In Cinemas & on Curzon Home Cinema 28th August 2020

Grace (Annette Bening) and Edward (Bill Nighy), married for 29 years, live in a small seaside town near a cove under the cliffs called Hope Gap. When their son Jamie (Josh O’Connor) comes to visit for the weekend, Edward informs him that he plans to leave Grace, that same day. Hope Gap filmed with investment from Screen Yorkshire in Leeds and Doncaster and the eponymous Hope Gap, Seaford in Sussex in 2018.

Hope Gap is directed by two time Oscar nominated British screenwriter William Nicholson (Gladiator, Shadowlands), OBE, FRSL, director, playwright and novelist, who directs from his own script.

Hope Gap tracks the unraveling of three lives, through stages of shock, disbelief, and anger, to a resolution of sorts.

There are no villains; only good people who’ve lived too long with old mistakes and are now paying the price. There are no easy answers and no simple paths to redemption. A husband, a wife, a son are forced to face hard truths, and out of those truths to fashion new lives. In the end, Hope Gap is a story of survival.

Where to watch

Hope Gap (c) Origin Pictures

Ever since Shadowlands I’ve been obsessed by the collision of love and pain: HOPE GAP is the most intense, most painful, and most loving story I’ve ever told. I’m so proud to have Annette Bening, Bill Nighy and Josh O’Connor to tell it for me.

Director, William Nicholson

Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee (The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia, The Kids Are All Right). She recently starred in Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool and 20th Century Women.

Nighy’s credits include the recent highly acclaimed BBC 1 drama Ordeal by Innocence, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Their Finest and Love Actually.

O’ Connor is best known for his portrayal of Johnny Saxby in God’s Own Country (2017), for which he won a British Independent Film Award (BIFA) for Best Actor. He was also nominated in 2018 for the BAFTA EE Rising Star Award. He will play a young Prince Charles in the upcoming series of The Crown.

Nicholson is best known as the Oscar nominated writer of Gladiator and Shadowlands. Other writing credits include Breathe, Unbroken, Everest, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Previous feature directing credits include Firelight (1997).

The director of photography is Anna Valdez-Hanks, editor Pia di Ciaula, production designer Simon Rogers, costume designer Suzanne Cave and make-up designer Melanie Lenihan.

HOPE GAP is financed by Screen Yorkshire, Sampsonic Media and Creative Media with LipSync on board as a production partner. It is produced by David M. Thompson (The Sense of an Ending, Woman in Gold, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom) and Sarada McDermott (Tolkien, Fighting with My Family, Finding Your Feet). Executive Producers include Hugo Heppell for Screen Yorkshire, Nicolas D. Sampson and Arno Hazebroek for Sampsonic Media, Gavin Poolman, Alex Tate and Peter Gould for CMI, Norman Merry and Peter Hampden for LipSync.