M atthew Bissonnette’s Leonard Cohen-inspired indie feature Death of a Ladies Man has been acquired in a raft of international territories including China and Australia and New Zealand.

Celluloid Dreams, which handles international sales on the Gabriel Byrne-starring film, negotiated deals with Transmission Films in Australia and DDDream in China. The project was also picked up in Germany (MFA), Austria (Polyfilm and MFA), Switzerland (MFA), Russia (Kinologistika), China (DDDream), Middle East (Front Row), and the Balkans (Cinemania). In Australia and Zealand, the film will be released theatrically on May 20.

The Canada/Ireland coproduction, filmed in Montreal and rural Ireland prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, is produced by Bissonnette’s long-time producer Corey Marr (Passenger Side, Who Loves the Sun), Don Carmody (Chicago, Resident Evil series), Marie-Claude Poulin (Brooklyn, Café de Flore) and Ireland’s Martina Niland (Sing Street).

Inspired by Cohen’s album of the same name, the film tells the story of a hard-drinking, womanizing college professor whose life takes a series of unimaginable turns when he begins to have surreal hallucinations and learns he may not be long for this world. It also stars Jessica Paré, Suzanne Clément, Antoine Olivier Pilon, Karelle Tremblay, Joel Bissonnette, Pascale Bussières and Raphael Grosz-Harvey.

In Canada, the film was released by Mongrel Media on March 12 in select theatres and on VOD. In Quebec, it was released a week later via Métropole Films. It made its U.S. premiere at Cinequest on March 20.

To mark the March 12 release, nine Canadian artists – Ron Sexsmith, Dan Mangan, Whitehorse, Karelle Tremblay, Jenn Grant, Chad VanGaalen, Mo Kenney, Hayden Desser and Leif Vollebekk – recorded their favourite Leonard Cohen songs, which were then released through their social channels.

It was financed by Telefilm Canada, Monte Rosso Productions, SODEC, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, The Canada Media Fund, Ontario Creates, Bell Media’s Crave and the Harold Greenberg Fund, CBC Films and the Western Regional Audiovisual Producer’s Fund (WRAP Fund), and developed with the assistance of Telefilm Canada and the Harold Greenberg Fund.

Death of a Ladies Man is the fourth feature film from Bissonnette. His other features are Passenger Side (2009), Who Loves the Sun (2006) and Looking For Leonard (2002).