The first major acquisition out of the 81st Venice Film Festival comes courtesy of Netflix, as they have acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Maria (2024), the Pablo Larraín-directed biopic of American opera Singer, Maria Callas, starring Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie.

Maria follows the final days of famed opera singer Maria Callas in 1970s Paris. Set from the 1920s to the 1970s, Larraín’s film aims to be an artful psychological examination of a woman who dedicated so much of her life, including burning out her voice, to doing what she loved. 

This marks the third entry in Larraín’s female-led biopic trilogy, followed by Kristen Stewart in Spencer (2021) and Natalie Portman in Jackie (2016). Both films premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and both actresses garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Actress in 2017 and 2022, respectively. Maria also marks Larraín’s second collaboration with writer Steven Knight, who previously scripted Spencer. The acquisition by Netflix marks Larraín’s second directed film to be distributed by the streamer after it handled his black comedy horror film El Conde in 2023, which received a Best Cinematography Oscar nomination for Edward Lachman. He returns as Maria’s cinematographer. 

Per Netflix, “I’m excited to partner again with the Netflix team who care so passionately about movies. This film is my most personal work yet,” Larraín says. “It is a creative imagining and psychological portrait of Maria Callas who, after dedicating her life to performing for audiences around the world, decides finally to find her own voice, her own identity, and sing for herself. I’m deeply honored to tell this story and share it with audiences worldwide like Maria did with her life.”

Many films premiering at the festivals, such as Venice and Tiff still have no U.S. distribution deals, such as Gia Copolla’s The Last Showgirl (2024), Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist (2024), Mike Flannagan’s The Life of Chuck (2024), On Swift Horses (2024), and many more. As Netflix fortifies its awards slate with The Piano Lesson (2024), Emilia Pérez (2024), and His Three Daughters (2024) and most studios readying their film slates for the fall film festivals, it is increasingly hard for studios — big and small ‒ to shell out the kind of money to not just market and distribute festival titles but mount serious awards campaigns with the attached pedigrees behind them. 

Many will lament that, unlike Larraín’s previous films, Maria will not get the luxury of a wide theatrical exhibition outside the required limited run set by the Academy (similar to El Conde). Yet, the conflict many filmmakers like Larraín find themselves in is finding the right home for their projects that can foster the highest potential for awards and audience success. For the 2023 qualifying year, Netflix received nineteen Oscar nominations across their awards slate (including five acting nominations). 

In his first Netflix awards campaign, the new Chairman of Film, Dan Lin, had this to say of the acquisition: “I’m excited that we are continuing to work with Pablo and Fabula – this is our seventh project with them, most recently with El Conde, and they are producing the upcoming In Her Place. Pablo continues a remarkable streak of exploring iconic women through film, this time with the incredible Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas.”

Maria will had its world premiere on August 29 at the Venice Film Festival. 

Article Courtesy of Amritpal Rai

Feature Image Courtesy of Netflix