IFC FILMS SNAGS COMING-OF-AGE COMEDY ‘HOW TO BUILD A GIRL’ STARRING BEANIE FELDSTEIN, BASED ON BESTSELLING NOVEL FROM CAITLIN MORAN

NEW YORK, NY (NOVEMBER 9, 2019) – IFC Films is acquiring North American rights to Coky Giedroyć’s HOW TO BUILD A GIRL (Hulu’s “Harlots,” BBC America’s “The Hour,” BBC’s “Oliver Twist,” AMC’s “The Killing”), an adaptation by Caitlin Moran of her bestselling, semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, starring Beanie Feldstein (BOOKSMART, LADYBIRD), Paddy Considine (“Peaky Blinders,” TYRANNOSAUR), and Alfie Allen (“Game of Thrones,” JOJO RABBIT).

The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco EVP of Acquisitions and Productions of IFC Films with Endeavor Content on behalf of the filmmakers. Protagonist Pictures are handling worldwide sales, and as previously announced, Lionsgate will be distributing in the UK.

The film is produced by Alison Owen (ME BEFORE YOU, SUFFRAGETTE, SAVING MR. BANKS) and Debra Hayward (BRIDGET JONES’S BABY, LES MISERABLES) and executive produced by  Daniel Battsek, Ollie Madden and Sue Bruce-Smith for Film4, Tim Headington and Lia Buman for Tango, Zygi Kamasa and Emma Berkofsky for Lionsgate, and Caitlin Moran. 

Emma Thompson, Chris O’Dowd, Sarah Solemani, Laurie Kynaston, Frank Dillane, and Arinze Kene round out the cast. The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and will be released by IFC Films in 2020.

Johanna Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein) is a sixteen-year-old, extrovert from the outskirts of Wolverhampton with raging hormones and gigantic dreams. Even though she loves her big, boisterous family, Johanna yearns to get out and make a name for herself – which she does, reinventing herself as revered and feared music journalist, Dolly Wilde. But as her critical savagery brings her greater and greater success, the lines between Johanna Morrigan and Dolly Wilde begin to haze. She has finally figured out how to build a girl – but is this the girl she wanted to build? HOW TO BUILD A GIRL is an irreverent coming-of-age comedy about what it’s really like to be a girl.

Arianna Bocco of IFC Films said, “We are overjoyed to release HOW TO BUILD A GIRL and work with the impressive list of women in front of and behind the camera. Caitlin Moran is a supremely talented writer with such a unique and distinct voice and we can’t wait to share this film and Beanie’s performance with American audiences.”

“Monumental Pictures and the HOW TO BUILD A GIRL team are beyond thrilled to be working with the IFC team,” says Alison Owen. “Their incredible track record and deep understanding of our film led us to conclude they are the perfect partners to take our precious GIRL on the next step of her journey.”

ABOUT IFC FILMS

Established in 2000 and based in New York City, IFC Films is a leading U.S. distributor of independent film. Its unique distribution model makes independent films available to a national audience by releasing them in theaters as well as on cable’s Video On Demand (VOD) platform, reaching nearly 50 million homes. Upcoming releases include Hirozaku Kore-eda’s THE TRUTH starring Julitette Binoche and Catherine Deneuve, as well as the Czech Oscar entry for 2020 THE PAINTED BIRD directed by Václav Marhoul.  Some of the company’s successes over the years have included BOYHOOD, THE DEATH OF STALIN,  FRANCES HA, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, THE BABADOOK, TOUCHING THE VOID, 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS, CHE, SUMMER HOURS, ANTICHRIST, IN THE LOOP, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, TINY FURNITURE, and CARLOS. IFC Films has worked with established and breakout filmmakers, including Steven Soderbergh, Gus Van Sant, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Miranda July, Lars Von Trier, Gaspar Noé, Todd Solondz, Cristian Mungiu, Susanne Bier, Olivier Assayas, Jim McKay, Larry Fessenden, Paul Dano, Gregg Araki, Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol, Abdellatif Kechiche, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Abbas Kiarostami, Alfonso Cuaron, Noah Baumbach, Lena Dunham, Ethan Hawke and many more. IFC Films is a sister label to Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc.

ABOUT PROTAGONIST PICTURES
Protagonist Pictures is an international sales, finance, and production company with a proven track record in outstanding films and commercial successes. Based in the UK, the company handles films from around the world, always maintaining a strong focus on filmmakers with exceptional vision and storytelling skills.

Current successes on release around the world include Sundance Film Festival 2019 Grand Jury Prize Winner The Souvenir, Executive Produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Joanna Hogg, Sundance 2019 Midnight titles Corporate Animals, starring Demi Moore, Ed Helms and Jessica Williams, and zombie comedy Little Monsters starring Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o and Josh Gad.

Films recently launched at the Toronto International Film Festival 2019 include Sound of Metal, directed by Darius Marder and starring Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke, My Zoe, from writer/director Julie Delpy, starring alongside Daniel Brühl and Gemma Arterton, Saint Maud, from Screen’s 2018 Stars of Tomorrow writer/director Rose Glass and starring Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle, and Drake Doremus’ Endings, Beginnings, starring Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan and Sebastian Stan.

In post-production are Blithe Spirit, directed by Edward Hall and starring Judi Dench, Leslie Mann, Dan Stevens, and Isla Fisher, Monday, starring Sebastian Stan and Denise Gough, The Education of Fredrick Fitzell, starring Dylan O’Brien and Maika Monroe, Alan Moore’s The Show, directed by Mitch Jenkins and starring Tom Burke, and The Sound of Philadelphia, directed by Jérémie Guez and starring Matthias Schoenaerts, Joel Kinnaman, and Maika Monroe.

