Sony Pictures Classics has debuted the official trailer for the U.S. release of They Shot the Piano Player, the critically acclaimed animated docudrama exploring the too-short life of pianist Francisco Tenório Júnior. The film is the work of Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba and artist Javier Mariscal, who previously collaborated on the adult animated romance, Chico and Rita.
They Shot the Piano Player will be presented for a one-week awards-qualifying run in theaters, starting November 24. The film has already screened in the official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival.
Synopsis: A New York music journalist goes on a quest to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso Tenorio Jr. A celebratory origin story of the world-renowned Latino musical movement Bossa Nova, They Shot the Piano Player captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the ’60s and ’70s, just before the continent was engulfed by totalitarian regimes.
Directed by Mariscal and Trueba and written by Trueba, the film features the voices of Jeff Goldblum, composer/activist Caetano Veloso and the late Bossa Nova legend João Gilberto, who passed away in 2019.
Read more about the making of They Shot the Piano Player in Animation Magazine‘s super-sized awards season kick-off issue (December ’23, No. 335), available now.
