Empire of Light trailer is out and it looks like Sam Mendes' love-letter to cinema

Searchlight Pictures dropped the first trailer for the upcoming romantic drama, Empire of Light, from Academy Award winning director Sam Mendes. The film is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September this year.

Here’s the trailer for the film:

Set against the backdrop of a quaint English coastal town, the film follows a love story that unfolds at the local cinema in the 1980s.

Following his previous Academy Award winning war drama 1917 in 2020, Empire of Light marks Mendes’s ninth feature film. The project was announced in April 2021, with Mendes set to write and direct under the banner of Searchlight Pictures. 

Empire of Light features a star-studded cast of characters including Academy Award winner Olivia Colman in a leading role alongside BAFTA Award winner Michael Ward. Academy Award winner Colin Firth and Olivier Award winner Toby Jones make up the supporting cast in the film.

The trailer for the film showcases the magic of cinema and the joy of the movie-going experience as Toby Jones narrates an inspiring anecdote on how the illusion of light emulates life during a theatrical experience. 

Fresh from the success of 1917’s Oscar-winning cinematography, the two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer, Roger Deakins, captures the allure of this little English theatre with poignancy in his fifth collaboration with Mendes. 

Having won their latest Oscar for Soul (2020), Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, the two-time Academy Award-winning duo are in charge of scoring the original music for the film, a first-time collaboration with Mendes. 

With a cast and crew of such calibre, the film seems ripe for the picking come awards season this year, having already set itself apart as a major contender in this year’s Oscar race.

Empire of Light is set to hit theatres on December 9, 2022.