It was the opening night film for the 8th annual Montreal International Black Film Festival 3 days ago, September 19 – Darrell Roodt's much-discussed Winne Mandela biopic, which stars Jennifer Hudson as the title character, and Terrence Howard as Nelson Mandela. 

As noted in a May post, T.D. Jakes and his company TDJ Enterprises/Film Bridge International are on board to executive produce and develop a Stateside marketing and distribution strategy for Winnie.

No dates yet, but our readers in Canada will be glad to know that the film will open there commercially on October 5.

Jasmin recently interviewed director Roodt, and you're strongly encouraged to read that review, posted a few days ago HERE. In it, he addresses a lot of the questions many of you have had about the project since we first alerted you to it like his reasons for casting Jennifer Hudson and Terrence Howard, the audience backlash against his casting choices, especially by South Africans, the real Winnie Mandela's objections to the project, what we can expect from the film, and more.

Read that interview HERE. And below, the first official release trailer for the film has surfaced (although we've seen so much of it already in all the preview footage that's been passed around that this may not have the same freshness as if you were seeing footage from the film for the first time).