Benjamin Franklin Film ‘A Great Awakening’ Celebrates 250 Years; François Ozon Directs ‘The Stranger’ – Specialty Preview
Roadside Attractions has released Sight & Sound’s latest film, A Great Awakening, directed by Joshua Enck, now showing on 1,289 screens. The release coincides with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and it will also be featured during Easter. The film explores the unlikely friendship between Benjamin Franklin, portrayed by John Paul Sneed, and the Reverend George Whitefield, played by Jonathan Blain, set in the pivotal years leading up to American independence. Whitefield, a prominent figure of the 18th century, and Franklin, an influential printer and founding father, shared a mutual concern for the future of the colonies, fostering a unity through their collaboration of revival sermons and printing presses.
Sight & Sound is a successful live theater company with venues in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Branson, Missouri, known for its faith-based musicals. Last fall, the company released Noah Live!, capturing its Bible show on film. The theater’s first pure feature film, I Heard The Bells, debuted in 2002 and was inspired by the poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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The rarely adapted 1942 classic novel features first-person narration from Mersault, played by Benjamin Voisin, a Frenchman in Algiers who oscillates from his mother’s funeral to the killing of a man referred to as “The Arab” on a beach. Director François Ozon’s black-and-white adaptation closely follows the book while minimizing narration to highlight the sensory experiences of colonial Algeria. This film was the Opening Night Feature of Lincoln Center’s Rendez Vous with French Cinema last month.
Living The Land, produced by Film Movement, is a coming-of-age drama depicting provincial life in 1990s China from the perspective of a ten-year-old boy. The film makes its debut at Film Forum in New York City.
Georgi M. Unkovski’s feature debut DJ Ahmet, which premiered at Sundance, opens at IFC Center in New York and Vidiots in Los Angeles this spring. The film, which has been honored with the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award and the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision, follows 15-year-old Ahmet (Arif Jakup), a shepherd from a remote village in North Macedonia, as he embraces electronic music while managing his father’s expectations, a conservative community, and his first brush with love—a girl who is already promised to someone else.
Jimmy & The Demons, directed by Cindy Meehl, honors the late sculptor James Grashow as he embarks on his final project at age 79. Produced by Elizabeth Westrate, the film currently lacks a distributor but will screen in New York City at the Quad Cinema and in additional cities through May. Grashow, known for his monumental cardboard installations and contributions to the New York Times, dedicates four years to crafting a five-foot wooden sculpture titled The Cathedral, which depicts Christ bearing the weight of a Renaissance-era cathedral while demons claw at him from below. The film features interviews with Grashow and his wife, Guzzy Grashow, and premiered at the Tribeca Festival 2025. Grashow passed away in September at the age of 83.
More to come
