Toronto-based producer-distributor Photon Films has acquired the Canadian distribution rights for Daniel Robbins’ U.S.-made ensemble comedy Bad Shabbos.

The company acquired the film from California-based distributor Menemsha Films, through a deal brokered between Photon president Mark Slone and VP of acquisitions and sales Sardé Hardie; and John McGrath for United Talent Agency on behalf of the filmmakers, a Photon spokesperson told Playback Daily.

Bad Shabbos will have a special preview screening at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival on March 30, with Photon releasing the film theatrically in the spring.

The film is written by Robbins and Zack Weiner and produced by Adam Mitchell through his New York-based prodco Carnegie Hill Entertainment. It follows an engaged interfaith couple whose families are set to meet for the first time at a Shabbat dinner, only for an accidental death to get in the way.

Bad Shabbos stars Kyra Sedgwick (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), rapper and actor Cliff “Method Man” Smith (Power Book II: Ghost), Jon Bass (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), Milana Vayntrub (This is Us), Meghan Leathers (For All Mankind), Catherine Curtin (Stranger Things) and Ashley Zukerman (Succession).

The film had its world premiere in June 2024 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York where it won the festival’s Audience Award in the narrative film category. It made its Canadian premiere at the Windsor International Film Festival later in November.

Derek Rubin, Irina Dashevsky, Riccardo Maddalosso and Ross Saxon are executive producers while Joaquin Acrich is a co-executive producer.

Image courtesy of Photon Films