''Sebastian'' is a 2024 international co-production drama film written and directed by Mikko Mäkelä.

Premise

Max, an aspiring young writer in London, begins living a double life as a sex worker in order to research his debut novel.

Cast

Production

Written and directed by Mäkelä as his second feature, ''Sebastian'' was produced by James Watson for their joint company Bêtes Sauvages, co-produced by Helsinki-filmi and Lemming Film België, and executive produced by Ciara Barry and Rosie Crerar of barry crerar. The film was supported by the BFI and Screen Scotland, as well as the Finnish Film Foundation, Finnish Impact Film Fund, Great Point Media, BNP Paribas Film Finance, and the Belgian Tax Shelter. Principal photography took place in London, Glasgow, and Brussels, with post-production in London, Antwerp and Helsinki.

Release

In December 2023, it was revealed the film would premiere in January at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. LevelK acquired the international rights to the film ahead of its Sundance premiere. In February 2024, the film had been acquired by

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art film, art ho ...

for North America. They released the film theatrically on August 2, 2024.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Mollica compels as a young man caught between two lives and his performance elevates ''Sebastian'', a provocative if uneven story that explores an artist's quest to find inspiration and authenticity in the name of art."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 53 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Accolades

At Finland's 2024 Jussi Awards, ''Sebastian'' received nine nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Mäkelä, Best Lead Performance for Mollica, Best Supporting Performance for Hyde, and Best Screenplay for Mäkelä. ''Sebastian'' also tied with '' Stormskerry Maja'' for the most nominations that year. Mollica was also nominated for the 2024 British Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Performance.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 30317033 2024 films Belgian drama films Belgian LGBTQ-related films British Film Institute films British LGBTQ-related films Films about writers Films set in London Films shot in Brussels Films shot in Glasgow Films shot in London Finnish drama films Finnish LGBTQ-related films Scottish drama films 2024 LGBTQ-related films 2024 drama films 2020s Belgian films