One of the first acquisitions on the just underway fall festival circuit – Music Box Films has acquired North American rights to François Ozon’s latest film Frantz. The film is currently playing in competition at the continuing Venice Film Festival, where it made its world premiere, and will play at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend as well as screen as a Special Presentation at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

Filmed in black and white the French Frantz is an adaptation of Ernst Lubitsch’s obscure film Broken Lullaby. The movie takes place in Germany shortly after the horrors of World War I. Anna (Paula Beer) is mourning the loss of her fiancé named Frantz when a mysterious Frenchman (Pierre Niney, Yves Saint Laurent) comes into her life claiming to an old friend of Frantz’s before the war. The film centers around their unexpected relationship that quickly follows in this drama of guilt and forgiveness. Ozon wrote Frantz along with Philippe Piazzo.

Ozon is an increasingly prolific filmmaker whose international successes throughout the years including the Charlotte Rampling-headlined films Swimming Pool and Under the Skin as well as female-centric hit 8 Women. His most recent works have included The New Girlfriend, Young and Beautiful, In the House and Potiche, which starred French legend Catherine Deneuve and was also released stateside by Music Box Films.

Music Box Films is looking to release Frantz sometime in early 2017.