Oscar Grant Film ‘Fruitvale’ Gets July Release Date
“Fruitvale,” the buzz-about film chronicling the final days of police shooting victim Oscar Grant, has had its release date bumped up by three months.
It will now hit theaters on July 26th. The film has garnered rave reviews since premiering at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
Grant was shot and killed by a BART police officer in East Oakland after being removed from a train on New Years Day 2009. Cell phone cameras captured his execution, and the video spread like wildfire, creating a firestorm of controversy.
The move to July is somewhat unconventional, given that award-season contenders are typically released between October and the end of the year. Eight of the nine best picture nominees at the 2013 Academy Awards hit theaters during that three-month time period, and the only Oscar contender that came out earlier in 2012 was “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” another Sundance favorite that debuted in June.
The Weinstein Co. is no doubt hoping to replicate the success of “Beasts” — which also earned an Oscar nod for director Benh Zeitlin and actress Quvenzhane Wallis — or other past rare summertime critical darlings like “Little Miss Sunshine” or “Midnight in Paris.”
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