Juno Films has picked up the North American rights to the documentary The Most Beautiful Boy in the World ahead of its world premiere at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival.
The film, to bow as part of the World Documentary Competition on Jan. 29, is directed by Kristina Lindstrom and Kristian Petri and produced by Stina Gardell’s Stockholm-based Mantaray Film.
The Sundance doc portrays former child star Bjorn Andresen, whose life changed when at 15 years old he played Tadzio, the young boy for whom Dirk Bogarde develops an obsession in the 1971 movie Death in Venice by Luchino Visconti. The Italian director at the London premiere of Death in Venice proclaimed Andresen as “the world’s most beautiful boy.”
The Swedish actor, now in his sixties, in the documentary discusses that compliment by the Italian maestro as he reflects on movie fame and the curse of beauty in a film where the directors use archival footage and interviews to tell his story.
Juno Films will release The Most Beautiful Boy in the World in theaters in May 2021. The deal was negotiated by Elizabeth Sheldon of Juno Films, a film sales and distribution outfit launched in 2017.
Film Boutique has the worldwide sales rights to the Swedish documentary.
The 2021 edition of the Sundance Film Festival is set to run from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3 .
