Toronto: Fawzia Mirza’s ‘The Queen Of My Desires’ Sells for Canada (Unique)

Cineplex Photos has picked up the Canadian rights to Fawzia Mirza’s debut function The Queen Of My Desires, about an estranged mom and daughter coming of age in numerous eras, after a world premiere on the 2023 Toronto Movie Competition.

Cineplex and associate Shut Up & Shade will launch the indie in early 2024 in theaters, with Amrit Kaur (The Intercourse Lives of Faculty Women), Nimra Bucha (Ms. Marvel) and Hamza Haq (Transplant) starring.  

The movie has Kaur enjoying Azra, a queer grad scholar on a visit to Pakistan dealing with the sudden dying of her father, which sees her collide together with her conservative Muslim mom Mariam (Bucha). She additionally performs the youthful Mariam.

Azra quickly finds herself on a Bollywood-inspired journey by reminiscences, each actual and imagined. These flashbacks embody her mom’s youth in Karachi, a Bolllywood-style romance together with her eventual husband and Azra’s personal youth in Canada.

The Canadian indie is produced by Jason Levangie, Andria Wilson Mirza and Marc Tetreault.

“Fawzia Mirza is an extremely proficient and thrilling filmmaker and a beautiful illustration of the way forward for Canadian movie. The Queen Of My Desires is the kind of storytelling that Cineplex Photos is actively searching for and we are able to’t wait to convey it to audiences throughout the nation,” Brad LaDouceur, vp and common supervisor of Cineplex Photos, stated in an announcement.

LevelK launched worldwide gross sales for the movie in Toronto earlier than it subsequent competes on the BFI London Movie Competition in October.

“We’re overjoyed to be working with Cineplex Photos to convey Fawzia’s debut function to theaters throughout Canada. Their willingness to make this theatrically minded deal and collaborate with us to market the discharge broadly, makes them a perfect associate for The Queen Of My Desires,” added producer Levangie.

The distribution deal was negotiated by LaDouceur and Tim Smy of Cineplex Photos and Levangie and Tetreault appearing for Shut Up & Color Photos.

After a theatrical run, The Queen of My Dreams will even stream on Crave in Canada and the CBC picked up the second window broadcast rights. The movie has financing from the Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada and Spark Options within the U.S. market.