23/12/2009

British director Gurinder Chadha’s comedy It’s A Wonderful Afterlife will receive its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival (January 21-31, 2010) where it will screen out of competition.

Afterlife, along with Galt Niederhoffer’s The Romantics and Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are Alright, were surprise last minute additions to the Sundance line-up. All three directors have been part of Sundance before. Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2003), What’s Cooking (2000) and short I’m British But… all premiered at Sundance.

Sundance Director John Cooper said, “When the opportunity to screen the latest films from three extremely innovative storytellers presented itself, we knew we could not deny our audiences. As an added bonus, all three are alumni of the festival, so we are thrilled to be able to support them returning to Sundance with their newest work.”

The London-shot Afterlife, produced by Indian Films and Bend It Films in association with Studio 18 and billed as My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets Shaun of the Dead, stars Indian actress Shabana Azmi as a fanatical mother desperate to find a groom for her overweight daughter. The film also stars Goldy Notay, Sally Hawkins, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Zoe Wanamaker and Jimi Mistri.

Icon will release the film in the UK on April 2, to benefit from the Easter break. International distributors include Icon (Australia), Prokino (Germany), Lusomundo (Portugal), Central Partnership (Russia & CIS), Sterkinekor (South Africa), TF1 (France), Front Row (Middle East) and Odeon (Greece & Cyprus).