Freestyle Digital Media acquires ‘Waiting for the Light to Change’
The feature film won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival.
The feature film won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival.
From Reel Chicago:
Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has revealed the release dates for DePaul filmmaker Linh Tran’s debut feature film, Waiting for the Light to Change.
The movie, which won the ‘Grand Jury Prize’ for ‘Best Narrative Feature’ at the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival, will make its theatrical debut in New York on September 15, 2023, followed by a Chicago premiere on September 22, 2023.
North American DVD and VOD platforms will release the film on October 20, 2023, through Freestyle Digital Media.
Waiting for the Light to Change is the first acquisition under Freestyle Digital Media’s first-look agreement with DePaul University’s School of Cinematic Arts and its Indie Studio Initiative, dedicated to producing DePaul student feature films.
This news is exciting many reasons. James Choi, one of my colleagues at the DePaul University film school where we both teach, spearheaded the creation of the Indie Studio Initiative. Waiting for the Light to Change is the first venture and straight off, it’s a success. It not only won the Slamdance award, it led to the first-look deal with Freestyle Digital Media. That means any student at DePaul has the opportunity to write a feature length screenplay which can be produced with university funding and potentially receive theatrical and digital distribution.
There’s also this: The film’s director and co-writer Linh Tran is one of my former DePaul students. Linh took an Advanced Writing on Assignment class with me, then I advised her on her thesis film Dinner.
The film played at multiple festivals including the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival in 2021.
Linh has a bright future as a cinematic storyteller and it’s gratifying that the film school at DePaul helped her to develop the skills and unique storytelling voice.
Here is a trailer for Waiting for the Light to Change:
For those in the Chicago are, Waiting for the Light to Change is playing through September 28 at the Gene Siskel Film Center. It’s a beautiful, intimate drama which I highly recommend.