The film’s central character, a Christian transsexual played by Felicity Huffman, is seen as a potent Oscar vehicle for the Desperate Housewives actress. The two companies, who already share a broadly defined strategic alliance, will jointly share the distribution of the film, which premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival. IFC Entertainment’s President Jonathan Sehring said the company “jumped at the chance” of working with the Weinsteins on Transamerica. “Having produced Boys Don’t Cry and witnessing Hilary Swank’s transformation, we were immediately struck by Felicity Huffman’s jaw-dropping performance here. She is nothing short of fantastic, ” said Sehring. Transamerica focuses on Bree (Huffman), a born-again Christian and a pre-operative, male-to-female transsexual, who flies to New York after she discovers she has a son from an unlikely encounter. Greeting the boy in the guise of a Christian missionary, Bree attempts to deliver him to his stepfather while on their way back to Los Angeles. In addition to Huffman, the cast includes Kevin Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan, Elizabeth Pena and Graham Green. William H. Macy exec produced the film with Linda Moran, Rene Bastian and Sebastian Dungan producing through the The film debuted at The 2005 Tribeca Film Festival and was acquired shortly after the close of the festival by The Weinstein Co. Around that time, ContentFilm International announced it had acquired foreign sales rights to the film. Huffman won an acting award at Tribeca and the film was also honored at the Berlin Film Festival with a Reader Jury Award. The Weinstein Co is the exclusive home video distributor for IFC Films and foreign sales agent for the indie studio.
IFC, whose corporate overlord James Dolan enjoys close ties with Harvey Weinstein, also co-distributed the Weinstein produced box office phenomenon Fahrenheit 9/11 last year.
