Rooney Mara to Lead Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ Paris-Set Quest for Love

Oscar nominee Rooney Mara is escaping to Paris to explore intimacy, morality and the limits of human connection in the newly-announced feature “Quest for Love,” which she will also exec produce.

The film marks the latest feature behind the camera for Irish actress and writer/director Antonia Campbell-Hughes following her SXSW-bowing directorial debut “It is in Us All” starring Cosmo Jarvis and Claes Bang and the recently-wrapped “High End,” starring Andrea Riseborough, Guy Pearce and Raffey Cassidy.

HanWay Films has boarded “The Quest for Love” and will launch international sales in Cannes. WME Independent is handling North American sales.

The story follows the ruthlessly unsentimental but alluring Maris (Rooney) as she tears into Paris with her estranged ten- year-old son Maxy. Raised around her recently deceased father’s euthanasia work, she’s unsure if she’s even capable of feeling love. Setting up home in the charming Marais neighbourhood, she explores her capacity for human connection with Maxy, who desperately craves his mother’s love. Magnetic and funny, Maris easily draws people into her orbit, but her nocturnal habits hint at a dangerous violence that lurks beneath the surface. Unlike his amoral mother, Maxy knows right from wrong – and he’s clever enough to use her tricks against her to survive. Maris re-ignites a relationship with Alex, a devoted old flame whose growing love for Maxy forces her to make a deadly choice.

“Quest for Love” was developed as part of the joint Screen Ireland and Luxembourg Film Fund initiative for female and non-binary filmmakers launched at Cannes in 2023. It’s produced by Macdara Kelleher and John Keville of Wild Atlantic Pictures, whose recent credits include “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.” Richard Linklater’s Oscar-nominated “Blue Moon,” “Drop” starring Meghann Fahy, and “Saipan” starring Steve Coogan and Éanna Hardwicke, as well as “The Rainmaker,” based on the novel by John Grisham. Gilles Chanial of Les Films Fauves joins as co-delegate producer. Chanial’s most recent project, July Jung’s Dora and Lisandro Alonso’s “Double Freedom” will have its world premiere in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight competition.

“Cinema has created many magnetic and iconic characters who dance on the edge of subversion and violence, from ‘American Psycho’ to ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ but few are women,” said Gabrielle Stewart, CEO of HanWay Films. “Antonia and Rooney have a very clear vision to challenge us with Maris, who tears through Paris on her ducati: enigmatic, beautiful, violent and a mother.”

Mara is represented by WME. Campbell-Hughes is represented by United Agents and Entertainment 360.