The History of Sound, the new film from writer/director Oliver Hermanus (Living, Moffie) has been acquired by MUBI for a planned 2025 release in North America.
The History of Sound, adapted by Ben Shattuck from his Pushcart Prize-winning short story of the same name, stars Paul Mescal (Aftersun, Gladiator II, All of Us Strangers) and Josh O’Connor (Challengers, La Chimera, God’s Own Country) as two young music students at the Boston Conservatory, who bond over their shared love of folk music in 1917. They reconnect a few years later and decide to embark on a song collecting trip in the backwaters of Maine. This brief relationship and the music they collect and preserve will come to define each of their lives.
Director Oliver Hermanus, known for Moffie and Living, which was nominated for two Academy Awards in 2023, makes his first US-set film and continues to firmly establish himself as a new voice in contemporary cinema. The film marks the first collaboration for Mescal and O’Connor, both having had big hits in 2024 with their performances in Gladiator II and Challengers respectively.
Oliver Hermanus said, “This film is a true passion project. It has been a part of my life, and the lives of Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, for the past five years, and I could not be more thrilled to have found partners in MUBI in North America and Focus and UPI internationally. They champion the cinema I love, and having our film as part of their family of films has made this journey all the more fruitful.”
Post production recently wrapped with shooting locations in New Jersey, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The History of Sound is produced by End Cue’s Andrew Kortschak and Lisa Ciuffetti alongside Fat City’s Sara Murphy, as well as Thérèsa Ryan-van Graan, Closer Media’s Zhang Xin, and Hermanus. Film4, Closer Media, Tango, and Storm City Films co-financed. Executive producers for Film4 are Ollie Madden and Farhana Bhula; Tim Headington, Lia Buman, and Neil Shah for Tango; Dennis Masel and Gabrielle Nadig for Storm City Films; and William Horberg and Richard Lewis for Closer Media. Paul Mescal, Walter Kortschak, Ryan Zacarias, and Andrea Roa are also attached as executive producers.
