New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Dev Patel and
Rooney Mara star in Truly Moving Picture Award-winning LION Photo: Mark Rogers © Long Way Home Productions 2015
Feature-length drama "Lion," directed by Garth Davis, has been honored with the Truly Moving Picture Award from nonprofit arts organization
Heartland Film. Select theatrically-released titles — entertaining films that do more than just entertain — receive the designation throughout the year. Submissions are received directly from studios and producers for consideration.
"Based on a true story, 'Lion' is a powerful story of identity, family, and the triumph of the human spirit," said Greg Sorvig,
Heartland Film's director of film programming and marketing. "Dev Patel delivers his best performance yet, supported by an outstanding cast, including
Rooney Mara,
Nicole Kidman, and
David Wenham. The Truly Moving Picture Award jury unanimously chose 'Lion' as a recipient of the award, noting the film's cultural importance and transformative power."
In "Lion," five-year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) gets lost on a train traveling away from his home and family. Frightened and bewildered, he ends up thousands of miles away, in chaotic Kolkata. Somehow he survives living on the streets, escaping all sorts of terrors and close calls in the process, before ending up in an orphanage that is itself not exactly a safe haven. Eventually Saroo is adopted by an Australian couple (Nicole Kidman and
David Wenham), and finds love and security as he grows up in Hobart. As an adult, not wanting to hurt his adoptive parents' feelings, Saroo (Dev Patel) suppresses his past, his emotional need for reunification and his hope of ever finding his lost mother and brother. But a chance meeting with some fellow Indians reawakens his buried yearning. Armed with only a handful of memories, his unwavering determination, and a revolutionary technology known as Google Earth, Saroo sets out to find his lost family and finally return to his first home. Based on the true story, "A Long Way Home," "Lion" is directed by Garth Davis and written by Luke Davies with performances from Dev Patel,
Nicole Kidman,
Rooney Mara,
David Wenham, and Sunny Pawar.
The Weinstein Company will release Truly Moving Picture Award winner "Lion" in select theaters on November 25, 2016.
About
Heartland Film, Inc.
Heartland Film is a nonprofit arts organization founded in 1991 with the mission to inspire filmmakers and audiences through the transformative power of film.
Heartland Film is a curator and supporter of purposeful filmmaking, honoring a wide variety of cinema and awarding storytellers from all over the world. The films
Heartland Film selects and exhibits - whether they inspire and uplift, educate and inform, or have the ability to shift audiences' perspectives on the world - all have one thing in common: they are entertaining films that do more than just entertain. Every October, the
Heartland Film Festival gives its moviegoers access to more than 100 visiting independent filmmakers from all over the world, right in the heart of the Midwest.
Heartland Film Festival (October 2017) showcases more than 130 independent films over 11 days of red carpet premieres and events, parties and hundreds of film screenings across Indianapolis. The
Heartland Film Festival has earned the special designation of being a qualifying festival for the Annual Academy Awards® within the Short Films category. Each year, the
Heartland Film Festival awards more than $125,000 in cash prizes and presents its Festival Awards to top-judged submissions.
Heartland Film has awarded more than $3 million to support indie filmmakers over the last 25 years. Beyond the
Heartland Film Festival,
Heartland Film honors theatrically-released films that align with its mission via the Truly Moving Picture Award, inspires the next generation of filmmakers via the
Heartland Film Institute, and exhibits films across
Indiana all year long via the
Heartland Film Roadshow. To learn more, visit heartlandfilm.org.
