MTV Documentary Films has acquired worldwide rights to Ondi Timoner’s “Last Flight Home,” a moving and deeply personal portrait of family dealing with the last days of their patriarch. The documentary had several bidders and the sale was highly competitive.
“Last Flight Home” was a favorite with critics after it premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. MTV Documentary Films is planning a theatrical release in the fall along with an awards campaign. “Last Flight Home” was written, directed and edited by Ondi Timoner, the filmmaker behind “Dig!” and “We Live in Public.” She also produced the film with David Turner.
The film follows Eli Timoner, a suburban man and business leader whose meteoric rise was impacted by health struggles. It charts his last remaining days, while celebrating an extraordinary life, one filled with wild achievements, tragic loss and enduring love from an incredibly close-knit family. Eli Timoner is also the father of the film’s director.
The movie scored rave reviews with Variety‘s Lisa Kennedy writing that the film is “…many things, all of them compelling. It is a tribute, a grappling with mortality, an exercise in self-surveillance, a messy home movie, a brief account of aviation history and a lesson in letting go and grief.”
The deal was negotiated by Lance McPherson for MTV Documentary Films and 30West on behalf of the filmmakers. It is an Interloper Films production. Financial terms of the pact were not disclosed.
“Life must end. In many cases how it ends is an individual’s complex choice,” Sheila Nevins, executive producer of MTV Documentary Films, said in a statement. “Fearlessly, bravely, with no euphemisms, 92-year-old Eli Timoner’s last 15 days are intimately recorded by his celebrated filmmaker daughter Ondi Timoner. Ondi gives us the privilege of going on Eli Timoner’s final journey as we bid farewell to a dear friend, to a beloved grandfather, and an unforgettable father.”
“An immersive and deeply felt portrait of a remarkable family, ‘Last Flight Home’ is a sublime film about a life well lived – both the ultimate highs and the devastating lows – that leaves the viewer entirely devoted and deeply invested in this remarkable man and his loved ones left behind,” said Nina L. Diaz and Liza Burnett Fefferman, co-heads of MTV Documentary Films.
“Choosing the right home for my most personal and dear film, ‘Last Flight Home,’ was a very sensitive decision to make,” Timoner said. “I was moved by the passion Sheila Nevins and Liza Burnett Fefferman expressed for the film, for my father and my family. I have deep respect for their impeccable track records in choosing great work and bringing it to audiences with impact and grace, and I have personal experience working with them dating back to DIG!, 18 years ago… So, I’m thrilled to be teaming up with MTV Documentary Films, and I’m sure my dad agrees, that they will carry this most important film of mine out to the world with love and care.”
MTV Documentary Films has received three Oscar nominations, a Peabody Award, two Emmy nominations and one Emmy win. Wit recently earned its first Oscar nomination for best documentary feature with “Ascension,” an exploration of contemporary China’s identity and its relationship with class and consumerism. Other films released by the division include “76 Days,” “American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself” and “My Father The Mover.”
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