ABOUT FILM4

Film4 is Channel 4 Television’s feature film division. Film4 develops and co-finances films and is known for working with the most distinctive and innovative talent in UK and international filmmaking, both new and established.

Film4 has developed and co-financed many of the most successful UK films of recent years, Academy Award®-winners such as Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, Asif Kapadia’s box office record breaking documentary Amy, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, in addition to critically-acclaimed award-winners such as Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not a Witch, Chris Morris’s Four Lions, Shane Meadows’ This is England, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years.

Film4’s recent releases include Chris Morris’s The Day Shall Come, Asif Kapadia’s Diego Maradona, Tom Harper’s Wild Rose, Stephen Merchant’s Fighting With My Family, Sebastián Lelio’s Disobedience and Steve McQueen’s Widows. Forthcoming releases include Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, Michael Winterbottom’s Greed, Sarah Gavron’s Rocks, Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang, Rose Glass’s Saint Maud, Nick Rowland’s Calm With Horses, Gregor Jordan’s Dirt Music and Coky Giedroyc’s adaptation of Caitlin Moran’s How To Build a Girl. Films in production include Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, Euros Lyn’s Dream Horse, Florian Zeller’s The Father, Jonathan Butterell’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, Ben Sharrock’s Limbo, Cathy Brady’s Wildfire and Chasing Chaplin from Peter Middleton and James Spinney.

For further information please visit www.film4productions.com.

ABOUT MONUMENTAL PICTURES

Monumental Pictures is a film and television company launched in 2014 by Oscar-nominated and BAFTA winning producers Alison Owen and Debra Hayward. In the same year, ITV Global took a stake in their television shingle, Monumental Television.

Prior to their partnership, Owen’s credits include SAVING MR. BANKS, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, JANE EYRE, the seven times Emmy award winning TEMPLE GRANDIN, and the International Emmy award winning SMALL ISLAND. Hayward produced the Golden Globe winning LES MISÉRABLES with Cameron Mackintosh Limited and Working Title Films. Prior to that, she served as Executive Producer on films including, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, FROST/NIXON, NANNY McPHEE, ATONEMENT, BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY and PRIDE & PREJUDICE.

2017 saw Hayward and Owen serve as Executive Producers on three series: HARLOTS, an eight-part returning series for ITV Encore and Hulu starring Samantha Morton, Lesley Manville and Jessica Brown Findlay, and created by Moira Buffini and Alison Newman. WILL, a ten-part series for TNT. Penned by Craig Pearce and executive produced by Owen, Hayward, Pearce and Shekhar Kapur. Finally, ANNE WITH AN E that saw Hayward and Owen team with Golden Globe-nominee and Emmy Award-winning Breaking Bad alumni Moira Walley-Beckett, to adapt children’s classic, Anne of Green Gables. The eight-part series was produced for Netflix and CBC by Northwood Entertainment, in association with Monumental Television.

2018 will see the second seasons of HARLOTS, adding Liv Tyler as wealthy socialite, Lady Fitz, to the already illustrious cast. ANNE WITH AN E will also return on Netflix in 2018. Set for production in autumn 2018 is GHOSTS, a multi-character sitcom created by the lead cast of writer-performers from the award winning Horrible Histories and Yonderland. The series will air on the BBC in 2019.

In 2016, Hayward produced the third instalment of the Bridget Jones franchise, BRIDGET JONES’S BABY, starring Renee Zellwegger, Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey. It set a record for the biggest comedy/romantic comedy opening ever in the UK. In the same year, Owen produced ME BEFORE YOU for MGM, directed by Thea Sharrock and starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin, which made over $200 million worldwide. 2018 will see another collaboration with MGM, THE HUSTLE, starring Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway. In 2015, Owen produced SUFFRAGETTE written by Abi Morgan, directed by Sarah Gavron, with Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson and Meryl Streep starring in an ensemble piece about the Suffragette movement. Set for a 2018 release is MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, produced by Hayward for Focus Features, that sees Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan in the title role and Academy Award nominee Margot Robbie’s Queen Elizabeth I.

ABOUT TANGO ENTERTAINMENT

Tango Entertainment opened its doors in January 2017 with the mission to be a nimble and story-driven entertainment company by empowering creators to produce entertaining, subversive content. Tango’s first film, Little Woods, was picked up by Neon after its premiere in the Tribeca Film Festival, the drama is directed by Nia DaCosta with Tessa Thompson and Lily James leading the cast. The company helped finance David Lowery’s upcoming film, Old Man and the Gun with a cast that includes Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, and Casey Affleck. Fox Searchlight is releasing the film stateside on October 5, 2018.

Currently, Tango is in post- production on Blow the Man Down directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy.  Tango has several more projects in development building towards a diverse and eclectic slate.

Tim Headington and Lia Buman are the principals of Tango.  Tim Headington has been involved in all facets of the entertainment business, financing and producing such films as World War Z, Argo and Hugo. Prior to joining Tango, Lia was the President of Acquisitions at Focus Features and EVP of Acquisitions at FilmDistrict, overseeing such films as Atomic Blonde, Suffragette, Nocturnal Animals, A Monster Calls, Safety Not Guaranteed, Evil Dead, Olympus Has Fallen, Looper and the Insidious franchise.