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Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski announced today that Focus has acquired the Cannes Film Festival’s opening night film Everybody Knows (Todos Los Saben).  Focus Features will distribute the film in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, select Asian territories and the Middle East, apart from Iran.  Focus had previously acquired rights in Spain last year.

On the heels of his second Academy-Award® winner The Salesman following his first for A Separation, Asghar Farhadi wrote and directed this Spanish-language psychological thriller starring Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Ricardo Darín.  The film follows Laura (Cruz) on her travels from Argentina to her small home town in Spain for her sister’s wedding, bringing her two children along for the occasion.  Amid the joyful reunion and festivities, the eldest daughter is abducted. In the tense days that follow, various family and community tensions surface and deeply hidden secrets are revealed.

“Asghar is a world-class filmmaker whose work transcends language,” said Focus chairman Peter Kujawski.  “Matching his talents with these emotionally charged performances from Penelope, Javier and Ricardo will leave audiences captivated.”

Everybody Knows is produced by Alexandre Mallet-Guy of Memento Films and Álvaro Longoria of Morena Films.

UTA Indie Film Group and Memento Films International negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmaking team. Farhadi is represented by UTA.

Focus Features acquires and produces specialty films for the global market, and holds a library of iconic movies from fearless filmmakers.  Current and upcoming domestic releases from Focus include Jason Reitman’s new comedy Tully, starring Charlize Theron and written by Diablo Cody; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, director Morgan Neville’s documentary on Mister Rogers; Lenny Abrahamson’s atmospheric thriller The Little Stranger; Joel Edgerton’s coming-of-age and coming-out drama Boy Erased, about a boy’s true-life experience at a conversion therapy program, starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe; Mary, Queen of Scots with Saoirse Ronan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I; On the Basis of Sex, the real-life drama of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg staring Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer; Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s directorial debut Mustang; and Spike Lee’s new film BlacKkKlansman.

For more information please visit www.focusfeatures.com

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