Cannes, FRANCE (May 15, 2011) – Sundance Selects announced today from the 2011 Cannes Film Festival that the company is acquiring all U.S. rights to Julia Leigh’s SLEEPING BEAUTY. The film, with a screenplay by Leigh, stars Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie, Peter Carroll, Chris Haywood, and was produced by Jessica Brentnall. The film premiered this week in Competition at the festival.

SLEEPING BEAUTY is a haunting portrait of Lucy, a young university student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of unspoken desires.
Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects, said: “For the last 5 days, people throughout Cannes have been discussing SLEEPING BEAUTY. We are thrilled to introduce Julia Leigh and her arresting debut to American audiences, and to continuing the discussion.”
“Along with the entire SLEEPING BEAUTY team, I’m extremely pleased that the film will be getting a release in the U.S. through such a fine distributor as Sundance Selects, especially under a label that has featured films from so many directors we admire,” said Leigh.

The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Productions for Sundance Selects with UTA on behalf of the filmmakers.

Sundance Selects is a sister division to IFC Films and IFC Midnight, and is owned and operated by Rainbow Media.