EXCLUSIVE: Antenna Releasing has acquired North American rights to Lemonade Blessing after the film’s Tribeca Festival world premiere and a popular run on the Letterboxd ‘Unreleased Gems’ VOD platform.
The coming-of-age film is the directing debut of Chris Merola. It stars Jake Ryan, who has gained notice by playing a substantial role in Wes Anderson’s otherwise ensemble-cast Asteroid City and appearing in the director’s Moonrise Kingdom and Isle of Dogs.
Lemonade Blessing, which world premiered at Tribeca in 2025, went on to receive positive reviews on Letterboxd and was subsequently featured on the platform’s “Unreleased Gems” VOD platform. The “shelf” of the digital outlet’s Video Store service offers exposure for 30 days to films deemed worthy of wider attention. Letterboxd has more than 30 million members and has emerged as a potent shaper of audience opinion, especially for lesser-known specialty releases.
Antenna is planning a late-August theatrical release, and will put the film out in physical media formats after its theatrical opening.
Watch on Deadline
Per the official logline, Lemonade Blessing centers on John (Ryan), a sensitive teen whose devout mother enrolls him in a private Catholic school. His faith becomes tested by his burgeoning relationship with Lilith (Skye Alyssa Friedman), a classmate who takes every opportunity to thumb her nose at the confines of religion.
“Lemonade Blessing is a film that’s so close to my heart, I am deeply thrilled and honored to have found such passionate, bespoke, filmmaker-forward, and truly kind collaborators in Antenna Releasing,” Merola said in a statement.
Letterboxd CEO and co-founder Matthew Buchanan said the company is “honored that emerging filmmakers like Chris Merola trust us with their unreleased films before they’ve found a home elsewhere. Lemonade Blessing has exactly the kind of confident, personal filmmaking that deserves a wider audience, and seeing it find one is the outcome we hope for every time we program an Unreleased Gem on Video Store.”
New Zealand-based Letterboxd has previously collaborated with Antenna on titles like the documentary Stolen Kingdom.
Antenna Chief Acquisitions Officer Billy Ray Brewton praised Merola’s “deft hand at creating engaging and complex characters and his proficiency at treating religious themes with sensitivity and care.”
Brewton, a filmmaker, film programmer and podcaster, co-founded Antenna with Ryan Verrill of The Disc-Connected and Someone’s Favorite Productions network and filmmaker Francis Galluppi (Last Stop in Yuma County, Evil Dead Wrath).
