MUMBAI: Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely was one of the most critically acclaimed films at the international festivals in 2012. It was premiered at Cannes in Un Certain Regard in 2012 and won best film in the India Gold competition at last year’s Mumbai Film Festival.

But as is the case with most independent films, Miss Lovely too was grappling to find a space in the theatres. However, the film is up for a January release in India through a start-up distributor Easel Films and Eagle Movies.

Easel is the brainchild of distributor executive Abhishek Gautam and filmmakers Bikramjit Gupta, Atanu Mukherjee and Pooja Gupte. “We hope to release across 200-300 screens,” said Abhishek Gautam in a release.

“As a team we want to focus on distributing independent cinema in India,” he added.

Meanwhile, former IFC Films executive Ryan Werner and distribution agency Required Viewing are working on the US release of Miss Lovely, which is scheduled for March 2014. Cinetic Media’s FilmBuff is handling digital distribution for North America.