Here's our official
@Letterboxd press release!
In its second pre-festival premiere acquisition in the past week, Antenna Releasing has acquired worldwide rights to the new genre-blending film, The Man Whom the Trees Loved, based on a short story by celebrated horror writer, Algernon Blackwood and directed by long-time collaborators Woodruff Laputka & Tehben Dean. The pick-up comes before the film’s world premiere at the 2026 Florida Film Festival, which has quickly become one of the most ‘watched’ festivals in the industry for its exceptional curation.
A beautifully photographed rumination on marriage, masculinity, and the allure of the wild, The Man Whom the Trees Loved blends Lovecraftian horror with the kind of slow-burn cinema that has been captivating audiences for the past decade. On vacation at a remote island, Sophie (Avise Narey Parsons) tries to salvage her marriage with Dave (director/writer Woodruff Laputka), but as he explores the forest that surrounds the house he becomes more and more entranced by the trees. To Dave they are beautiful, inspiring and radiant, but to Sophie the trees begin to take on a darker, possibly evil presence as she struggles to save her husband from being taken by the forest forever.
“What always struck me about the original work by Algernon Blackwood was the tragic silence of it,” says director/writer/star Laputka. “We follow a woman who observes the distancing and eventual possession of her husband by the forest they live next to (an outside influence). Trapped in her own mind with very little if any understanding of what’s happening, she is forced to figure out how to handle it, for herself and her husband. That’s a terrible way to live; existing in a hope that seems impossible. You start to doubt yourself and your intentions. Even your reality.”
For producer and- director Tehben Dean, the film comes after a whirlwind couple of years on the back of his previous feature, All I’ve Got & Then Some, which world premiered at the 2024 Slamdance Film Festival.
Visit the film at Florida Film Festival!
