Toronto filmmaker Thyrone Tommy’s directorial debut Learn to Swim has been acquired by Ava DuVernay’s distributor ARRAY Releasing for multiple territories.

ARRAY has picked up the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand rights to the drama, which will be released on Netflix and select screens on Aug. 15.

Learn to Swim is directed by Tommy, who co-wrote it with Marni Van Dyk. Alona Metzer is the film’s producer. It follows a saxophone player and a singer who find themselves caught up in a turbulent romance while dealing with their own emotional baggage.

The deal was negotiated by Gordon Bobb of the L.A. law firm Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang for ARRAY, and Derek Kigongo of agency APA and Ben Cowley of the law firm Goldenberg & Co on behalf of Learn to Swim.

The drama feature had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2021, and was selected for TIFF’s annual Canada’s Top Ten list. It won Best Original Song at the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards.

Learn to Swim had its Canadian theatrical release on March 25 via distributor Mongrel Media.

ARRAY Releasing has acquired a number of Canadian films in the last few years, including Agam Darshi’s Donkeyhead, Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ and Kathleen Hepburn’s The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open.

Parent company ARRAY Alliance also launched its crew database ARRAY Crew in Canada earlier this year, which provides profiles of below-the-line talent who identify as woman, people of colour or part of other underrepresented communities to major streaming services and studios.

Image courtesy of ARRAY