With Sydney Sweeney Boxing Drama ‘Christy,’ Votiv Enters the Ring

“Christy,” a sports activities drama about Christy Martin, has drawn rave reviews for Sydney Sweeney’s transformative performance as the former skilled boxer who endured triumph and tragedy in her barrier-breaking profession. But it’s also an opportunity for Votiv, a scrappy manufacturing company that helped develop the movie, to take its place in the middle of the ring.

“We are trying to intersect art and commerce,” says Brent Stiefel, Votiv’s founder and CEO. “We founded this business to support artists and let them realize their visions. That’s important, because it’s really hard to build a career in the arts. If we can help with that while operating a sustainable business, we’ll be a success.”

“Christy,” which opens on Friday, is the highest-profile movie in the company’s historical past and exemplifies the sort of artist-driven tales that Votiv hopes to maintain making.

“This was a project that we had the opportunity to buy the life rights on some years ago,” says Justin Lothrop, head of movie and tv at Votiv. “Christy is an amazing human being and her story is incredible. We knew it would make a compelling movie and it’s so exciting to be able to share it with the world.”

Martin held the WBC feminine tremendous welterweight title, rising to the top of her chosen sport and incomes a popularity for her toughness and endurance. But her private life was equally dramatic — she overcame dependancy, survived a homicide try by her estranged husband, recovered and went on to marry Lisa Holewyne, a former boxing rival. Votiv managed to outmaneuver other firms to persuade Martin to allow them to dramatize her life on display screen. They then partnered with other manufacturing entities like Anonymous Content, which introduced together Sweeney and director David Michôd, and Black Bear, which helped finance the movie and can distribute it in theaters.

“There aren’t a lot of companies that do development quite as as deeply as we do,” says Lothrop. “We engage on things at the earliest stages, as opposed to trying to track down spec scripts and doing rewrites very far down the line. We want to shape things. If there’s a secret sauce, that’s it.”

Votiv started life in 2011 as a administration company for musicians, however after Steifel linked with Lothrop, an indie veteran, it moved more aggressively into the feature area. The company has launched more than a dozen options, starting from comedies (“Obvious Child” with Jenny Slate) to dramas (“Between Us” with Julia Stiles) to documentaries (“Alt Right: Age of Rage”). It hopes to release between three to 4 films yearly and has a number of initiatives on the horizon, including “Wicker,” a comedy with Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard, and “Patricia Wants to Cuddle,” a horror-comedy that will probably be directed by Sophia Takal (“Black Christmas”). Earlier this 12 months, the company premiered “Tow,” a drama about a homeless lady that stars Rose Byrne, at Tribeca.  

In the case of “Christy,” the duo is thrilled that the film will get a run in cinemas, versus winding up on streaming.

“Being creative at heart, we’d love for every one of our films to make it into theaters,” says Stiefel. “That’s not the reality, but it’s our preferred pathway.”