Movie Featuring Downton Abbey Star Showing in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Ganef starring Downton Abbey’s Sophie McShera focuses on a spirited girl marred by her mother’s wartime trauma. 

The Bama Theatre in downtown Tuscaloosa will host a screening of the film on September 23rd at 7:00 pm.

Mark Rosenblatt’s period live-action short film Ganef focuses on a young girl who starts to believe her family cleaner is a thief. This powerful award-winning film is a Finalist at the 2021 Manhattan Short Film Festival, making it eligible to be considered for a 2022 Oscar. It has been selected for 30 film festivals worldwide.

A press release about the screening states,

Director & Writer Mark Rosenblatt is an award-winning British theatre director (UK’s National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, West End) and is now developing projects as a screenwriter and film director. In 2016 he adapted and directed short-form Shakespeare adaptations Newborn & Cleopatra (BFI/Shakespeare’s Globe). In 2019, he co-wrote the feature Making Noise Quietly, released by Verve Pictures. Ganef is his first original short as writer-director.

Producer Suri Ellerton is co-founder and producer at feature film and television production house Same Name Productions. She is also currently a member of BFI Network x BAFTA Crew.  Prior credits include A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS, (Dir. Natalie Portman) and DIG, an NBCUniversal production starring Jason Isaacs and Anne Heche.

Cinematographer Alana Mejia Gonzalez is an award-winning cinematographer who was selected as a Berlinale Talent and received the BSC Emerging Cinematography Award for her work on The Girl With The Two Heads in 2019. Her films have been featured in multiple international film festivals, including Cannes and Clermont Ferrand. She has just completed photography on a Mumbai-set Netflix series.

Editor Maya Maffioli’s latest features include Michael Pearce’s Encounter (Amazon Studios) starring Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer, and Clio Barnard’s Ava & Ali (Cannes, TIFF, LFF 2021). Her long-term collaboration with Pearce began with his BAFTA-nominated shorts Rite, Keeping Up With The Joneses and his debut feature Beast which won the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut in 2019. Maya's documentary credits include the Netflix-backed documentary Kingdom Of Us and Rocks, Sarah Gavron’s hit feature, which won the 2021 BIFA Award for Best British Independent Film and received seven 2021 BAFTA nominations, winning one.

Ganef will be screening in cinemas globally at Manhattan Short Film Festival from September 23rd – October 3rd and in competition at the Oscar-qualifying Tirana International Film Festival from September 24th - September 30th, BAFTA-qualifying Bolton International Film Festival from September 29th – October 3rd, Adirondack Film Festival from October 14th - 17th and Crystal Palace International Film Festival on September 17th and Sharjah International Film Festival For Children & Youth from 10th-15th October 2021.

Patrons are strongly encouraged to wear a mask and practice social distancing while in the theatre.

To learn more about ticket pricing, click here.