Kino Lorber’s virtual theatrical exhibition initiative called Kino Marquee has now expanded to  150 arthouse theaters to screen Cannes-prize winning Brazilian thriller Bacurau. Alamo Drafthouse and Laemmle Theaters have just signed on to screen through many of their locations. A virtual Q&A with filmmakers and cast hosted by BAM will be available for all to watch on Wednesday, April 1 at 8pm ET. The Company also plans to offer top films from other independent distributors.

Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles and starring Sônia Braga and Udo Kier, Bacurau won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2019 and went on to play Toronto and New York Film Festivals to much acclaim.

Ken Loach’s festival favorite Sorry We Missed You is also currently availablethrough Kino Marquee with Film Forum in New York, where the film’s theatrical premiere (launched March 4) was cut short by the theater’s closure.  Multiple cities will follow later this week.

Kino Marquee launched last week to enable movie theaters shuttered by the coronavirus outbreak to continue to serve their audiences and generate revenue in this difficult time. The initiative has been designed to emulate the moviegoing experience as much as possible, enabling movie audiences to support their local theaters by paying to view films digitally.

Under the Kino Marquee program, the Company plans to initiate virtual releases with participating theaters for other currently scheduled and upcoming Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist first run and repertory titles until theaters are  able to reopen.

The current list of theaters on board for Bacurau at the time of publication arelisted here.

Kino Lorber President and CEO Richard Lorber said, “We’ve all been thrust into a brave new cinema world.  Kino Marquee offers film lovers and the theaters a way to mutually support each other – audiences can keep going to newly released movies and theaters can keep selling tickets to great cinematic experiences online. We offer Kino Marquee as a lifeline to help keep art house cinemas in business and keep the work of top independent filmmakers under the halo of first release virtual screens.”

“We’re grateful for our partners at Kino Lorber, who are leading the charge in Virtual Cinema screenings that support theaters like Alamo Drafthouse,” said Tim League, Alamo Drafthouse founder and CEO. “We’re happy to be able to share Bacurau with our audience and continue celebrating our shared film culture.”

Museum of Fine Arts Curator of Film & Video Marian Luntz said, “The nimble initiative of Kino Lorber to launch Kino Marquee is a fantastic response to the serious and totally unexpected situation we are all sharing.  Our devoted filmgoers, along with others across the U.S., can watch spring releases everyone planned to see in our theaters, keeping them engaged with our programming and contemporary world cinema.  We hope everyone will  remain safe and healthy while taking advantage of  Bacurau and other films we plan to offer.” The MFAH launched their virtual theater today to screen the film.