Sony Pictures Classics acquired Oliver Hermanus’ film Living, starring BAFTA^® and Golden Globe^® winner Bill Nighy which world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was met with strong reviews. Written by Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, Living is a reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film Ikiru.

In addition to Nighy, the cast includes Aimee Lou Wood (Sex Education), Tony Award® winner Alex Sharp (The Trial of the Chicago 7), and Tom Burke (The Souvenir).

Living is the story of an ordinary man, reduced by years of oppressive office routine to a shadow existence, who at the eleventh hour makes a supreme effort to turn his dull life into something wonderful – into one he can say has been lived to the full.

1953. A London shattered by WWII is still recovering. Williams (Bill Nighy), a veteran civil servant, is an impotent cog within the city’s bureaucracy as it struggles to rebuild. Buried under paperwork at the office, lonely at home, his life has long felt empty and meaningless. Then a shattering medical diagnosis forces him to take stock – and to try and grasp fulfilment before it goes beyond reach.

The film features costume design by 15-time Academy Award^® nominee and three-time winner Sandy Powell (Shakespeare in Love, Carol), hair and makeup design by BAFTA^® winner Nadia Stacey (The Favourite), cinematography by BIFA nominee Jamie Ramsay, and production design by BAFTA^® TV Craft winner Helen Scott. All four recently worked on Mothering Sunday.

Woolley stated, “Living has been a work inspired by the passion of Kurosawa and built on by the equally passionate and sublimely talented Ishiguro, Bill Nighy and Oliver Hermanus. The team at Sony Pictures Classics have demonstrated for decades (with a track record of great movies that is unrivaled) that passion is the vital ingredient in not only making and creating vibrant movies but also releasing those films to audiences in North America and globally. Elizabeth and I as the producers of Living are honored to be in their company again and we are excited to share this glorious film in cinemas where it rightly belongs to inspire audiences in 2022 to embrace Living.”