Check out the first trailer for Freeheld, new fact-based romantic drama starring Oscar winner Julianne Moore (Still Alice) and Oscar nominee Ellen Page (Juno) as a lesbian couple fighting for equality. A longtime passion project for Page, Freeheld is set to enter theaters this fall with an awards friendly release date of October 2, 2015. Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) directs from a script credited by Oscar nominated scribe Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia).
Moore portrays Laurel Hester, a New Jersey police lieutenant, who falls for a younger woman named Stacie Andree (Page). Their romantic idyll and eventual domestic partnership is put to the test, however, when Laurel becomes diagnosed with terminal cancer. As a result, he two women turn into equal rights activists in order for Laurel to secure her pension benefits to Stacie. Oscar nominees Steve Carell (Foxcatcher) and Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) co-star, as does Emmy Award nominee Josh Charles (The Good Wife) and Fifty Shades of Grey co-star Luke Grimes.
The film is based on the Oscar winning 2007 documentary short of the same name and ever timelier in our current era following the recent Supreme Court decision for marriage equality. Freeheld also holds some distinction for being among a number of potentially high profile films set to come out this year centering on the LGBT experience– the currently in limited release Tangerine, the upcoming Stonewall (from director Roland Emmerich) as well as the recent Cannes Film Festival prize winner Carol (from director Todd Haynes starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara).
Also significant, Freeheld is the first dramatic turn for Moore since winning the Academy Award earlier this year for her acclaimed performance as a woman diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer’s disease for Still Alice. Summit Entertainment (a subsidiary of Lionsgate) will likely to holding an awards campaign for both Moore and Page at the end of the year. The films’ fall release date makes it appear likely that Freeheld will premiere at one of the major fall film festivals– perhaps Toronto, Telluride or Venice.
Freeheld is set to open on October 2, 2015.
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