex’s Gibney’s documentary Totally Under Control; Max Barbakow’s sought after Palm Springs starring Andy Samberg, which NEON acquired with Hulu; Josephine Decker’s Shirley starring Elisabeth Moss; and the critically acclaimed Cannes hit Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes® and Independent Spirit Awards.
After their successful collaboration on I, Tonya in January 2018, 30WEST (Dan Friedkin’s and Micah Green’s strategic venture) partnered with NEON’s Tom Quinn (Founder & CEO) and Tim League (Co-Founder) to become majority investors in the company.
RECAP: “NEON BRINGS REBECA HUNTT’S HYPNOTIC AND THRILLINGLY ORIGINAL ‘BEBA’ FROM TIFF TO THE WORLD.”
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