PHILOMENA Plays at SLIFF 2013 This Sunday – Watch The New Featurette

Ahead of it’s debut this Sunday (November 17) at the St. Louis International Film Festival, The Weinstein Company has released a new featurette for their upcoming film PHILOMENA.

The real-life characters, Philomena Lee and Martin Sixsmith, are played by two actors at the very summit of their respective careers: the legendary Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench (SKYFALL, THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE) and Steve Coogan (THE LOOK OF LOVE, 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE), one of Britain’s leading comics and creator of the legendary TV and radio ‘personality’ Alan Partridge.

Based on the 2009 investigative book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, PHILOMENA focuses on the efforts of Philomena Lee (Dench), mother to a boy conceived out of wedlock — something her Irish-Catholic community didn’t have the highest opinion of — and given away for adoption in the United States. In following church doctrine, she was forced to sign a contract that wouldn’t allow for any sort of inquiry into the son’s whereabouts. After starting a family years later in England and, for the most part, moving on with her life, Lee meets Sixsmith (Coogan), a BBC reporter with whom she decides to discover her long-lost son.

PHILOMENA, with a script by Coogan and Jeff Pope based on Sixsmith’s book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, is directed by Stephen Frears, one of Britain’s most distinguished filmmakers, twice Oscar-nominated and the director of such outstanding films as THE QUEEN, HIGH FIDELITY, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS and DANGEROUS LIAISONS. It is produced by Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan and Tracey Seaward. Henry Normal of Baby Cow, Christine Langan of BBC Films, and François Ivernel and Cameron McCracken of Pathé are executive producers.

In select theaters November 22, PHILOMENA opens nationwide Wednesday, November 27th.

http://www.cinemastlouis.org/philomena

Official website:  http://philomenamovie.com/
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