Music Box Films Acquires Sundance Drama 'Keep the Lights On'

"Keep the Lights On"

Music Box Films has acquired North American rights to Ira Sachs' Keep the Lights On. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. 

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The relationship drama about two men who struggle through love, addiction and friendship screened in Sundance's U.S. dramatic competition section and premiered Jan. 20. 

The film also screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and received the festival's Teddy Award, the prize for the best film with an LGBT theme.

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Keep the Lights On, which was written by Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias, stars Thure Lindhardt and Zachary Booth. The film was produced by Sachs, who was the recipient of Sundance's Grand Jury Prize in 2005 for his film Forty Shades of Blue. Also producing were Marie Therese Guirgis and Lucas Joaquin.

The film will screen at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival next month.

In September, Chicago-based Music Box acquired U.S. rights to Monsieur Lazhar, which was nominated for the best foreign language film award at this year's Academy Awards. It also handled the stateside release of the 2009 Swedish adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The filmmakers were represented in the deal by Guirgis and Kevin Iwashina of Preferred Content. William Schopf, president of Music Box Films, represented his company in-house.

Email: Daniel.Miller@THR.com

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