EXCLUSIVE: Music Box Films has acquired North American rights for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s drama Young Mothers, which was announced as Belgium’s 2026 Oscars entry earlier this week.
Paris-based film company Goodfellas is handing international sales on the drama about five young women living in a temporary shelter for underage mothers.
The cast features big screen debutants Lucie Laruelle, Babette Verbeek and Samia Hilmi alongside emerging young actresses Janaina Halloy Fokan and Elsa Houben.
The feature enjoyed a buzzy world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, winning Best Screenplay and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.
Deadline reviewer Stephanie Bunbury described the film in her review as an “an expert and soulful exploration of teenage motherhood” and praised the directors for their continued commitment to making films “with true hearts”.
“We are elated to be distributing Young Mothers. The Dardennes have been making films together for decades, and their style is immediately recognizable and broadly influential, a north star for international filmmakers testing and redefining the bounds of social realism on screen,” said Music Box Films.
“With Young Mothers, they are building on that legacy, while also trying something new: it’s a deeply empathetic and moving film that disperses its focus across multiple protagonists, creating a panorama of courageous young women facing struggles both mundane and life-altering. It’s a universal and quite accessible drama that will resonate with art house patrons and Academy members alike.”
The company, focused on the distribution of foreign and independent films, is planning to release Young Mothers in early 2026.
Young Mothers was announced by Belgium on Tuesday as having been selected by a committee of Belgian film and TV professionals as its entry to the Best International Feature Film category of the 98th Academy Awards.
Music Box has previously enjoyed success in the Best International Feature Film category with Pawel Pawlikowski’s 2015 Oscar winner Ida and Sweden’s 2017 nominated entry A Man Called Ove.
It also handled North American distribution of Indian documentary Writing With Fire by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh which was nominated for Best Documentary in 2022.
Recent releases include Cannes Directors’ Fortnight baseball comedy Eephus by Carson Lund; revenge thriller Ghost Trail by Jonathan Millet, and Sarah Friedland’s coming-of-old-age drama Familiar Touch, starring Kathleen Chalfant, which won the Lion of the Future at Venice last year.
Upcoming releases include Olivier Assayas’ comedy Suspended Time, and Charlie McDowell’s The Summer Book, starring Glenn Close.
The Dardennes have previously represented Belgium in the Oscar race with Rosetta, The Son (2002), The Child (2005), and Two Days, One Night (2014), but have never been nominated.
The last Belgian film to make to the nomination stage was Lukas Dhont’s Close in 2022, while the previous year Laura Wandel’s Playground made it onto the shortlist of the 94th Academy Awards.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will announce the shortlisted films for the 2026 Oscars on December 16, and the nominated films on January 22, 2026. The 98th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 16, 2026.
Music Box Films is independently owned and operated by the Southport Music Box Corporation, which also owns and operates the Music Box Theatre, Chicago’s premier venue for independent and foreign films.
