Lucky Star (2024 film)

Last updated
Lucky Star
Directed by Gillian McKercher
Written byGillian McKercher
Produced byGuillaume Carlier
Matt Drake
Amanda Verhagen
Nicola Waugh
Starring Terry Chen
Olivia Cheng
CinematographyCharles Hamilton
Edited byXi Feng
Music byMeredith Bates
Rebecca Bruton
Production
companies
Kino Sum Films
Notable Content
Distributed byGame Theory Films
Release date
  • September 28, 2024 (2024-09-28)(CIFF)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Lucky Star is a Canadian drama film, written and directed by Gillian McKercher and released in 2024. [1] The film stars Terry Chen as Lucky, a Chinese Canadian dad raising his family in suburban Calgary, Alberta, who gets drawn into gambling as he attempts to recover money he lost after being scammed. [2]

Contents

The cast also includes Olivia Cheng, Conni Miu, Austyn Van de Kamp, John Dylan Louie, Andrew Phung, CJ Collard, Summer Ly, Isra Abdelrahim, Mary Armstrong, Carlo Cuizon, Dustin Nelson and Sharon Umeh.

Production

According to McKercher, the film was inspired in part by an unconfirmed family legend that her great-grandfather had been a wealthy landlord who owned an entire block of his city's Chinatown, but gambled it away in a card game. [3]

She began writing the film in 2019 and completed the script while studying at the Canadian Film Centre, although it ultimately entered production through her own Kino Sum film studio rather than as her CFC student project. [1]

Release

The film premiered as the closing film of the 2024 Calgary International Film Festival, [4] and was subsequently screened at the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival. [5] It had originally also been announced for the 2024 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, [6] but was subsequently withdrawn from that festival by its distributor so that the screening in Calgary, McKercher's hometown, would be the world premiere. [7]

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