Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) in the leads, Smashed debuted at Sundance this year to incredibly strong reviews, and jointly won the Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Independent Film Producing.

Sony Classics acquired US distribution, and have now set the release date for the film as 12th October.

“Kate and Charlie like to have a good time. Their marriage thrives on a shared fondness for music, laughter . . . and getting smashed. When Kate’s partying spirals into hard-core asocial behavior, compromising her job as an elementary schoolteacher, something’s got to give. But change isn’t exactly a cakewalk. Sobriety means she will have to confront the lies she’s been spinning at work, her troubling relationship with her mother, and the nature of her bond with Charlie.”

Starring alongside Winstead and Paul will be Octavia Spencer (The Help), Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), Megan Mullally (Will & Grace), and Mary Kay Place (Big Love).

James Ponsoldt (Off the Black) returns behind the camera, directing from a script he wrote with newcomer Susan Burke, with Jonathan Schwartz (Wristcutters: A Love Story, Like Crazy), Andrea Sperling (Like Crazy, Nobody Walks), and Jennifer Cochis (Douchebag) producing.

Sony Classics tend to give their films a limited release in New York and LA on their opening weekend, before widening the release in successive weeks, so make sure you look out for when this is playing near you this October.

Winstead and Paul’s performances were both particularly praised in reviews at the start of the year, and though it’s early days yet, Winstead could well be looking at an awards campaign for Best Actress heading into the Oscars. The last quarter of the year is fairly heavy with male leads – Django Unchained, Argo, Killing Them Softly, Life of Pi, Hyde Park on Hudson, and Les Misérables – with Anna Karenina being one of the few films with a female character at the fore. Winstead has been one to watch for several years now, and this could well be the film that takes her career that much further.

Smashed will be released in the US on 12th October. No word yet on a UK release, but hopefully we’ll see it before the end of the year, too. I’ve been looking forward to this for some time now, and can’t wait to see how it unfolds. More as we get it.