{"id":264063,"date":"2025-11-05T20:28:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T20:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264063\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T20:28:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T20:28:05","slug":"with-sydney-sweeney-boxing-drama-christy-votiv-enters-the-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264063\/","title":{"rendered":"With Sydney Sweeney Boxing Drama ‘Christy,’ Votiv Enters the Ring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cChristy<\/a>,\u201d a sports drama about Christy Martin, has drawn rave reviews for Sydney Sweeney\u2019s transformative performance as the former\u00a0professional boxer\u00a0who endured triumph and tragedy in her barrier-breaking career. But it\u2019s also a chance for Votiv<\/a>, a scrappy production company that helped develop the film, to take its place in the center of the ring. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are trying to intersect art and commerce,\u201d says Brent Stiefel, Votiv\u2019s founder and CEO. \u201cWe founded this business to support artists and let them realize their visions. That\u2019s important, because it\u2019s really hard to build a career in the arts. If we can help with that while operating a sustainable business, we\u2019ll be a success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cChristy,\u201d which opens on Friday, is the highest-profile film in the company\u2019s history and exemplifies the kind of artist-driven stories that Votiv hopes to keep making.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis was a project that we had the opportunity to buy the life rights on some years ago,\u201d says Justin Lothrop, head of film and television at Votiv. \u201cChristy is an amazing human being and her story is incredible. We knew it would make a compelling movie and it\u2019s so exciting to be able to share it with the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMartin held the\u00a0WBC\u00a0female\u00a0super welterweight\u00a0title, rising to the top of her chosen sport and earning a reputation for her toughness and endurance. But her personal life was equally dramatic \u2014 she overcame addiction, survived a murder attempt by her estranged husband, recovered and went on to marry Lisa Holewyne, a former boxing rival. Votiv managed to outmaneuver other companies to convince Martin to let them dramatize her life on screen. They then partnered with other production entities like Anonymous Content, which brought together Sweeney and director David Mich\u00f4d, and Black Bear, which helped finance the film and will distribute it in theaters. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere aren\u2019t a lot of companies that do development quite as as deeply as we do,\u201d says Lothrop. \u201cWe 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\u2019s a secret sauce, that\u2019s it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tVotiv began life in 2011 as a management company for musicians, but after Steifel connected with Lothrop, an indie veteran, it moved more aggressively into the feature space. The company has released more than a dozen features, ranging from comedies (\u201cObvious Child\u201d with Jenny Slate) to dramas (\u201cBetween Us\u201d with Julia Stiles) to documentaries (\u201cAlt Right: Age of Rage\u201d). It hopes to release between three to four movies annually and has several projects on the horizon, including \u201cWicker,\u201d a comedy with Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard, and \u201cPatricia Wants to Cuddle,\u201d a horror-comedy that will be directed by Sophia Takal (\u201cBlack Christmas\u201d). Earlier this year, the company premiered \u201cTow,\u201d a drama about a homeless woman that stars Rose Byrne, at Tribeca. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the case of \u201cChristy,\u201d the duo is thrilled that the movie will get a run in cinemas, as opposed to winding up on streaming. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBeing creative at heart, we\u2019d love for every one of our films to make it into theaters,\u201d says Stiefel. \u201cThat\u2019s not the reality, but it\u2019s our preferred pathway.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cChristy,\u201d a sports drama about Christy Martin, has drawn rave reviews for Sydney Sweeney\u2019s transformative performance as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,12540,82,121996],"class_list":["post-264063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-christy","tag-sports","tag-votiv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}