02 Sep DEADLINE: Freestyle Digital Media Acquired North American Rights To The Drama ‘I Am Like You’ & Coming of Age Comedy ‘Shellfish’ – Film Briefs

EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media has acquired North American rights to the drama I Am Like You, and to the coming-of-age comedy Shellfish, slating both for release across VOD platforms on September 20.

I Am Like You is a story of the friendship between the teenage boy Sean (Curtis Butterfield) and a wolfdog. When the two are forcefully separated, we follow the journey of the animal in search of his friend. Haik Kocharian wrote and directed the film, which also stars Stacy Edwards, Terra Mackintosh, Gwen Massey Tietz and Johnathan Hyett. Kocharian also produced alongside Karine Kocharian and Shawna Lea. Exec producers are Jeff Kozlowski, Amy Napierala, Rondi Charleston, Steven Ruchefsky, Armen Baloyan and Tigran Sahakyan.

Integrating live-action with animation, Shellfish tells the story of Keller (Hunter Hopewell), a stop-motion animator who has a week to make a film with his dumbstruck brother and the girl of his dreams without his parents finding out. As the film shoot unravels, tensions boil to the surface. Confronted with his chronic selfishness, Keller must balance pursuit of his filmmaking dreams with the care and feeding of his close relationships in this quirky indie comedy with a twist of stop motion.

Hopewell wrote and directed the festival favorite, which also stars Savanah Joeckel, Mackenzie Amar, Perry Bruno and Serenity Garcia. Its producers are Johnny Brenden, James & Hunter Hopewell, Michael & Karla Buhlman, Francisco Menendez and Phebe McCorkle.

Freestyle Digital Media negotiated the deal to acquire I Am Like You directly with Kocharian, negotiating the deal for Shellfish directly with Hunter Hopewell. Watch the trailers for both films below.

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