“Everybody Knows,” the Spanish-language psychological thriller from Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi, will be released in theaters on Feb. 8, 2019, with a brief awards qualifying run beginning Nov. 30, the studio announced on Friday.
Focus Features picked up rights to the film ahead of its premiere opening-night screening at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival back in May.
The film, which stars Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, is director Farhadi’s follow-up to his 2016 Oscar-winning foreign language film “The Salesman.” Farhadi also previously won the best foreign-language film Oscar for “A Separation.”
“Everybody Knows” follows Laura (Cruz) on her travels from Argentina to her small home town in Spain for her sister’s wedding, bringing her two children along for the occasion. Amid the joyful reunion and festivities, the eldest daughter is abducted. In the tense days that follow, various family and community tensions surface and deeply hidden secrets are revealed.
The film was is produced by Alexandre Mallet-Guy of Memento Films and Álvaro Longoria of Morena Films.
Focus acquired the rights to distribute in the United States, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, select Asian territories and the Middle East, apart from Iran. The film received rave reviews after its premiere screening.
Cruz told TheWrap that the film was one of the most painful experiences she’s had as an actress.
“All of my scenes were very intense,” Cruz told TheWrap in a magazine cover story. “In one scene I have a panic attack in the car, and I ended up in an ambulance myself. It was just from hyperventilation and from my blood sugar going very high from the stress of the scene. I remember getting out of the ambulance, and Asghar made sure I was OK.”
She paused. “And then he asked me for one more take.”