Anchor Bay Films has acquired all rights for North America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand to Raymond De Felitta’s City Island.

The family comedy recently won the audience prize at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.

The cast features Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Steven Strait, Alan Arkin, Emily Mortimer, Ezra Miller and Dominik Garcia-Lorido.

Andy Garcia stars as a husband and dad dealing with a secret passion for acting and a visitor from his past who may disrupt his family life in the titular Bronx neighborhood.

“We are thrilled to acquire such a crowd-pleasing comedy,” said Anchor Bay Entertainment president Bill Clark. “City Island features a fantastic ensemble cast, led by the talented Andy Garcia.” Senior VP of acquisitions Kevin Kasha added: “Everyone has crazy family members, which may be why people connect so strongly with City Island. This film is guaranteed to entertain and we’re proud to be including it in the Anchor Bay Films line-up.”

Writer/director De Felitta added: “I couldn’t feel my movie was in better hands. Anchor Bay Films is boldly filling a sorely felt gap in indie film distribution and their passion and belief in City Island’s future convinced me they were the right place for this movie.”

The deal for City Island was negotiated by Clark, Kasha, and Richard Turner for Anchor Bay Films; and Andrew Ruf for Paradigm Motion Picture Finance Group, which packaged the project; Mark Halloran and Michael Roban for Lucky Monkey Pictures; Irwin Tenenbaum and Kenneth Weinrib.

The production is a joint venture between Garcia’s CineSon; De Felitta’s Medici Entertainment; Lauren Versel’s and Maria Teresa Arida’s Lucky Monkey; Zachary Matz’s Filmsmith; and Gremi Film Productions.

Producers are Garcia, De Felitta, Versel, and Zachary Matz. Executive producers are Maria Teresa Arida, Lucia Seabra, Milutin G. Gatsby, Michael Roban, Greg Hajdarowicz.

London-based WestEnd Films is handling foreign sales.

Anchor Bay Films’ other forthcoming titles include Spread starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche and The Open Road starring Jeff Bridges and Justin Timberlake.

Anchor Bay Films is the international film distribution division of Anchor Bay Entertainment.

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