Focus Features acquired Brian and Charles, the Sundance breakout film directed by Jim Archer (who also directed the original short film). It stars David Earl, Chris Hayward, Louise Brealey, James Michie and Nina Sosanya. This marks Archer’s feature directorial debut after cutting his teeth shooting comedy sketches with friends before writing and directing several short films culminating in winning gold at the Young Director Awards in Cannes for the short film version of Brian and Charles.

Brian and Charles follows Brian, a lonely inventor in rural Wales, who spends his days building quirky, unconventional contraptions that seldom work. Undeterred by his lack of success, Brian attempts his biggest project yet. Three days, a washing machine, and various spare parts later, he’s invented Charles, an artificially intelligent robot who learns English from a dictionary and has an obsession with cabbages. What follows is a humorous and entirely heartwarming story about loneliness, friendship, family, finding love, and letting go.

Commented producer Rupert Majendie and director Jim Archer, “We have been so blown away by the reaction to the film from the Sundance audience and also want to say a huge thank you to the amazing teams at Film4, BFI & Bankside. They have all been amazing in their support of this little movie. We are incredibly excited to have found a partner in Focus who truly get this story and are as passionate about it as we are. We are still a little worried that they will wake up and realise they’ve just bought a film about a walking washing machine, but the ink is dry now so it’s too late!”