US Briefs: Cinema Guild turns on 'The Wrong Light' for US

Cinema Guild has acquired all US rights to documentary The Wrong Light (pictured), directed by Josie Swantek Heitz and Dave Adams.

Produced by Shine Global, the non-profit production company behind War/ Dance, The Wrong Light centres on a charismatic activist who leads an anti-trafficking NGO in Northern Thailand that provides shelter and education to young girls rescued from brothels.

Cinema Guild plans to give the film a US theatrical release in the autumn.

• Straight Up Films has acquired the rights to Man’s Search For Meaning, the memoir by psychiatrist Viktor Frankl about life in the Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. At the time of Frank’s death in 1997, the book had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. Straight Up is talking to potential screenwriters to adapt the book into a narrative feature.

• The American Film Institute’s AFI DOCS 2016 festival has given its audience award for best feature to Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise (US), directed by Rita Coburn Whack and Bob Hercules. The festival’s audience award for best short went to Snails (Poland), by Grzegorz Szczepaniak.

• Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group has appointed Jake Zim as senior VP, virtual reality. In the newly-created position, Zim, previously the studio’s senior VP, digital marketing, will be tasked with building a slate of narrative VR content for the motion picture group.

• Prodigy Public Relations has promoted Richard Stafford to VP– Film Publicity. Stafford joined Prodigy in 2012 as an account executive and has worked on films including Under the Shadow and Cooties and festivals including Sundance, Toronto, SXSW and Tribeca.