The U.S. rights for writer-director Eliza Hittman’s first time feature film, the coming-of age story It Felt Like Love, have been acquired by Variance. It Felt Like Love premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and went on to play in Rotterdam, BAMCinemaFEST, London BFI and the Viennale.

It Felt Like Love, featuring two debut artists in Gina Piersanti and Giovanna Salimeni, won a Special Jury Prize at the Sarasota Film Festival and Gina Peirsanti won the Best Actress Award at the Nashville Film Festival.

Newcomer Gina Piersanti plays the lead in ‘It Felt Like Love’

Piersanti plays Lila, a 14 year old fish-out-of-water, when she comes to spend the summer with her older and more sexually mature best friend in the blue-collar neighborhood of Rockaway Beach, Brooklyn. Lila often feels awkward, like the third wheel, and is determined to force herself into adulthood -especially when she finds a wanna-be tough guy, played by Ronen Rubenstein, who is anxious to show off his sexual prowess at any opportunity. Ronen was last seen in the ensemble cast of Academy Award winner Adrien Brody’s (Best Actor – The Piano) 2011 drama, Detachment.

Director Eliza Hittman and the cast of ‘It Felt Like Love’, just acquired by Variance.

Hittman’s short Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight premiered at Sundance in 2011 and in 2013 she returned with her first feature. Next up she will be producing Scott Cumming’s Buffalo Juggalos, which starts shooting in the summer of 2014.

Variance plans to release It Felt Like Love in theaters early in 2014.